The winners will also be featured in the
Sunday Times Top 100, which acknowledges listed companies that have earned the highest returns for their shareholders over the last five years.
For the BCX
Innovation Awards 2023, businesses can enter one of three categories: public sector entities, corporate enterprise as well as small and medium enterprise (SME).
The future growth of the awards will see an expansion into countries outside of South Africa. There will also be the inclusion of a university category. The BCX
Digital Innovation Awards was launched for the first time in 2019 with the aim to recognise and celebrate digital innovation and excellence in South Africa.
Since 2019, the award has seen impressive growth, seeing celebrated companies submitting powerful examples of South African innovation, excellence and success.
2022's winners were the following:
- Digital bank Discovery Bank came first for its shared value in banking
- ShopriteX came second for Checkers Xtra Savings Sixty60 integration, and
- iiDENTIFii, facial biometric digital authentic platform, came third.
In 2021, the awards received an incredible 61 entries, of which 45 were SME entries and 16 were corporate entries.
Since coming third in 2022, Lance Fanaroff, iiDENTIFii's director and founder, says his company's technology has matured. iiDENTIFii is a world-leading remote biometric digital authentication and automated onboarding technology platform. It fulfils the needs of customer-focused organisations that are required to authenticate and on-board customers.
2022 was not the first time iiDENTIFii threw its hat into the BCX
Digital Innovation Awards.
"We entered these awards back in 2019 in the SME category and went on to win the award. Last year, we entered in the enterprise category, and we were up against big and reputable companies — Discovery Bank came first, ShopriteX came second, and we came third," Fanaroff says.
"These are unbelievable brands, and we were just privileged to be in the same category with them and we were quite thrilled about that. The last four years, especially in technology as an industry, have seen a lot of changes," adds Fanaroff. "Technology is a very fast-paced industry that is growing at an exponential rate. Our technology has grown over the last four years, and we have become a powerful player in the enterprise arena, and we are still growing."
Fanaroff says that iiDENTIFii is now providing its biometric solutions to South Africa's leading banks, such as:
- FNB
- Absa
- Nedbank
- Standard Bank, and
- Investec.
Fanaroff adds that from the experience he had during last year's accolades, he believes the awards can act as a springboard for companies to expose their brands.
"I, therefore, recommend companies to enter this competition. It was a brilliant experience. I think it was exceptional in the way the entire awards were conducted. There was brilliance from BCX and the companies that they were working with in terms of making sure that all of us were performing at our peak. Discovery and Shoprite were worthy winners ahead of us," says Fanaroff.
"The BCX team are quite passionate about the awards. They did their best to ensure that we were able to perform at our best during the interviews, as well as the different stages of the selection process," Fanaroff adds.
"So, I highly recommend companies that want to improve their credibility in the market and build their brand to enter these awards. It does take a lot of time and effort for the participants and the various people involved, but at the end of the day, I think it's worth it," Fanaroff concludes.
Individuals are encouraged to enter the BCX
Digital Innovation Awards here.
For more information, visit
www.bcx.co.za. You can also follow BCX on
Facebook or on
X.