DOCOsoft Hosts Annual DOSCARs Ceremony
Launched in 2018, our annual DOSCARs awards ceremony has become the stand-out highlight of DOCOsoft’s ever-popular and densely well attended annual client Christmas parties.
Sober-minded, dedicated professionals for most of the year, DOCOsoft people also know how to have some serious fun when the occasion calls for it. The DOSCARs started out as just a bit of fun. But competition among our illustrious clients for our iconic duck-on-a-plinth trophies has become alarmingly fierce in recent years!
Each of the winners, across four categories, walks away – not only with a duck – but also with a luxurious Taittinger presentation set containing a bottle of the celebrated fizz-maker’s Brut Reserve Champagne, along with two elegant flutes to avoid any potential delay or frustration in appreciating the bottle’s contents. Proper chilling prior to consumption is, however, recommended, while Grand-Prix-style aerial sharing during the event is politely but firmly discouraged.
The first category to be announced on stage by DOCOsoft CEO Aidan O’Neill was that of Claims Handler of the Year. This award is particularly hotly contested, Aidan noted, given that there are more than a thousand claims handlers using the DOCOsoft CMS, all of them competing for just one duck. The worthy winner this year was Steve Lynch of Enstar, a man who would stand out from any claims-handling crowd. His colleague Jess Hine was also accorded a special mention, simply for being the best kind of client to work with.
The inelegantly named Non Claims Handler of the Year award (given to a particularly outstanding individual whose role doesn’t necessarily involve handling claims on a day to day basis) went to Gurmeet Natt of Canopius, whose proactive and constructive engagement with some of the most exciting and groundbreaking initiatives DOCOsoft is currently working on has proved invaluable over the past year.
Next up was the Company of the Year award, which, Aidan explained, goes to a company that has done something particularly exceptional with DOCOsoft over the preceding 12 to 18 months. Robert Robinson collected the award for this one on behalf of Lloyd’s Managing Agency Ark, whose Bermuda-based reinsurance operation was the first to go live with DOCOsoft on a system using ACORD’s EBOT and ECOT messaging – a significant landmark in the DOCOsoft story.
Last, but not least, came the announcement of the highly prestigious award for Lifetime Achievement – collected in previous years by such luminaries as Ian Springett, Adrian Duggleby, Patricia Hoskins, Rich Woodhams, Ian Mallery, David Hughes, Ramzi Shammas, Lee Ramsden and Paddy Riordan. 2023’s award went, Aidan said, to someone who has played a pivotal role in the London market for many years, someone who has been using the DOCOsoft CMS since 2012, and has been an eloquent advocate for our capabilities for more than a decade now. That person was Charles Glashier of Faraday, who achieved the not inconsiderable feat of making his witty and gracious acceptance speech audible over the mounting hubbub emanating from the tightly packed and increasingly animated festive throng.
There was one extra award to hand out as 2023 drew to a close. Longtime DOCOsoft stalwart Graham Sheppard is finally stepping back from his day-to-day involvement in the business to take up a senior-statesman-like advisory role. To mark his enormous contribution over the years, Graham received a special ‘lifetime achievement’ award of his own. We wish him all the best as he settles into something a bit more like full-time retirement in his new home in the West of England, but glad to continue benefiting, on an ad hoc basis, from his wise counsel and experience as we continue on the journey he did so much to launch us on.
Hearty congratulations to all the winners. The competition for this year’s ducks begins now