European IT Excellence Awards finalists announced
•   49 companies from 16 countries represented
(London, 3rd January 2008) The finalists for the European IT Excellence Awards - the first pan-European awards event for IT and Telecoms channels – were announced today by IT Europa. A total of 49 companies from 16 countries have made the finals. The winners will be announced at the European IT Excellence Awards Dinner at the Intercontinental Hotel, in Frankfurt on 7th February 2008.

The European IT Excellence Awards are the first pan-European awards which recognise the crucial role that Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) and Solution Providers play in the delivery of real world solutions, and attracted entries from more than 30 countries. Entries were submitted by ISVs and resellers describing the solution provided and each had to be supported by an endorsement by the client.

“The quality of entries was extremely high and demonstrated the depth of talent in the channel community across Europe,” stated Alan Norman, Managing Director of IT Europa. “Nearly half of the finalists come from Central and Eastern European countries, reflecting the skills and enthusiasm of this emerging IT market.”

“The judges were impressed with the quality of all the entries and the obvious work that had gone into preparing them,” stated John Chapman, Editorial Director at IT Europa. “There was tremendous enthusiasm from the channel for such an awards event and we were inundated with enquiries, ranging from requests for advice on how to make a good entry to emails of support for what we were doing with the event.”

The awards categories are divided into two main groups: ISVs and Solution Providers. The ISV categories are for software-based solutions for which the ISV has written the bulk of the solution itself. The Solution Provider categories are for complete solutions that include hardware, software, communications and services. As well as the channel categories there are two supplier categories where channel companies nominate their distributor or vendor for the support they provide through their channel programs.

“Although there were only two categories for suppliers, the number of entries was exceptional and it is quite obvious that both distributors and vendors are putting a tremendous amount of effort into their channel development activities,” commented John Chapman. “The entries detailed the sales and marketing activities undertaken in partnership with the supplier and showed the results as far as new business development and market penetration.”

The European IT Excellence Awards finalists:
ISV Award Categories       Solution Provider Award Categories
      
Business Intelligence   Data & Information Management
SoftPro Tetral d.o.o.   Fordway Solutions Limited    
Xtract Ltd.   Jcom UK Ltd   
   
Communications & Mobility   E-Business
Aldata Solution      EuroOffice Ltd   
HansaWorld      IBS   
Medixine Oy   Itransition   
SAAB SYSTEMS   
   Enterprise
Enterprise Application   Controlware Communications   
IBA Group   IBA Group   
Mamut ASA   Keystone Computer Group Ltd   
Megabyte Ltd   SIVECO Romania SA   
Sun Microsystems Hungary   
   Managed Service
Information Management   2e2 Ltd   
Efecte Corp.   Aspire Technology   
IBA Group   Northdoor plc   
INFOTEHNA   
STR SpA   Mobility
   Anglia Business Solutions   
SaaS Solution    Appear Networks   
Aspire Technology   Logos a.s.   
IBS   
   Pan European
Vertical Market   Central Telecom UK Ltd   
edge IPK   Tango/04   
SIVECO Romania   vc-net   
Wipro Technologies    
Supplier Award Categories    SMB
   Care Telecom   
Distributor Channel Program   SoftPro Tetral d.o.o.   
ASBIS Croatia   
Esprinet    Unified Communications
Wick Hill Group   Central Telecom UK Ltd   
   Controlware Communications
Vendor Channel Program   Excell Group   
Avaya   
EMC   Vertical Market
Fujitsu-Siemens   Anglia Business Solutions   
Hitachi Data Systems   Central Telecom UK Ltd   
HP   NS Optimum Limited   
VMware   
WatchGuard Technologies   

The European IT Excellence Awards Dinner, where winners will be announced, will be held on 7th February 2008 at the Hotel InterContinental, Frankfurt. www.iteawards.com

The awards evening will be held during IT Europa’s premier ISV event, the European ISV Convention 2008, being staged at the Hotel InterContinental, Frankfurt from 6 - 8 February 2008. www.isvconvention.com

About IT Europa
IT Europa is the leading provider of strategic business intelligence, news and analysis on the European IT marketplace and the primary channels that serve it. It publishes European channel publications such as 8020 EUROPA, Channel Business Solutions and the IT Europa Newsletter. IT Europa also markets a range of database reports and organises European conferences and events for the IT and Telecoms sectors. For further details visit: www.iteuropa.com