Rules of the competition
- The entry must be operative and running
- The entry may be published earlier than 2015
- The entry may be submitted either by the author or owner
- International entries are welcome. However, the entry must be created in English, Swedish or Finnish so that we are able to judge it.
- Each entry submission costs 150 € + VAT 24 % except the Propellerhead award which is free of cost
- Entry submissions are open until 30.3.2016 23:59
How to Submit Your Work
Familiarise yourself in the evaluation criteria to find which category suits your work best. The same work can compete in multiple categories.
Fill in your contact information and work background information so that we can connect you and your work. Answer the detailed questions, so that the jury can evaluate your work. The questions are prioritised as "fundamentals", "major" and "minor" factors to give a hint on their importance. While only the fundamentals are mandatory to fill, we recommend filling in them all.
Each entry submission costs 150 € + VAT 24 % except the Propellerhead award which is free of cost. The payment is done as part of the entry submission and is not refundable. Credit cards and the common Finnish net banks are accepted.
You will receive an email confirmation on your work entry submission. We will inform you by the end of April if your entry got shortlisted into the finals, with more information.
Societal Influence Award
Service with the Most Impact on Society.
In this category a digital effort that has impacted the lives of citizens, making the life easier or the whole society more efficient. It is a digital phenomenon that has transformed our everyday life, saved or prolonged our lives or made the whole economy run smoother.
We award this prize to a Service that has created a measurable impact on the level of the whole society/economy or transformed the life of a significant minority.
Main judge
Jyrki Kasvi
Ph.D. (Engineering) Jyrki Kasvi is a member of the Finnish Parliament and the chair of the Espoo City Council.
In addition to a political career, Jyrki Kasvi has worked as Research and Development Manager of the Finnish Information Society Development Centre and research scientist in the Helsinki University of Technology. Jyrki Kasvi’s particular areas of interest include information society, quality of work life, university policies, entrepreneurship and equality and tolerance.
Assisting jury
Petri Heiramo
Organisational coach, Futurice
Petri Suhonen
Passionate director, customer relations, Vincit
Riitta Alkula
Senior service architect, Gofore
Evaluation criteria
- Quantified economic impact - how many people, how much
- Societal impact - how much and why the things are better now
- Impact on a single person/minority group’s everyday life
- The quality of impact
Customer Experience Award
Digital Service that Customers Love.
This category awards the customer experience that is loved by their customers. Such services are easy and enjoyable to use; they improve the life of their users while making the best use of their time and money. At best, the user’s experience from the very first to the last transaction - within the application and outside of it - is so smooth that the user hardly recognises any effort. Often such services almost feel like having a soul of their own.
We award this prize to a Service that is loved by its end-users whether they are consumers, employees or citizens.
Main judge
Marina Vahtola
Chairman and Board Member, Executive in Residence Aalto University, Marketing
Chairman and Board Member Marina Vahtola works as an Executive in Residence at Aalto University’s marketing department, in the board of several Finnish companies and as a senior adviser in big international franchising companies. Additionally she has several international positions of trust.
Vahtola has over 25 years of experience of top management in big corporations. She has worked as the CEO of Bauhaus Finland and Estonia for over 10 years. Vahtola’s expertise include branding and concept work, developing e-commerce and franchising especially in retail trade.
Assisting jury
Juha Jauhiainen
Design director, Exove
Karri-Pekka Laakso
Lead designer, Reaktor
Lassi A Liikkanen
Digital Analyst Lead, Futurice
Virve Kuorelahti
Senior UX designer, Gofore
Evaluation criteria
- How much and why does the service improve the lives of the users
- How easy the service is to use
- What evidence do you have of customer love
- How does it differentiate from competition or previous versions
- What makes the service innovative or ground breaking
Robust Code Award
Service for Cutting Edge Software Engineering.
This category awards the hard engineering effort on smooth operations and efficient development. We cheer technical greatness, exceptional algorithms and smart technical innovations that take into consideration also maintainability by a large/evolving community and long life-span.
We award this prize to the code that stands the test of time and award the Team that maintains the robust code. Your code may be a full system, exceptional library or a superb algorithm.
Main judge
Michael "Monty" Widenius
Founder and CTO at MariaDB Foundation
Monty is the creator and lead programmer of MySQL & MariaDB. He is also the founder of MySQL AB, MariaDB Corporation, MariaDB Foundation and Open Ocean Capital. He is software architect and designer having long experience in creating open source community.
Assisting jury
Atte Kojo
Programmer, Reaktor
Lauri Hahne
Software engineer, Gofore
Mikko "Pekkis" Forsström
Lead software developer, Fraktio
Lauri Svan
Head of technology, SC5
Evaluation criteria
- Robustness of the service (always up and responsive)
- Business impact
- Good, readable code
- Modularity
- Easy extendability
- Scalability
- Maintainability and the maintenance process
Propellerhead award
Award for Personal Impact on the Industry.
We need innovation, new ideas and sometimes shocks to get our industry to move forward. To encourage this brave behavior, we introduce the propellerhead category - an award for personal or collective impact on the industry.
We award this prize to a Person or a Team who has created something that benefits us all, such as a new way of working or raised important issue to general awareness. Name a person/team that you deeply respect!
Main judge
Jarkko Oikarinen
Inventor of IRC
Jarkko is the inventor of Internet Relay Chat, and holds a PhD in Computer Graphics.
He has over 30 years of experience in various fields, from text and video chat to neurosurgical workstations to medical imaging to graphics algorithms to mobile phones and games, in multiple startups, university research groups and larger companies. He is currently Technical Lead Manager in Google Sweden, where he is back innovating on chat systems, this time using video and audio.
Assisting jury
Janne Kalliola
CEO, Exove
Mikko Väätäinen
Business designer, Solita
Petri Kainulainen
Passionate unarchitect, Vincit
Petri Takala
Principal consultant, Gofore
Evaluation criteria
- The level of adoption within the industry or the whole society
- The benefit for the industry/society
- The novelty of the effort
Disruption Award
Award for a Digital Solution that can change the Industry.
This category celebrate the moment when David takes on Goliath. Disruption is about a novel approach to win a market share or create a new market that did not exist before.
We award the prize for solution or organization for revolutionary ways of making business and doing things differently.
Main judge
Risto Kuulasmaa
Entrepreneur
Risto Kuulasmaa is the co-founder of TubeCon, the biggest Youtuber event in Scandinavia. He has worked as the Head of Television and Online Media at Yle Finland and is known as an award-winning producer behind The Dudesons, Madventures and Docventures. Outside of work Risto enjoys life as a traveller, photographer and early stage startup investor.
Assisting jury
Jussi Ahola
Designer and product thinker, Vincit
Lassi Kurkijärvi
VP new business, Solita
Mikko Kolehmainen
Principal consultant, Gofore
Evaluation criteria
- The solution has captured a underserved “low-end” market or introduced a new one
- The disruptive impact created on an existing industry/market
- The The disruptive impact the nominee has had on peoples’ lives
- The disruptive impact the nominee has on society
- The disruptive approach has attracted a support network
Best Performing Team Award
Award for a Functional Team and a Flourishing Work Culture.
This category promotes exceptionally brave working cultures that have challenged the traditional ways of working. Through trial error, they have created an innovative environment that constantly shows good results. We would like to see goal oriented teams taking responsibility not from their product, but for the business impact they are trying to make and end customers they are serving.
We award this prize to a Team that has created a functional, creative and sustainable work culture that not only help the organisation reach its goals, but that is able to respond to the constant change.
Main judge
Jukka Lindström
Vice President, Digital Transformation at Cargotec, a leading provider of cargo handling solutions.
Jukka started as a software developer and during the dot-com boom he founded two technology startups. He moved to consulting in 2003. Jukka was one of the first to start promoting Scrum and Agile methods in Finland. He shifted his focus from coding to coaching people when he realised the potential of great team work and collaboration.
He has coached and trained over a hundred teams and thousands of people in organisations and projects of all kind in agile methods, teamwork and leadership. For the past 7 years he has shifter to the company level working as a change catalyst, coach and a leader in many transformations towards business and development agility.
Assisting jury
Eemeli Kantola
Senior software consultant, Futurice
Jesse Peurala
Managing director, Fraktio
Marko Klemetti
CTO, Eficode
Evaluation criteria
- The results the team is able to deliver
- The impact for the whole organisation around the team
- The smart practices that make the team exceptionally creative and/or productive
Epic Purchasing Award
Award for Navigating the Pitfalls of Project Purchasing.
This category celebrates the smart way of purchasing. In a healthy business relation, the both parties win, the collaboration is open and mutually beneficial. The goals are clear, execution is solid and the results exceed expectations.
We award this prize to a Customer that has find the way to establish a mutually beneficial relationship, achieving the best value for the money and time.
Main judge
Mikael Jungner
CEO of Kreab Helsinki
Mikael Jungner is the CEO of Kreab Helsinki. He has worked as a researcher, but also in politics, media and software industry. Jugner is fascinated by the social media, startup entrepreneurship, interaction and the business models of digital era.
Assisting jury
Jukka Aaltonen
COO, Eficode
Jussi Hacklin
Business director, Futurice
Vesa Teikari
Business director, Houston
Karoliina Luoto
Lean Agile Coach & Consultant, Codento
Evaluation criteria
- Mutually beneficial business relationship
- Clarity of the goals and transparency of the process
- Smart use of investment, constant results and controlled risk
- Relevancy of the end product and return on the investment
- Mode of collaboration that helps respond change and seize new opportunities