ISG Star of Excellence™ - Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Download the Star of Excellence Brochure
1. How many clients can I nominate?
As many as possible. There is no cap on minimum and maximum number of clients to be nominated. More nominations can help you be eligible for the Star of Excellence Awards.
2. When can I nominate?
Any time of the year, independent from an IPL study cycle. Nominating relevant customers during the IPL study cycle increases the chances of positively influencing the positioning of the current year's study.
3. What is the validity/duration of a client feedback received in one year?
ISG will consider the CX feedback received from one client for at least three years for IPL and CPQ. For the Star of Excellence Awards, feedback received only in the respective year will be considered.
4. How many client responses do we need?
Every voice counts and will be used to influence the IPL position and to persuade sourcing advisors. The more known customers are nominated, the better.
5. Does ISG require official reference clients?
No, because ISG keeps the names of the customers secret; only referrals are required.
6. Who can participate in the provider evaluation?
Any individual within an enterprise who has experience working with a provider can provide an evaluation. The ideal stakeholder is the champion or key sponsor of the relationship and/or project such as business unit leaders, IT directors or CIO / CTOs.
7. Can an enterprise authorize the provider to take the survey?
No, we do not allow any evaluations from providers, even when authorized by the enterprise. Only enterprises can take the survey.
8. How does the provider get to know about survey completion of nominated clients?
ISG will send regular updates for providers about their nominated enterprises’ survey completion rate. There will also be status updates to notify providers who have qualified for the Star of Excellence Award.
9. What is the data collection and management protocol?
Information and data collected through program will be subject to the following guidelines;
- All data received from the providers and the survey respondents will be treated as confidential
- All information that is published will be in aggregate format only
- ISG will not divulge any specific information either about the enterprise, provider or the survey respondents
- All data will be archived within ISG
ISG may;
- Socialize aggregated results within ISG for benefit of the marketplace
- Leverage the information to support procurement decisions
- Establish industry level satisfaction benchmarks
10. What is the frequency of Star of Excellence awards?
Star of Excellence is awarded annually to the service providers across various categories.
11. Will ISG send follow up reminders to nominees?
No, we will provide regular status updates to providers for the enterprises they have nominated. It will, then, be up to the provider to work with the enterprises to have them complete the evaluation.
12. What if there is a tie for the top award?
In an unlikely event of a tie, ISG will compare the final scores up to two decimal points. In the highly unlikely event, there remains a tie at the second decimal point, the winner will be the provider with the most responses for the specific category.
13. Can a provider submit multiple projects delivered for a single enterprise if they were all delivered to different stakeholders?
Yes, different stakeholders can submit their responses for the respective services delivered by the provider.
14. From an enterprise perspective, what is the process to participate?
Enterprises can either participate directly or get nominated by a service provider. Enterprises can give feedback for providers of their choice directly through “Participate” section of Star of Excellence microsite. Alternatively, an enterprise can get nominated by a service provider to give feedback. On nomination, the enterprise will receive invitation with a link to participate in the Star of Excellence survey. Enterprises can give feedback to evaluate multiple providers within their ecosystem.
All the enterprises will be notified about the winner of the Star of Excellence Award.
15. What if the responding enterprise wishes to remain anonymous?
Enterprises names will not be referenced. There is no intention of using enterprise names for any reports, assessment or internal publication. The enterprise has an option to enter to provide their name and email address at the end of the survey. This is only to validate the responses received for Star of Excellence.
Schedule
The Star of Excellence program is designed to run throughout the year. The global award survey collects data from November to end-September.
The Primary Research department of ISG is going to manage the survey against the defined target to receive unbiased answers about customer experience in all important areas of IT sourcing and thus also from a research perspective. During the survey, ISG Research and ISG Provider Lens will benefit from up-to-date results, so that analysts can draw on current survey data as part of their provider assessments (quadrants). Responses from public sources as well as provider nominations are always saved to provide IPL quadrants and the ISG business with valuable customer opinions. For the award ceremony, a cut of the data is performed once a year to start with the award-related analysis phase and to be able to award the prizes for the best customer centricity.
The award ceremony will take place towards the end of November. All participating providers will receive continuous status updates from ISG to know which of their customers are actively participating. Companies that qualify for the awards will receive feedback and an invitation to register prior to the awards ceremony.
