Published on the 16/04/2014 | Written by Newsdesk
The mega-vendor took time to reflect on the changes it is making as a company and highlight the importance of its partners as it goes cloud and mobile-first – but it hasn’t forgotten about Dynamics…
The Microsoft Partner Awards 2013 were last night announced at The Langham Auckland and kicked off with a performance from Auckland University’s Glee Club, accompanied by Microsoft’s partner sales manager Steve Hornblow on keyboards. Microsoft NZ country manager Paul Muckleston joined the dancing, but refrained from bursting into song, before delivering his opening address in which he thanked the gathered partners “for the momentum that you are helping us drive in New Zealand over the last 12 months as we transform towards this cloud-first and mobile-first company that you have heard our CEO talk about a lot recently”.
He also mentioned that New Zealand is now the number one market in the world for Office 365 market share and said that the Microsoft Office for iPad was downloaded 12 million times in the first five days – “evidence that in a mobile-first and cloud-first world Microsoft is committed to enabling high-value experiences across all devices, not just our own”.
Jared Pederson, Microsoft NZ’s partner strategy & programs manager, said that over the seven years the partner awards have been running in New Zealand the “the solutions have become ever more innovative, exemplary and also complex”. The awards themselves have also had to change to reflect the evolution in technology, growing from 14 original categories to 22 this year, including three categories dedicated to cloud-based solutions. This year Microsoft received over 80 submissions from more than 30 companies and cloud solutions dominated the winners list.
The biggest winner of the night was SoftSource, picking up the top prizes in the Mid-market Solution Provider, Sales Specialist of the Year and Cloud SMB categories. It received praise for its commitment to providing tailored solutions, for easing the technology transition of sceptics and traditionalists, and for opening clients’ minds to newer technologies and improved solutions. Gen-i and IT Engine collected two awards each.
Microsoft NZ’s services director Donna Wright introduced the business applications category, saying the company sees Dynamics as a core growth pillar for the New Zealand business over the next three years and has been “baked into” its strategic plan.
Keir Garrett Microsoft’s new Dynamics Lead, who has been with Microsoft for just three months after defecting from SAP, spoke about how impressed and positive she is about the Dynamics business. She said the pace of change and adaptability of Microsoft as it responds to market opportunities is “unbelievable” and added, “we are staring down the barrel of a really strong Q4 close and with the release of the Dynamics AX R3 into FY15 I think that we will see significant growth into all areas across the business”.
The winners in the business applications category were Koorb Consulting as CRM Partner of the Year for its work on GreenCross Health and Intergen as ERP Partner of the Year for its solution at Icebreaker.
The full list of winners and finalists was as follows:
Cloud Awards
| Cloud SMB: | Winner: SoftSource Finalists: Full Suite, PC Media |
| Cloud Enterprise: | Winner: Datacom Finalists: Enlighten Designs |
| Cloud Hosting: | Winner: OneNet Finalists: N/A |
Competency Awards: Core Infrastructure
| Devices and Deployment: |
Winner: Gen-i Finalist: CodeBlue |
| Management and Virtualisation: |
Winner: Dimension Data Finalists: Computer Concepts, Dimension Data |
| Server Platform: | Winner: IT Engine Finalists: Dimension Data, Computer Concepts Limited |
Competency Awards: Application Platform
| Business Intelligence: |
Winner: Theta Finalist: Stellar |
| Windows 8 App Developer: |
Winner: Marker Metro Finalist: NV Interactive |
| Windows Azure Solution: |
Winner: Provoke Solutions Finalists: LeapThought, Theta |
Competency Awards: Business Productivity
| Collaboration and Content: |
Winner: Enlighten Designs Finalists: Datacom, Intergen |
| Communications: | Winner: Gen-i Finalists: Dimension Data, Provoke Solutions |
Competency Awards: Business Applications
| CRM: | Winner: Koorb Consulting Finalists: Intergen |
| ERP: | Winner: Intergen Finalist: Theta |
| Windows Azure Solution: |
Winner: Provoke Solutions Finalists: LeapThought, Theta |
Individual Awards
| Sales Specialist of the year: |
Winner: SoftSource Finalist: N/A |
| Pre-Sales Technical Specialist of the year: |
Winner: Computer Concepts Ltd Finalist: Provoke Solutions |
| Windows Azure Solution: |
Winner: Provoke Solutions Finalists: LeapThought, Theta |
Segment Awards
|
Distributor: |
Winner: Express Data |
|
Education: |
Winner: Cyclone |
|
Innovative Technology |
Winner: NV Interactive |
|
Learning: |
Winner: Auldhouse |
|
Midmarket |
Winner: SoftSource |
|
Small Business: |
Winner: IT Engine |
|
Volume Licensing |
Winner: Insight |
