AUCKLAND, 3 December, 2014 – Microsoft New Zealand today announced that entries are now open for its 2015 Microsoft Partner Awards.
Now in its eighth year, the annual Partner Awards exists to recognise excellence in the IT sector from those companies that integrate Microsoft solutions into their products and services to accelerate innovation and go above and beyond customer expectations.
Brent Kendrick, Microsoft New Zealand’s SMB and Partner Lead, says the 2015 Awards is set to be a landmark event in the Kiwi IT industry, and a reflection of the company’s ongoing transformation in a ‘mobile first, cloud first’ world.
“The journey that Microsoft has been on for the past few years has seen us refocus our business and services towards a mobile first, cloud first world, and it’s been an honour to have our partners join us on that path and work with them as they transform their own business to be successful in the cloud.”
Kendrick says this year, the ceremony will be a few weeks earlier to allow category winners ample time to submit a global application. Microsoft has also invited all Partners to invite their customers to share in their success at the black tie awards night.
New categories in this year’s competition include Marketing Partner of the Year, which rewards exceptional marketing execution with evident ROI, as well the ‘Rising Star’ Partner of the Year, which recognises a smaller Microsoft Partner who has never before won an award and demonstrates recent business transformation.
Submissions for the Microsoft Partner Awards close on Wednesday 4th February 2015, and finalists will be announced on Wednesday 25th February 2015. The winners will be announced at the gala night event on Thursday, 19th March 2015.
A full list of awards categories follows:
Cloud Awards
- Cloud Small and Medium Business (SMB) Partner of the Year
- Cloud Enterprise Partner of the Year
- Cloud Platform- Azure Partner of the Year
- Hosting Partner of the Year
Competency Awards: Core Infrastructure
- Devices and Deployment Partner of the Year
- Datacenter Partner of the Year
Competency Awards: Application Platform
- Data Analytics Partner of the Year
- Windows App Developer Partner of the Year
Competency Awards: Business Productivity
- Collaboration and Content Partner of the Year
- Communications Partner of the Year
Competency Awards: Business Applications
- Customer Relationship Management Partner of the Year
- Enterprise Resource Planning Partner of the Year
Individual Awards
- Sales Specialist of the year
- Pre-Sales Technical Specialist of the year
Segment Awards
- Marketing Partner of the Year
- ‘Rising Star’ Partner of the Year
- Distributor Partner of the Year
- Education Partner of the Year
- Innovative Technology for Good Citizenship Partner of the Year
- Learning Partner of the Year
- Volume Licensing Partner of the Year
For more information on the Microsoft Partner Awards, visit www.microsoft.com/nz/partnerawards
For more information, contact:
Brendan Boughen
Public Relations Manager, Microsoft NZ
Mobile: +64 27 839 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.