TCS New York City Marathon app wins gold in Best in Biz Awards 2017
Mumbai: Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), (BSE: 532540, NSE: TCS), a leading global IT services, consulting and business solutions organisation, has been recognised as the Gold Consumer App of the Year winner for the TCS New York City Marathon App, by the Best in Biz Awards for the second consecutive year. The Best in Biz Awards is the only independent business awards programme judged each year by prominent editors and reporters from top-tier publications in North America.
TCS won the Gold Award for developing the 2016 TCS New York City Marathon app that was downloaded 317,000 – everyone from runners to fans – the most ever for any global marathon. The 2016 mobile app introduced a number of new, innovative features, the most popular being the ability to track 20 runners mile by mile and predict their time at different stages of the race. More than one million fans on the streets could then plan where to cheer or offer encouraging words of support as their family or friends ran past, and people at home could track progress from afar. The extent of this feature is unique to this event and not yet available at other marathons across the world.
Each year, Best in Biz Awards’ entrants span the spectrum, from some of the most innovative local start-ups to the most recognisable global brands. The seventh annual programme was hotly contested, with more than 650 entries from an impressive array of public and private companies of all sizes and from a variety of industries and geographic regions in the US and Canada. Best in Biz Awards 2017 honours were presented in 65 categories, including Company of the Year, Fastest-Growing Company, Most Innovative Company, Best Place to Work, Support Department, Executive of the Year, Most Innovative Product, Best New Product, App, Event, and Website of the Year.
“Once again, the TCS New York City Marathon official race app set new records in terms of technical innovations, downloads and usage of its features on race day, receiving an overwhelming positive response,” said Surya Kant, president, North America, UK and Europe, TCS. “We will continue each year to deliver on our promise of making the TCS New York City Marathon the most technically advanced race in the world, and we are proud of this recognition from Best in Biz.”
Beyond being the title sponsor of the TCS New York City Marathon, TCS is the year-round premier partner of New York Road Runners (NYRR), applying its technical excellence to other prominent five-borough races and being the principal supporter of all youth and community initiatives. The TCS New York City Marathon is the pinnacle of the partnership, and the 2016 race app provided exciting, race-specific features for runners and enthusiasts who wanted to keep track of the event. The app included race results, an interactive course map, the ability to track up to 20 runners, a race calendar with details on local attractions, elite athlete information, and event communications and alerts.
“There was an amazing variety in the finalists in Best in Biz Awards this year,” said Christopher Null, Wired, returning to judge the awards for the sixth year. “It was incredibly difficult to pick a winner!”
Since 2011, winners of Best in Biz Awards have been determined based on scoring from independent judging panels composed of prominent editors and reporters from some of the most respected newspapers, TV outlets, and business, consumer, technology and trade publications in North America. Best in Biz Awards’ uniqueness stems, in part, from this distinct composition of its judging panels, allowing it to best leverage the judges’ unparalleled expertise, experience and objectivity to determine award winners. The 2017 judging panel included Accounting Today, AdWeek, Associated Press, Atlanta Tribune, Business News Daily, Consumer Affairs, Entrepreneur, eWeek, Forbes, Harvard Business Review, Healthcare Innovation News, Inc., Investment Advisor Magazine, Laptop, MediaPost, Pittsburgh Business Times, Security Products Magazine, Wired, WLRN and Yahoo Tech.