“I’d Like to Thank My Mother, My Directors, My Team…”

IDBS Support team shortlisted for major service award

While I was thinking of ways to recognize all the improvements and achievements that the IDBS Support team have made over the past few years, one of my team, Jenny Perry, came up with the fantastic idea. Why not enter the prestigious Service Desk Institute Awards?  I pondered this for a couple of seconds and quickly agreed that it would be a great thing to do.

As is often the case with such snap decisions, the consequence of what you have just agreed only hit home when you find out what is required! Jenny gave me the entry criteria. We had to provide written submissions for nine separate categories, including Leadership, Policy & Strategy, Processes and Customer Satisfaction. All we needed now was a plan to create all this collateral by the submission deadline – just a few weeks away! The entire Support team rallied to the cause with everyone taking one category each.

It still amazes me how IDBS people always rise to a challenge. A couple of weeks later we had our draft submission completed, and I have to say it already looked pretty good.

After an external review, some sanity checking by Marketing – not to mention a frantic morning battling with the office printer to get five copies ready – a very heavy envelope was sent to the SDI with bated breath.

Waiting, waiting, waiting…

We figured that the shortlist of three would be finalized on April 20. So just over a month of nervous waiting ensued. Had we provided the right kind of information? Was the detail to the required level? Having never tried to win an award before the simple answer is we didn’t know. But I was proud of what the team had achieved and was quietly, if cautiously, confident.

At 11:30 on the morning of the April 20 I got a phone call saying that the SDI had shortlisted the IDBS Support for the Small Team of the Year Award. To say I was pleased is an understatement. Thrilled is more like it. The looks on the faces of the team when they found out told the same story.

So what next? Well, the judging panel will visit IDBS in a few weeks to make sure we know our stuff. And then four weeks later … it’s awards time.

I’ll keep you updated of our progress. But for now I just want to pass on huge congratulations to my team for all their hard work, professionalism and, of course, their terrific support. They are rather good at that!