New Zealand companies were among the winners and finalists announced this week in the annual Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards.
The competition – held annually in advance of the Microsoft Worldwide Partners Conference – honours top Microsoft Corp partners for demonstrating excellence in innovation and implementation of customer solutions based on Microsoft technology.
Awards were presented in multiple categories, with winners chosen from a set of more than 2,800 entrants from 117 different countries worldwide. This year, 46 awards categories celebrated each of the core partner competencies, including cloud technology, Windows 8 and Office/SharePoint applications, public sector, citizenship, sales excellence and many more.
The New Zealand Country Partner of the Year Award was taken out by Provoke Solutions, a full-service software design and development company that specialises in the delivery of enterprise-grade solutions using Microsoft technology.
Mason Pratt, Provoke Solutions’ CEO says he is extremely proud the company was recognised amongst such an elite group of partners.
“We are rapt to be the 2014 Microsoft New Zealand Partner of the Year, and humbled to be recognised as the Partner of the Year for the third time in our 13 year history with Microsoft,” says Pratt.
“It’s a wonderful nod to the incredible talent and expertise we have on our team and also testament to the way the Microsoft offering is evolving and the exciting opportunities technologies such as Azure and Office 365 are creating.”
Meanwhile, digital agency NV Interactive beat out some tough global competition to claim the prestigious Innovative Technology for Good Citizenship Award for its work in creating Boosted (www.boosted.org,nz), a philanthropic crowd-funding platform for arts projects, developed for The Arts Foundation.
NV Interactive Managing Director, Matt Pickering says in its first year Boosted raised $325,000 in support of 54 successful projects from more than 2,500 individual donations. This almost doubled The Arts Foundation’s existing annual budget to support arts projects in New Zealand.
“To see our work driving such a dynamic and lively ecosystem of artists in New Zealand is a tremendous reward in itself, and makes it all the more gratifying to see this innovation recognised on the global stage by Microsoft,” he said.
Other Kiwi companies that shone at the awards included ICT integration services company Softsource, which was a finalist in the ‘Midmarket Solution Provider’ category for its work in transitioning customers to cloud services through its unique hybrid offering.
Also, website and software development company Enlighten Designs was a finalist in the ‘Collaboration & Content’ category for its work at Mighty River Power, which helped the customer see improved productivity through a single source of truth SharePoint BI portal.
Microsoft New Zealand’s Managing Director, Paul Muckleston offered his warmest congratulations to all the local partners that received international accolades in the Partner of the Year Awards.
“While we are always passionate about driving innovation through our local partner network to grow New Zealand businesses and connect Kiwis to what matters to them, it is thrilling to see our partners’ efforts recognised in this way on the world stage. It is fresh inspiration for us to keep pushing ourselves forward as a nation to be globally competitive.”
Phil Sorgen, corporate vice president, Worldwide Partner Group, Microsoft Corp. said Microsoft’s success as a company depends on great partners, and that New Zealand’s representation at the Partner of the Year Awards is a shining example of the kind of innovation Microsoft’s partner ecosystem drives year after year.
“We are honored to recognize all companies at this year’s Partner of the Year Awards, and we applaud Microsoft’s New Zealand partners’ dedication to providing innovative solutions that drive results for our mutual customers.”
A complete list of categories, winners and finalists, including Microsoft Country Partner of the Year Award winners, is available on the Digital WPC web site: http://www.digitalwpc.com/Awards
Partner of the Year Award winners will be recognized by their peers when they appear onstage at the Microsoft 2014 Worldwide Partner Conference to be held July 13-17 in Washington D.C.
Award winners are also invited to an exclusive celebration during the conference where they will have a unique opportunity to network with Microsoft executives in specific business areas and strengthen relationships with Microsoft business groups.
For more information, contact:
Brendan Boughen
Public Relations Manager, Microsoft NZ
Phone: 027 839 6044
Email: [email protected]
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services, devices and solutions that help people and businesses realise their full potential.