European IT Excellence Awards 2011 Finalists Announced

(London, 4th January 2011) The finalists for the European IT Excellence Awards 2011 – the leading pan-European awards event for IT and Telecoms channels – were announced today by IT Europa. A total of 62 companies from 23 European countries have made the finals. The winners will be announced at the European IT Excellence 2011 Awards Dinner at the London Marriott, Grosvenor Square on 10th February 2011.

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 32 countries. Entries were submitted by ISVs, Systems Integrators and VARs describing the solution provided. Each entry 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. “Finalists have come from right across Europe with Central and Eastern European countries well represented.”

“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 is tremendous enthusiasm from the channel for such an awards event with entries this year up nearly 30% and with 9 more countries represented this year. 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.”

“What is so exciting and uplifting is the real skill and ingenuity shown by the channel in many of the solutions. Our judges have a lot of experience in the IT industry and sitting on such judging panels, so to have such comments as ‘what a fantastic solution’ and ‘amazing results’ from them was incredible to hear.”

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 for which channel companies nominate their distributor or vendor for the support they provide through their channel programs.

“The entries in the categories for suppliers, showed that these companies have been putting a tremendous amount of effort into their channel development activities, particularly in helping partners accelerate their businesses through the recovering economic climate experienced in 2010,” 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 2011 Awards Dinner, at which the winners will be announced, will be held on 10th February 2011 at the London Marriott, Grosvenor Square.