Pharmaceuticals distributor International Healthcare Distributors (IHD) has won Progress Software South Africa`s Special Award for 2005 in recognition of its commitment to Progress technology and its sustained ability to implement innovative Progress solutions.
IHD only recently qualified to become a Progress partner, but is about to roll out its Progress-based warehousing and distribution solution to its overseas sites.
"The company has invested a huge amount of effort and capital to ensure that its Progress development team is one of the best in the country," says Rick Parry, MD of Progress Software South Africa. "IHD representatives regularly attend our events and provide speakers at our user conferences. The company has embraced every version of our technology and is an excellent example of a world-class 24x7 operation that has maximised its use of Progress software. IHD has bet its business on Progress, and the Special Award is in recognition of this."
Progress Software`s annual Partner Awards ceremony, which is held in recognition of the fundamental role its partners play in the business, underwent some changes this year, the key one being the introduction of two software as a service (SaaS)-based awards, in keeping with the company`s strategic direction.
SaaS is based on the premise that users should regard software not as a product, but as a service. It is delivered to organisations as a componentised, subscription model, so it is billed on a resource usage or per-user basis, rather than a fixed monthly fee or enormous annual licence fee.
The Progress Award for Software as a Service Growth went to IT Dynamics, a KwaZulu-Natal-based application and management services company, which brought six new clients into its SaaS fold.
The award for Strategic Use of SaaS went to AgriIT, which developed a comprehensive software package that allows farmers to schedule irrigation programmes from the comfort of their home PC.
"We looked at the benefit to the partner, and the impact it had on the business of its own clients," says Parry. "AgriIT has grown substantially in the past year, one of the reasons being that it is offering farmers IT services based on a percentage of their turnover, and not charging them a fixed, up-front fee. Farmers are not accustomed to the use of technology, and this model has gone a long way in improving their attitudes to and acceptance of IT."
The award for Total Revenue went to systems house and software developer MIP Holdings, which pipped its closest rival to the post, Automate, by 10%.
MIP also won the award for Commitment to Progress, which it shared with Quality Business Consultants (QBCON), a custom software solutions provider.
"This award replaces our partner of the year award," says Parry. "The measures have nothing to do with revenue, but are based on a set of 11 criteria including participation of these partners in various Progress events and services, and their total involvement in the bigger Progress world. 10 partners qualified, which in itself indicates how active our partner base is. Both MIP and QBCON scored full marks.
"We continue to see the partner awards as an important component of the Progress environment. The new award categories demonstrate our awareness of the fact that our business is changing, as is that of our partners. We recognise and reward them because our business, as always, revolves around our partners. We will do all we can to ensure that they are applauded for their loyalty and commitment."
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