Internet technology awards methodology

Euromoney has revamped its internet technology awards, which in past years have appeared in our November edition, so as significantly to enhance their usefulness for our readers. In the past, teams of Euromoney journalists have visited banks and other providers for demonstrations of their internet and other electronic offerings in the foreign exchange, fixed income, equity, derivatives and investor services marketplaces. The journalists have then chosen winners across a variety of categories based on breadth of functionality and ease of use of electronic platforms. In making these judgments, our journalists have acted almost as a proxy for providers’ own customers. This year, Euromoney directly surveyed banks’ and other providers’ customer bases and asked end users which banks and other professional market players were doing the best job in providing internet and electronic services across a range of markets and functions.

Investing institutions, hedge funds, corporate treasuries and state/supranational agencies were asked to fill in only those categories that are relevant to them. This survey was accessible via Euromoney’s own website, so enabling service providers to point their own customers towards the survey, if they chose to do so. The polling took place between November 8 and December 24 2004. The survey was sent out as a URL embedded in an email and follow-up prioritized II Euro 300, Fortune 500 and listed companies worldwide.  We received 1,777 valid votes by the end of the survey period.

Twenty percent of voters were contacted directly for the purpose of validation of responses.

Forty categories were available on the questionnaire, which were routed to sections for equity, fixed income, foreign exchange, derivatives, and corporate and institutional services.  Once voters had chosen the three bank(s) they used most in a particular category, they were then asked to rate the most used of these, “poor” through “excellent”, for 10 fundamental criteria applicable across all platforms. 

Best bank in any given category was by:

1)The bank or service provider that most people have rated “very good” or “excellent” by most of their own users for the most functional features. So if Bank A got voted “very good” or “excellent” in seven out of 10 features for trade finance, by x% of those people who voted it first or second best, it was be ranked higher than a bank that ranks “very good” or “excellent” in (in this case) six or fewer features. 

The highest percentage of high satisfaction ratings in the most features is the winner here.  This measure also seeks to strip out the number of users (subject to a minimum) when deciding who is “best”. Big will not mean best. Impressed clients will mean best. The platform might be new or not relatively widely used for other reasons, but might be viewed as very high quality by those initiated in its use.

2) The most used platform, as indicated by descending scores weighted 4 points for a platform nominated as most used by that client; 3 points for second-most used; and 2 points for third most used. This is the platform with the best price-performance combination.