The 2025 ETQ Innovation Quality Award will recognize excellence in extending ETQ Reliance along two dimensions - meaning TWO winners this year. This year, we are going to look at innovations that drive business value for an organization (and this can go beyond just financial improvements and include overall business improvement) and the creative use of the ETQ Reliance platform. There will two finalists in each category who will present at the Customer Conference, and then all attendees will be able to vote for the winner in each category. We're excited to announce that the winning organization will receive 20 RC hours along with two seats for training that can be used at ETQ Academy Bootcamp or at the 2026 Customer Conference.

Innovation Award Process Timing:
  • Your application must be submitted by May 12, 2025.
  • Finalists will be notified on May 23, 2025.
  • Attendees will vote on the winner of each category after the finalists' presentations at the conference held on June 17, 2025.
You can save your progress on this application and come back to it anytime before May 12 - just make sure to click the "Done" button at the bottom. You will be able to edit your responses even after clicking "Done." We recommend bookmarking this link and using a non-incognito browser window.

Section 1: Company Information

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* 1. Company Information

Section 2: General Information

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* 2. Please provide an executive summary of the business problem you are solving with the INNOVATION you configured in ETQ Reliance in 300 words or less.

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* 3. What business case and return on investment (ROI) justification did you prepare as you planned for your innovation?

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* 4. What strategies and tactics have you used in your organization to gain adoption for this innovation?

Section 3: Results

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* 5. INNOVATION: Please describe use cases that contribute to making this solution an innovation.

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* 6. DEPLOYMENT: How widely deployed is your innovation across your company and how does this innovation impact the number and type of users in ETQ Reliance? Are there plans in place to scale this innovation to other areas of the organization? If so, where and in what capacity?

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* 7. BUSINESS IMPACT/ROI: What is the measurable return on investment (ROI) your organization has achieved and will achieve as a result of the innovation and its rollout? Please provide examples on how the application has improved efficiency, reduced costs, or provided revenue opportunities from both a business perspective and/or an IT perspective.

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* 8. BUSINESS IMPACT/STRATEGIC: Describe how the innovation improves one or more of the following:
  • Costs and risk
  • Optimization of processes
  • Supply chain quality
  • Visibility into ongoing operations
  • Improved time to market

Section 4: Supporting Information

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* 9. Please include any supporting materials to better illustrate your innovation award and its impact on your business. These can include screenshots, video, workflows, presentations/ slide decks, published articles, training documents, or other relevant materials. If you have trouble uploading supporting materials, you can also email them to events@etq.com.

PDF, DOC, DOCX, PNG, JPG, JPEG, GIF file types only.
Questions: Please contact Liz Pardo at events@etq.com  

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* 10. The company submitting this form below (“Entrant”) agrees to the ETQ Innovation Excellence Customer Award Rules (“Rules”) set forth below. The individual signing this form on behalf of Entrant declares that he/she is authorized to execute and submit this form and the Entry on behalf of Entrant.

Section 5. ETQ Innovation Excellence Customer Award Rules  

ELIGIBILITY:  
Entrants must be current licensed customers of ETQ, Inc. (“ETQ”) upon the date of submission of the Entry. All Entrants must be able to substantiate that Entry is either in production or is planned to be in production by May 12, 2025. Entrants must present and demonstrate their Entries if selected as a finalist in either category at the Annual ETQ Reliance Customer Conference. ETQ employees, business partners and third parties who are not ETQ software licensees are not eligible. Entry must have been developed without the assistance of ETQ employees, business partners or third parties who are not ETQ software licensees.

Entry must be the Entrant’s original work, created solely by the Entrant and must not contain any of the Entrant’s confidential information or trade secrets nor infringe, misappropriate or violate any intellectual property or other right of any third party.
All individuals involved in the development and submission of an Entry must meet the eligibility requirements set forth herein.
Each Entrant may submit only one (1) Entry. Entries may be submitted only by Entrants which are entities licensed to use ETQ software and each Entrant may win only one award.

The three customer finalists agree to be named and have their innovation briefly described in an ETQ press release following the Conference. ETQ will share a review copy of the press release and provide for a one week review period prior to the announcement.

Submission of an Entry constitutes Entrant’s agreement to be bound by these Rules and of the decisions of ETQ regarding awards and other matters pertaining to the Award Program, which are final and binding on all matters pertaining to the Award Program.

APPLICATION PROCESS:
1) Entry: Entrants must submit their Entry to ETQ by May 12, 2025 to be eligible.
2) Entry Review: The ETQ Innovation Award Review Team will review Entries and select two finalists in each category, who will be invited to make a final presentation of their Entry to the ETQ Reliance customer base. The four finalists will be notified by May 23, 2025.

3) Awards announcement and presentation by the winners: The top two finalists of the ETQ Innovation Excellence Award in each category will be announced at the Annual Customer Conference, where the finalists are required to present their innovation solution. The 1st place award winners will be selected and announced at the Conference, following the presentations.

ENTRY DELIVERABLES:
In addition to this Application, the Finalists must submit:
A PowerPoint presentation consisting of an overview of the Entry within one (1) week of finalist selection announcement. The presentation will be shared with the Award Review Team in the one-hour conference call, described above.

FINALIST SELECTION CRITERIA:
INNOVATION (40%)
Entrants must demonstrate the uniqueness of the Entry in solving a specific business need and how the Entry reflects an innovative approach to solving that need and successfully achieving organizational goals. The review of the Entry’s innovation will include, but not be limited to, an analysis of the Entry’s workflow, business rules, integration, employee training and application aesthetics.
ROI/BUSINESS VALUE (40%)
Entrants must demonstrate the business, financial and organizational value obtained from their innovation Entry. Th

CONFIGURATION (20%)
Entrants must demonstrate that the Entry is configured in such a way that is unique to the out-of-the-box version of the ETQ software platform on which it is based. Workflows, Forms, Business rules, and similar configuration elements will be reviewed. Entrants should be able to demonstrate any advanced configuration concepts used in developing the innovative application, while creating an intuitive, user friendly end-user interface.

AWARDS:
The three finalists will present at an award presentation at the ETQ Reliance Customer Conference at Hexagon LIVE Global, June 16-19, 2025. Finalists will receive public recognition for their innovation entry via press release. Customer attendees at the conference will vote to determine the winner.
The first-place winner in each category will receive 20 hours of Remote Consulting (RC) Hours and two seats for training that can be used at ETQ Academy Bootcamp or at the 2026 Customer Conference.

DATA PRIVACY:
ETQ does not wish to obtain any personal data of any person in connection with the Award Program. In the event any personal data is supplied, Entrant provides explicit consent to share the personal data agrees that personal data provided may be processed, stored and otherwise used for the purposes and within the context of the Award Program and as outlined in these Rules, and that any such personal data may be transferred outside of the European Union (if applicable) to the United States in connection with the Award Program.

WARRANTY AND INDEMNITY:
Entrant represents and warrants that all Entries are Entrant’s original development, do not contain any Entrant or third-party confidential information or trade secrets, do not infringe or misappropriate any intellectual property or other right of any third party, and do not violate any applicable law. Entrant shall indemnify, defend and hold ETQ, its successors and assigns, its affiliates, directors, officers, representatives, resellers, employees and agents harmless from and against any and all claims, demands, actions, causes of action, damages, loss, deficiency, cost, liability and expense, including reasonable attorneys’ fees and amounts paid in settlement, resulting from or arising out of any claim, suit, action or proceeding that may be made or brought against any of them arising out of or related to any breach of the foregoing warranty and any act or omission of Entrant in connection with the Award Program, including without limitation, any liability arising from or relating to any prize won or not won and ETQ’s conduct of the Award Program.
ADDITIONAL PROVISIONS:   
 
Copyrightable materials submitted to ETQ as part of any Entry may be freely copied and distributed by ETQ. Entrant grants ETQ an irrevocable, perpetual, royalty-free, non-exclusive, worldwide right and license to use, duplicate, distribute, display, adapt, modify, create derivative works from, and exercise any other rights with respect to, for any purpose whatsoever, including incorporation into future ETQ products, any concepts, ideas, inventions, techniques, discoveries, know-how, information, materials, software and any other aspects of the Entry; provided, however, that in the exercise of such rights, it does not reveal the identity of Entrant except in connection with exhibiting the Entry solely in the form in which it was entered by Entrant. ETQ reserves the right to promote the ETQ Innovation Excellence Customer Award and use Entrant’s name, other corporate identifier information and information regarding its Entry in press releases, case studies, and marketing materials.   
Further, as a condition to Entrant's eligibility to participate in this Award Program, all Entrants will cooperate with ETQ by providing information regarding itself and their entry, including without limitation: the applicable Entrants’ employees’ names and likenesses (and their individual consent(s) to same); case studies; conference presentations; articles; press releases; performance data; any related marketing materials; and photos of their Entries (if applicable). ETQ may use such information without compensation.   
 
Entrant agrees that ETQ shall not be liable for exemplary, punitive, indirect, incidental or consequential damages, or any other damages, regardless of form of action, whether in contract, tort, strict liability, by operation of statute or otherwise, and that all causes of action arising out of or connection with the ETQ Innovation Excellence Customer Application Award program, or any prizes awarded, shall be resolved individually, without resort to any form of class action.   
 
Entrant agrees that the operation of the Award Program is governed by the laws of the State of Massachusetts, United States, and that any dispute relating thereto will be governed by, and construed in accordance with, the laws of the State of Massachusetts, without reference to conflict of law principles, and the participants consent to personal jurisdiction in the state and federal courts of the State of Massachusetts and agree that such courts have exclusive jurisdiction over all such disputes.   
 
As a condition of winning and claiming the prizes, winning Entrants and their personnel participating in the ETQ Innovation Excellence Customer Award program must complete, sign and return an affidavit of eligibility, liability release and publicity release to be supplied by ETQ within thirty (30) days calendar days of receipt of prize notification. If these documents are not completed and executed as requested by ETQ and executed copies are not received by ETQ within thirty (30) calendar days after they have been sent by ETQ to said winning Entrant, prizes will be forfeited and awarded to an alternative winner. If the notification is returned as undeliverable, the prize will be forfeited and awarded to an alternate winner.