Celebrating local success on the global stage: Australia and New Zealand partners win big at Microsoft’s Partner of the Year Awards

Rachel Bondi, Chief Partner Officer, Partner Solutions Group, Microsoft Australia & New Zealand

I’m super excited to share the fabulous achievements of our Australian and New Zealand (ANZ) partners at the 2022 Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards.

Celebrated as part of our largest annual partner event, Microsoft Inspire, these prestigious awards recognise partners across the globe for their innovative use of Microsoft technologies to help customers succeed.

This year’s awards were the most successful ever for our ANZ partners. Collectively, they won a record five awards, and a further 14 companies were finalists.

The 2022 awards were hotly contested – more than 3900 Microsoft partners from over 126 countries submitted nominations. The 58 awards given out recognised everything from partner excellence in cloud to edge technologies, to entrepreneurial spirit and social impact.

Our ANZ partners’ success highlights their ability to help customers build new capabilities and achieve true innovation by applying creative thinking and leveraging the latest technology. Their achievements are deserving of recognition on the global stage.

But before I highlight this year’s amazing global award winners, I would like to congratulate the Country/Region Partner of the Year Award winners and finalists for Australia and New Zealand:

• EY Australia was chosen as Microsoft’s Partner of the Year for Australia. EY’s commitment to increasing the diversity of talent in the STEM workforce across all service lines and sectors, with a focus on women in technology, was exceptional. Its use of AI to monitor water drainage and vegetation growth using satellite imagery proved the power of technology in shaping the future and redefining the human experience. In addition, EY’s Document Intelligence Platform can extract insights quickly and automatically from relevant data in all types of documents, while helping to avoid fraud that is now also being explored with banks in Australia, Singapore and beyond.
• Data-Driven was the other finalist for Microsoft’s Partner of the Year award in Australia. Our judging panel was very impressed by the company’s cost-efficient, modern data platforms and its commitment to advanced specialisations on Microsoft Azure. Data-Driven’s CloudMonitor is an innovative tool that helps companies optimise their cloud services, improve their cloud governance and reduce costs.
• DEFEND was named Microsoft’s Partner of the Year for New Zealand. The cybersecurity specialist has reshaped the security landscape in New Zealand, working in true partnership with organisations on their cyber resiliency so they can continue to operate, innovate, and adapt securely to new ways of working. DEFEND helped Foodstuffs North Island (FSNI) build a best-in-class, modern and secure supply chain. This enabled FSNI to ensure that food was on shelves during COVID-19 and spend more time focusing on higher-value areas of the business.
• LawVu was the other finalist for our Partner of the Year award in New Zealand. The company has fully embraced Microsoft’s cloud capabilities to transform businesses in an increasingly complex legal landscape. It has also built a resilient and globally diverse team to drive better customer outcomes.

And without further ado, here are the ANZ partners that claimed victory in the global categories:

• Barhead Solutions won the Community Response award in the Social Impact category. The specialised consulting firm worked with NSW Police to develop an application called RISEUP that streamlines police and case workers’ engagement with disaffected and at-risk youth. Barhead also worked with not-for-profit organisations to deploy the By-Name List (BNL) 2.0 app, which is designed to combat rising homelessness across the state, as part of the End Street Sleeping Collaboration. RISEUP and BNL 2.0 leverage Microsoft Power Platform and Microsoft Dynamics 365. Use of the solutions has enabled local teams to reach over one million youths in NSW and assess the needs of people sleeping rough in more than 120 local government areas.
• Data#3 was named Device Partner Distributor/Reseller of the Year. The company is one of the world’s largest Microsoft device resellers and ANZ’s largest Microsoft Surface Hub 2S reseller. While Data#3 has been impacted by supply shortages over the last 12 months, it has achieved 53 per cent year-on-year growth in PC sales. The company has also established a team of Surface Sales Specialists to drive additional business growth and introduced its unique Device as a Service in Australia.
• Engage Squared claimed the Employee Experience award in the Modern Work category. The company has completed 232 projects for 136 clients over the past 12 months, as it continues to support organisations on their digital transformation journeys. Engage Squared has maintained its position as the number one Microsoft Teams partner in Australia. It is also the go-to partner for Microsoft Viva in ANZ and Asia, having helped the likes of Cricket Australia, The Star and Transport for NSW deploy the platform to enhance their employee experience.
• Modis took home the Inclusion Changemaker award in the Social Impact category. The global technology and smart industry solutions business uses Microsoft products and services to drive digital transformation for its customers. Modis developed the Yarning app to improve communication between law enforcement officers in Western Australia and Aboriginal communities across the state. Using Microsoft Power Platform, the app allows officers to select and play key messages to Aboriginal people in their first language. Yarning also helps users to grow the database of supported languages, phrases and regions. The app empowers Aboriginal people in Western Australia to engage with community and better access services.
• Myriad Technologies won the Defense & Intelligence award in the Industry category for its Secure Search and Information Exchange (S2IX). The commercial, off-the-shelf product provides a common pattern for defence organisations to deliver decision superiority across enterprise and battle operations. S2IX uses an array of Microsoft technologies, including Azure, PowerBI, Office 365 and SharePoint, as well as third-party tools. By driving digital transformation from fixed networks to the tactical edge, and addressing the modern-day challenges of defence organisations, Myriad has unlocked several significant global opportunities.

A big congratulations to all of this year’s global award winners for your brilliant and ingenious work!

I would also like to congratulate ANZ partners that were finalists in their respective categories:

• ASI Solutions – Surface PC Reseller
• BizData – Healthcare & Life Sciences
• Eighty20 Solutions – Modern Endpoint Management
• Enlighten Designs – Power BI
• FiveP – Modern Workplace for Frontline Workers
• Flintfox – Dynamics 365 Finance
• Generation-e – Meetings, Calling & Devices for Microsoft Teams
• Lynkz – AI
• Quorum – Security
• Rapid Circle – Community Response
• Resolution Technology – Modern Workplace for SMB
• rhipe – Operational Excellence
• Velrada – Dynamics 365 Customer Service & Field Service
• Vodafone Next Generation Services Limited – Meetings, Calling & Devices for Microsoft Teams

I’m so proud to be celebrating the success of Microsoft’s ANZ partner community. Their unwavering commitment to deliver impactful solutions for customers is truly inspiring.

I look forward to continuing our relationship with these incredible organisations as they drive a stronger innovation agenda in Australia, New Zealand and across the globe.