Rapide left stiff regional competition standing as it scooped the top prize and a cheque for £2,000 at the coveted ICT Excellence Awards 2008. Working closely with Birmingham University to develop its market leading technology, Rapide won the Best Innovative Service Award and was named Overall Champion for our Rant & Rave service.

(people from left to right: Carli Clark - Account Manager, Hardeep Johal - Software Developer,

Stuart Webb – Head of Innovation Clusters and ICT Policies – Advantage West Midlands,

Duncan Morton - Senior Developer, Nigel Shanahan - Managing Director,

Yiannis Maos - Marketing & Media Executive, Ian Hurst - Development Manager)

Rant & Rave is a unique service capturing customer feedback through websites, texts, blogs, phone calls and reviews sites. The Sentiment Engine then processes the feedback and analyses what has been said about a particular company or product, showing the results in a live dashboard:

Rapide has helped organisations such as National Express, Whitbread and Hallmark stay in touch with customers by giving them this powerful tool to monitor, score and analyse what people are saying about their products and services.

Nigel Shanahan, Managing Director of Rapide, said,

“We are ecstatic to win both these awards. It will give Rant & Rave the necessary exposure to help attract new customers and new staff members. It's also a great motivation for our team to have their hard work acclaimed in this way. Finally, it's been fantastic taking part as the feedback from the judges has been invaluable to us.”

Mike Musson, ICT Cluster Manager, added:

“This year we've seen the highest standard of award entries yet and competition has been incredibly tough, but Rapide Communication really stood out for us. Their Rant & Rave service is a highly original concept using emotional response indicators and we were impressed by its success in the UK. The judging process has been rigorous and the panel faced a major challenge in deciding the final winners due to the sheer quality, innovation and excellent service provided by all the finalists. The awards are testament to the quality and diversity among technology companies in the West Midlands region.”

For more information of Rant & Rave click here