Published on the 01/12/2020 | Written by Heather Wright

Awards highlight changing Kiwi tech use…

The work of Microsoft’s Kiwi partners for organisations including Fulton Hogan, Kāinga Ora, Zespri and Tasman District Council have been honoured with Datacom and Fusion5 among the big winners at this year’s Microsoft NZ Partner Awards.

The 13th annual awards, held at the Auckland Town Hall last Friday, saw 10 winners across the 12 award categories, with plenty of companies gaining ‘highly commended’ mentions.

Fusion5 and Datacom both scooped two awards apiece, with Fusion5 taking out the Business Applications and high contested Transforming Product categories, while Datacom reigned supreme in the Cloud for Good and Azure Migrate categories.

“Our partners are transforming the economy in some pretty amazing ways and it is more important than ever for this to continue.”

Fusion5’s awards came for its business applications work with Higher Education Centre of Excellence, and social services agency Manawanui. While Microsoft doesn’t disclose specifics of the winning work, Fusion5 and Manawanui worked together earlier this year to provide a solution for PPE distribution to thousands of Manawanui clients using Dynamics 365. The two organisations have been working together for a number of years.

Datacom’s wins came for its Azure migration work with the Financial Markets Authority and with Ngā Maunga Whakahii o Kaipara in the Cloud for Good section.

LanCom Technology and The Instillery were both highly commended in the Azure Migrate award, for their work with MMC and Watercare respectively, while Softsource’s work with Youth Horizons was highly commended in the Cloud for Good category.

The year’s new award – for ISV Partner – went to Valocity for its ‘transformation’ of New Zealand’s property ecosystem via the Valocity Connect digital inspection app which allows valuers and property professionals to collect and securely share geotagged, date validated property data and images onsite, or remotely.

Matt Bostwick, Microsoft NZ commercial partner director, says the last 12 months have presented some ‘really challenging circumstances’ for Microsoft’s Kiwi partners.

“What is most exciting to see is that the calibre of this year’s winners shows partners have really stepped up to the plate and done some incredible work. Their exceptional efforts to go above and beyond for customers is admirable and it makes us so proud to be partnered with them,” Bostwick says.

“Our partners are transforming New Zealand and its economy in some pretty amazing ways and now it is more important than ever for this to continue.”

Defend Limited’s work with Zespri saw it win the Modern Work and Security award in a year when security was even higher on the agenda for companies as work from home became an enforced act for many of us and digitisation of businesses continued.

Spark New Zealand scooped up the Surface Partner Award for its rollout of Surface devices at Kāinga Ora, while Information Leadership added another trophy to its cabinet, claiming the Empowering Employees award for the second year in a row.

Microsoft’s longest running New Zealand Gold partner for DevOps, Equinox IT took home the Azure Innovate Award for its work with Fulton Hogan. Working with the company’s enterprise data warehouse team, Equinox IT helped transform how Fulton Hogan develop and deploy data warehouse capability to critical engineering and infrastructure projects.

Microsoft says that work is ‘a prime example of the outstanding innovation that attracted Microsoft to launch a new data centre region in New Zealand’.

The Overseas Investment Office granted approval for the data centre in September. While Microsoft has been coy about specifics and the timeline for the project, OIO documents show the investment involves the acquisition of interest in land for the operation of the data centre, the value of which will exceed $100 million.

The awards evening also saw Microsoft acknowledging Enlighten Designs which was named Microsoft New Zealand Partner of the Year back in July.

The full list of winners is:

Azure Innovate Award
Winner: Equinox IT – Fulton Hogan

Finalists:
asBuilt
Aware Group
CCL
Datacom
Intergen
NV Interactive
Qrious
Rocos

Azure Migrate Award
Winner: Datacom – Financial Markets Authority

Highly Commended:
LanCom Technology – MMC
The Instillery – Watercare

Finalists:
Aware Group
Datacom
Spark New Zealand

Business Applications Award
Winner: Fusion5 – Higher Education Centre of Excellence

Finalists:
Datacom
DXC Technology
Theta

Channel Development Award
Winner: Dicker Data – Microsoft Azure Cloud Solution Provider Growth

Finalists:
Exeed
Umbrellar

Cloud For Good Award
Winner: Datacom – Ngā Maunga Whakahii o Kaipara

Highly Commended:
Softsource – Youth Horizons

Finalists:
Enlighten Designs
Kinetics

Empowering Employees Award
Winner: Information Leadership – Tasman District Council

Finalists:
Lexel Systems
Mobile Mentor
The Instillery
Theta
Vodafone New Zealand

Engaging Customers Award
Winner: NV Interactive – Te Puni Kōkiri

Finalists:
Inde
New Era Technology
ISV Partner Award
asBuilt
Theta
Valocity

Modern Work and Security Award
Winner: Defend – Zespri

Highly Commended:
Vodafone New Zealand – Bank of New Zealand
Unify NZ – Ministry of Education
Lexel Systems – Alliance Group

Finalists:
CodeBlue
Datacom
Inde
Information Leadership
pcMedia
Provoke Solutions
SecOps New Zealand

Optimising Operations Award
Winner: Rocos – Robot Operations Platform

Finalists:
Aware Group
Intergen
Stellar Consulting
Theta

Surface Partner Award
Winner: Spark New Zealand – Kāinga Ora

Finalists:
HCL Technologies
The Laptop Company

Transforming Products Award
Winner: Fusion5 – Manawanui

Finalists:
CCL
Cyclone
Datacom
Enlighten Designs
NV Interactive
Theta
Vodafone New Zealand