ATLANTA, July 15, 2000 — Microsoft Corp. tonight honored six partners from around the world with a Microsoft® Solution and Partner of the Year Award. The award announcements took place at a banquet during Fusion 2000, Microsoft’s largest annual event for certified partners, held at the World Congress Center in Atlanta. Charles Stevens, vice president of the Enterprise and Partner Group at Microsoft, was the host for the evening as well as an award presenter. Regional Microsoft executives also were on hand to present the awards.
The Microsoft Solution and Partner of the Year award winners were selected by a panel of Microsoft judges based on excellence and innovation in customer solution delivery and service. More than 875 entries were received from around the world. During the ceremony, Microsoft also presented special recognition awards to five companies that demonstrated exceptional engagement in anti-piracy advocacy, ASP hosting and global services.
Partners of the Year
The winning partners in each of these categories demonstrated a strong business model that is well positioned for the future, along with a firm commitment to the Microsoft platform.
-
MCSP Partner of the Year — Servantes . This award is open to Microsoft Certified Solution Providers (MCSPs) at both the Member and Partner level, whose business is strategically aligned with Microsoft as well as positioned for the future economy. Located in France, Servantes develops and designs tailored solutions by developing specific, reliable and scalable software based on Microsoft products, to meet customers’ IT needs.
-
Packaged Application Partner of the Year — Gluck & Kanja GmbH. This award is presented to a company with one or more packaged applications available for resale in horizontal markets or vertical industries, such as financial services, health care, manufacturing, retail and education. Based in Germany, Gluck & Kanja is divided in two business segments: consulting services and software technologies. The core business of the software technologies segment is security products that provide high-end cryptography and security to the Microsoft platform. Adding high-end security to Microsoft Exchange and using Microsoft Internet Information Services to offer public key infrastructures are two examples of Gluck & Kanja’s deep integration of Microsoft strategic technologies with its product suite.
-
Microsoft CTEC Training Partner of the Year — QuickStart Technologies Inc. This award is given to the Microsoft Certified Technical Education Center (Microsoft CTEC) training company that has demonstrated the most successful and innovative training solution. QuickStart provides e-business services to help middle-market companies create competitive advantage through the Internet. For over 10 years, QuickStart has helped organizations take advantage of the power of Microsoft technology to improve business performance. It serves clients in seven offices throughout California.
Solutions of the Year
The solution awards highlight innovative solutions that demonstrate a company’s ability to deliver business value to customers using Microsoft’s latest technologies.
-
Microsoft E-Commerce Solution of the Year — Clarus Corp. This award is open to all partners and service providers for the most innovative solution based on building an e-commerce platform using Microsoft’s Internet products and solutions. Clarus, a leader in business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce, provides Web-based procurement software and services that exploit the global marketplace of the Internet to mange corporate purchasing and enable digital marketplaces. Clarus has its headquarters in Atlanta.
-
Microsoft Business Solution of the Year — Visalign LLC. This award is given to the partner and service provider that demonstrates the most innovative business solution in any vertical industry or horizontal market based on the Microsoft Windows® DNA platform, including software as a service, and hosting, solution and tools employment. Visalign, leads the technology consulting services industry by providing integrated technology solutions and business value that goes straight to the bottom line. With over 400 consultants, Visalign provides integrated e-business development and Web infrastructure solutions and managed services in the pharmaceutical, energy, entertainment/media, and technology industries.
-
Microsoft Platform Solution of the Year — Intersis Engenharia de Sistemas SA This award is open to all partners and service providers for the most innovative use of the Microsoft Active Directory™
Service including today’s 2000 suite of products (Windows, Office, Exchange) that make use of digital media and networking. This year’s winner, Intersis, was one of the first Portuguese companies to become an MCSP and is now a multinational corporation with offices in Lisbon, Portugal (headquarters), Madrid, Spain, and Atlanta (Intersis Technologies Inc.). The company’s sales rely primarily on a worldwide distribution network based on value-added resellers and distributors. Its major customers are telecommunications companies.
Special Recognition Awards
-
Anti-Piracy Advocate of the Year — Software Plus Inc.
-
Microsoft Global Services Partner of the Year — Compaq Computer Corp.
-
Anti-Piracy Advocate of the Year — DATALOG Software GmbH
-
Microsoft Global Application (ISV) Partner of the Year — SAP
-
Global ASP of the Year — Data Return Corp.
“Microsoft greatly values each and every partner and recognizes that our success depends on our partners’ ability to create and deliver effective, innovative, high-quality customer solutions worldwide based on Microsoft technology,”
Stevens said.
“These awards give Microsoft an opportunity not only to recognize these partners as a group, but to reward standout companies from around the world that have demonstrated nothing less than excellence in customer solution delivery.”
Begun in 1998 as the Microsoft Certified Solution Provider Awards, the Microsoft Solution and Partner of the Year Awards were expanded this year to include a wider group of solution areas and to better recognize the growing international market. Microsoft received an unprecedented number of entries from more than 79 countries around the world, including India, Australia, South Africa, Malaysia and Brazil.
About Fusion
Started in 1997, Fusion is Microsoft’s largest annual event for certified partners and is host to a worldwide gathering of valued Microsoft business partners, including MCSPs,
independent software vendors, application service providers and resellers. Microsoft created the event to bring a variety of partners together from around the world to increase business opportunities and deliver innovative new ways to bring value to customers.
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq
“MSFT”
) is the worldwide leader in software, services and Internet technologies for personal and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through great software — any time, any place and on any device.
Microsoft, Windows and Active Directory are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.
The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
Note to editors: If you are interested in viewing additional information on Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft Web page at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/ on Microsoft’s corporate information pages.
