Best in Show Goes to Conga for its CongaSphere Portal
San Jose, California – Content that drives results across all phases of the customer journey took center stage yesterday at the second annual Customer Experience Recognition Awards (CERAs) luncheon in San Jose. Conga, a Sales Force application developer, took top honors, as Best in Show for its CongaSphere web portal, which provides engaging information and a well-designed learning path for pre-purchase and post-purchase users.
Held in conjunction with the Information Development World (iDW) conference, the awards focus on the role of content and the efforts of content creators in producing exceptional customer experiences. “Planning, creating and delivering content that supports customers throughout the buying journey now has the attention of management because it’s integral to the business,” said Al Martine, partner and director of operations for TechWhirl.com, which coordinated the CERAs. “Innovative approaches to traditional support information can make loyal customers out of prospects, and the CERAs recognize the pioneers that are doing just that.”
The awards program, emceed by Martine, and live-captioned by 121 Captions to make the experience accessible to all attendees, featured a keynote address by Dr. Andrew Bredenkamp, founder and CEO of Acrolinx.
The CERAs recognized outstanding content-driven projects in six award categories:
Award Category
Honoree
Project Name
Accessibility (Expanding Access)
Microlink PC, Ltd
Microlink Workplace Adjustment System – MI Case
Customer Support – Technical Communications (Post Purchase)
Conga
CongaSphere.com
Employee Engagement (Internal Initiatives)
Cisco Systems
Knowledge Champions League: Driving Employee Engagement with Gamification
Information Discovery (Buyer Journey / Sales Process)
Juniper Networks
Juniper Networks Data Center Design and Architecture Center
User Community/Social Media (Marketing/Brand)
Cisco Systems
Cisco Live 2015
Translation / Localization (Expanding Access)
GE Healthcare
Great translation results from a GREAT Global Ultrasound Technical Documentation Team
“Enormous effort goes into every facet of managing content for the customer experience,” noted Connie Giordano, partner and executive editor for TechWhirl. “From the strategic underpinnings, to the metrics that gauge success, content teams are driving a new level of engagement with customers and prospective customers. And all of the CERA nominees and honorees demonstrate how much can be achieved with great content.”
About the Judges
The judges for the 2015 CERAs represent thought leadership, innovation and deep experience across all the disciplines of customer experience management, and many of them led workshops and sessions or presented keynotes at iDW: Rahel Anne Bailie, Chief Knowledge Officer, Scroll (UK); Richard Hamilton, Publisher, XML Press; Paula Land, Chief Executive Officer, Content Insight; Robert Rose, Chief Strategy Officer, Content Marketing Institute; Bill Swallow, Technical Consultant, Scriptorium Publishing; and Dr. Carmen Simon, Cognitive Neuroscientist, Rexi Media; Janet Fouts, CEO, Tatu Digital Media; Saskia Jolmers, Cisco Systems; Vici Koster-Lenhardt, US State Department; Mark Lewis, Quark; Tina Lannin, 121 Captions; Sarah Lesway-Ball, Director of Customer Experience, Juniper Networks; Marina Mintz, President, Paragon; Nilesh Panicker, Customer Support, Cisco Systems; Paul Perrotta, Manager, Cust. Experience, Employee Engagement, Juniper Networks; Jeff Scattini, Technical Writer, Taulia Inc.; and Steve Walker, Experis.
About the Sponsors
The CERAs are part of Information Development World and are sponsored by TechWhirl, The Content Wrangler, and Content Rules. TechWhirl is an online resource for customer experience, content management, and technical communication professionals and students at all experience levels. The Content Wrangler offers content consulting, as well as training and event management services focused on content management to a wide variety of customers around the world. Content Rules operates across the entire content lifecycle: from consulting on content strategy, to content development, to global readiness.
For more information about the CERAs, visit http://awards.techwhirl.com/customer-experience-recognition-awards-cera-overview/