•   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


Business Intelligence
SoftPro Tetral d.o.o.
Xtract Ltd.

Communications & Mobility
Aldata Solution
HansaWorld
Medixine Oy
SAAB SYSTEMS

Enterprise Application
IBA Group

Mamut ASA
Megabyte Ltd
Sun Microsystems Hungary

Information Management
Efecte Corp.
IBA Group
INFOTEHNA
STR SpA

SaaS Solution
Aspire Technology
IBS

Vertical Market
edge IPK
SIVECO Romania
Wipro Technologies


Supplier Award Categories


Distributor Channel Program
ASBIS Croatia
Esprinet
Wick Hill Group

Vendor Channel Program
Avaya
EMC
Fujitsu-Siemens
Hitachi Data Systems
HP
VMware
WatchGuard Technologies


Solution Provider Award Categories


Data & Information Management
Fordway Solutions Limited
Jcom UK Ltd

E-Business
EuroOffice Ltd
IBS
Itransition

Enterprise
Controlware Communications
IBA Group
Keystone Computer Group Ltd
SIVECO Romania SA

Managed Service
2e2 Ltd
Aspire Technology   
Northdoor plc

Mobility
Anglia Business Solutions
Appear Networks
Logos a.s.

Pan European
Central Telecom UK Ltd
Tango/04
vc-net

SMB
Care Telecom
SoftPro Tetral d.o.o.   

Unified Communications
Central Telecom UK Ltd   
Controlware Communications
Excell Group

Vertical Market
Anglia Business Solutions
Central Telecom UK Ltd   
NS Optimum Limited   

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