IT giant Dimension Data and systems integrator BUI have emerged as the major winners at Microsoft's annual Partner Awards, announced at a gala dinner at Durban's ICC, on Friday night.
Dimension Data walked away with three awards, including the Large Account Reseller of the Year Award. BUI won the Security Solutions Competency award for a fourth year in a row, and crowned the evening by scooping the coveted Managing Director's Award.
The dinner was held at Microsoft's Partner Summit, the company's premier annual event for industry partners. The finalists were chosen from hundreds of entries submitted by partners across the country, and the winners were selected on their dedicated use of Microsoft technologies to provide solutions for their customers' needs.
Other companies to shine at the event were IS Partners and nVisionIT, which both won two awards, and The IT Department, which won the Small Business Specialist Award for the third year running.
Mteto Nyati, managing director of Microsoft SA, said partners were the key to igniting business innovation through technology and helping customers drive down costs.
“The high standards of entries received for the awards showed that the company's partners are delivering unmatched innovation and value to customers,” said Nyati.
“We strongly value our partners' contributions, and we want to highlight these top partners' commitment of delivering exceptional solutions and unsurpassed value to customers. We're delighted to acknowledge their strong performance, tremendous contributions and outstanding achievements over the past year.”
The judging process is a stringent one. Winners are assessed on six areas: winning new customers, driving customer satisfaction, growing the business, innovation, enabling people and bonus factors. The judging teams are made up of Microsoft executives and independent advisors who have a vested interest in the award category.
Submissions are reviewed and scored on a nine-point scale. These scores are then consolidated and weightings applied for each category. Partners that score 70% or more qualify as finalists and the partner that scores the highest final score is the winner for that category.
The full list of winners
Advanced Infrastructure Solutions Competency Award: Dimension Data
Business Intelligence Solutions Competency Award: IS Partners
Custom Development Solutions Competency Award: nVision IT
Data Management Solutions Competency Award: IS Partners
Information Worker Solutions Competency Award: Intervate Solutions
ISV/Software Solutions Competency Award: FlowCentric Solutions
Learning Solutions Competency Award: Torque IT
Licensing Solutions Competency Award: Business Connexion
Microsoft Business Solutions Competency Award: SIS Holdings
Mobility Solutions Competency Award: AccTech Systems
Networking Infrastructure Solutions Competency Award: Netsurit
OEM Hardware Solutions Competency Award: COA Group
Security Solutions Competency Award: BUI
SOA and Business Process Solutions Competency Award: nVisionIT
Unified Communications Solutions Competency Award: Galdon Data
Customer Experience Initiative Award: 3fifteen
Winning Customers Initiative Award: Airborne Consulting
Citizenship Initiative Award: Dimension Data
XBOX Retailer of the Year Award: Musica
SDA Retailer of the Year Award: Incredible Connection
Small Business Specialist Award: The IT Department
Distributor of the Year Award: Workgroup
Large Account Reseller of the Year Award: Dimension Data
Royalty OEM Partner of the Year Award: Mustek
Managing Director's Award: BUI
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