AMSTERDAM--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct 15, 2026--
Conga Connection--Conga, the company lining up commerce, today announced the winners of its inaugural Inspire and Partner Awards EMEA, honoring four customers and three partners for outstanding achievement in commercial transformation. The awards were presented at Conga Connection 2026, held 14-15 October at the Anantara Grand Hotel Krasnapolsky in Amsterdam, where European revenue, commercial and operations leaders gathered under this year’s theme, Accelerate What Matters.
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“Every company says it wants to transform commercial operations, but these four did it, and set a great example for others to follow,” said Lisa Martin, Chief Revenue Officer at Conga. “What they have in common isn’t just a technology decision. It’s the discipline to redesign how their teams price, quote, and contract and consistently turn that work into measurable business impact. Congratulations to all the winners and continued success.”
Congratulations to the 2026 Inspire Awards EMEA Winners
Innovation Award -Boston Scientific
Boston Scientific’s EMEA division won the Innovation award for demonstrating a clear and ambitious plan for modern commerce and contracting. Boston Scientific deployed Conga CPQ alongside Conga Rebate Management and saw a 20% year-over-year reduction in quoting time, with 300+ users onboarded and more than 60 quotes within the first five days.
Commerce Excellence Award - Cargolux
Global all-cargo airline and Europe’s largest cargo carrier, Cargolux Airlines, won the Commerce Excellence Award for sustained commercial success driven by cross-functional collaboration and digital transformation. Cargolux deployed Conga Price Optimization, Revenue Management and CPQ globally in just 180 days, replacing manual email-based quoting with AI-powered pricing and automated ancillary charge capture. The program has delivered a 75% reduction in quote time, from 20 minutes to five minutes, while improving pricing consistency and responsiveness to customer demand.
Digital Impact Award - Evotec
Evotec, a global life science company, won the Digital Impact award for accelerating digital capabilities and outcomes. Working with partner Sopra Steria, Evotec implemented Conga Contracts for Salesforce to generate customer-ready agreements pre-populated with deal-specific terms, enabling teams to create high-quality first drafts in minutes. Template adoption increased to more than 60% of negotiations initiated from an Evotec template, a 50%+ relative improvement, accelerating contracting cycles and allowing the legal team to spend less time on administrative tasks and focus more on strategic risk management and business partnering.
Judges’ Choice - RHI Magnesita
RHI Magnesita, a global leader in refractory products, won the Judges’ Choice award for its significant impact. RHI Magnesita is rolling out Conga CPQ across its six regions in a program led by Géraldine Michault, Head of Commercial Excellence & CPQ, bringing pricing guidance and quoting ownership directly to the sales managers in the field. The judges applaud RHI Magnesita for designing the program hand in hand with the teams who are set to use it every day.
Recognizing the Partners Driving Customer Success
Conga also recognized three partners whose collaboration, customer focus and commitment to growth are helping organizations turn commercial transformation into meaningful business results across Europe. Presented for the first time, the Partner Awards celebrate the strength of Conga’s European partner ecosystem, and the role partners play in helping customers realize lasting value.
“This is the first year we have presented Partner Awards in Europe, and it’s long overdue,” said Martin. “Our European partner ecosystem continues to grow in strength and impact, and these three partners exemplify the collaboration, customer commitment and results that make it so important to our success.”
Customer Success Advocate Award – Pink Samurais
Pink Samurais was recognized for consistently going above and beyond for customers, delivering strong outcomes and bringing a customer-first approach to every engagement.
Momentum Builder Award – ArticulateIT
ArticulateIT received the Momentum Builder Award for demonstrating exceptional growth, energy and engagement while driving success across the Conga ecosystem.
Collaboration Champion Award – Accenture
Accenture was named Collaboration Champion for its commitment to joint success and its ability to build strong relationships across Conga teams and the wider partner ecosystem.
Commerce Champions: Recognition That Continues Year-Round
Recognition at Conga Connection is just one way Conga celebrates the people driving commercial transformation. Through Conga’s new Commerce Champions program, customers can share their expertise, showcase their success, and build stronger connections with peers, industry leaders and Conga. Members can participate in opportunities ranging from speaking engagements and customer stories to networking, product feedback and industry visibility, choosing the activities that best align with their interests and goals and getting rewarded in the process. For more information about the Inspire Awards EMEA and Commerce Champions, visit conga.com/inspire-awards-emea and conga.com/customer-advocacy.
About Conga
Conga lines up commercial operations so companies run as connected, smarter businesses. By unifying the people and processes that drive commerce, Conga aligns pricing, quoting, contracting, rebates and communications so teams stay in sync and buyers keep moving forward. The result is trusted decisions, consistent buyer experiences and profitable growth. More than 10,000 customers worldwide, including over 50% of the Fortune 100 ®, trust Conga when commercial complexity is high and global impact is on the line. Learn more at Conga.com.
Inspire and Partner Awards EMEA Winners at Conga Connection 2026
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is escalating its fight with California ahead of next month's midterm election, warning that local officials who process and tabulate ballots submitted by suspected noncitizen voters are putting themselves at risk of criminal investigation and potential prosecution.
The letter Friday from a senior Justice Department official and obtained first by The Associated Press is the latest salvo in an ongoing tussle with heavily Democratic California, coming just a day after the Trump administration sued the state to prevent it from counting mail ballots from people the federal government has identified as “likely” noncitizens until their immigration status can be confirmed.
“The legal consequences for either facilitating or ignoring a federal crime are significant. Noncitizen voting in a federal election is a federal crime — and knowingly facilitating such conduct is equally unlawful,” warns the letter from Trent McCotter, the acting deputy attorney general at the Justice Department.
It adds: “If persons knowingly tabulate ballots cast by individuals identified by federal agencies as noncitizens, they risk becoming aiders and abettors to a federal crime.”
The letter is addressed to the Los Angeles County Counsel's office and also is copied to California Secretary of State Shirley Weber and Los Angeles County Registrar Dean Logan, effectively putting the entire state on notice.
In response to the letter, Logan said his office is focused on conducting a fair and secure election while noting that Election Day is a mere 18 days away.
"The U.S. Department of Justice has chosen to litigate their unverified assertions of voting eligibility. At this point, it is best for this to be addressed in court,” he said.
The other offices and the state attorney general did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
It is unclear how many individuals the Justice Department might look to try to investigate and charge, though any federal criminal cases in the Los Angeles area would be handled by the office of Bill Essayli, the region's top federal prosecutor and one of the Justice Department officials who filed the federal complaint Thursday against California.
Sent less than three weeks before the Nov. 3 election, the letter adds to simmering tensions over voter rolls between California and the Justice Department and reflects the Trump administration's aggressive hunt for noncitizen voters. It has made the issue a priority this year, including by demanding detailed voter information — including dates of birth, addresses, driver’s license numbers and partial Social Security numbers — from the states.
The Justice Department has charged about 90 people for various types of election misconduct so far this year, including 50 who are alleged to have voted as noncitizens. There were more than 227 million registered voters in the United States during the 2024 presidential election.
In July, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin sent letters to California, Nevada, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, alleging that as many as 250,000 noncitizens were registered in those states. Election officials there were skeptical of the claim, including Weber, the California secretary of state.
That same month, the Republican administration claimed Nevada had 1,500 noncitizen voters on its voter rolls. But after the federal government identified them to the state, the number of actual registered noncitizens turned out to be zero.
That experience is backed up by research and investigations in various states, which make clear that voting by noncitizens is extremely rare.
The Justice Department lawsuit was filed after California officials were given, and did not meet, a 48-hour deadline to review a password-protected thumb drive that contained a list of 20,000 names. The federal government says those are likely noncitizens who were sent ballots to participate in the Nov. 3 election, although the secretary of state said the administration has provided no evidence to support that claim. The state mails ballots to all registered voters.
Rick Hasen, a UCLA law professor, said the letter “ups the ante by threatening election officials with potential criminal prosecution.”
“It is deplorable that rather than work cooperatively and assist states in their election administration responsibilities, the federal government is making escalating threats and unreasonable demands beyond its power in the middle of an ongoing election,” he said.
Justin Levitt, a former deputy assistant attorney general who teaches at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, dismissed the idea that an attempted prosecution of an election official using the letter’s rationale would hold up.
“Courts haven’t been buying what DOJ has been selling, and nothing in this letter is calibrated to change course,” he said. “Fortunately, election officials — not just in Los Angeles, but across the country — are equipped to stand up to aggressive bullying. And the law is on their side."
Over 23 million people are registered statewide, and a handful of competitive congressional races in other California districts could determine which party controls the U.S. House for the final two years of President Donald Trump’s term.
The Justice Department's escalating threats against California come as Democratic lawmakers are urging DOJ to honor its longstanding policy of not interfering in U.S. elections.
Earlier Friday, Sens. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., and Dick Durbin, D-Il., wrote to Attorney General Todd Blanche demanding that the Justice Department commit to not seizing ballots or other election materials before the midterm elections are certified.
Associated Press writers Michael R. Blood in Los Angeles and Ali Swenson in New York contributed to this report.
FILE - Ballots are sorted the day after California's primary election at the LA County Ballot Processing Center, June 3, 2026, in City of Industry, Calif. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)
FILE - Ballots are sorted the day after California's primary election at the LA County Ballot Processing Center, June 3, 2026, in City of Industry, Calif. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)
