Once they've decided what product or service to put up for what award, and why they are doing it, they then need to put the submisson together. That means first, reading the submission form and guideline carefully, and then deciding how to meet the requirements. Make sure that the submission is not written by the techies alone or by the marketing department alone. Get them both involved, so that the technical content is as accurate and detailed as the business benefits piece is compelling. Determine what collateral you want to add, and how it will add value to the submission. Consider how you do that -- words, pictures, movies, online or offline demos -- and what each is intended to do.

Then you have to do it, and do it as best you can. Ensure that the movies or demos really do show what you want them to show, and that the words make sense. And be sure to proofread them,and read them back from the perspective of the judges. Does the USP really come out?

You also need references for most categories -- though I, for one, didn't pay a huge amount of attention to them -- but then my 2008 category was one for which IBM didn't really expect or require then, because of its newness. But if it comes down to the wire, a decent reference is better than none.

Megan L. Moyer, Lotus Product Marketing Manager, IBM Software Group
A picture is worth a thousand words. If you can show us what your solutions does and how it can help customers, you'll definitely be on the short list. It could be a self-running demo or a presentation. It really doesn't matter how you do it. Just make it clear and easy to understand.

Never assume the judge has deep technical knowledge or make them go to your website to learn something first to help them understand your solution.

If you can get them to see how it would benefit them in their work, all the better.

Michael C. Lowry, IBM/Lotus CTO Office
Let me dive right in with some suggestions:

• Remarks/statements like this: "Our solution vastly improved customers ability to do business" are completely useless. We need specific data points with supporting statements which justify/validate these conclusions. This is very much akin to performance reviews. We are all told to provide specifics to justify/validate our successes.

• Get your solution onto the IBM Solutions catalog. It represents a portion of the judges score...need I say more?

• A demo in the form of a movie would be great. Put a link to such things in the submission form. Don't make judges search for it.

• Several customer references were very weak, poorly written, or nonexistent. Again, they represent a good portion of the judges score. Submitter should provide they customers with some guidelines when filling out references (e.g., provided specific examples of TCO/ROI benefits).

Also, I don't want submitters to merely try to address just those criteria, resulting in mediocre solutions getting top scores.