EMEA Channel Partner of the Year award winners revealed

Canalys today revealed the winners of the inaugural Candefero Channel Partner of the Year Awards for EMEA. These awards recognize high achievement by the region’s channel partners in particular areas. The winners were honored on stage in Barcelona last week at the Canalys Channels Forum – the largest independent channels conference in the region.

‘We were thrilled to be able to announce the winners at the forum, and to present each of them with their award on stage in front of their peers and the vendors with whom they work so closely,’ said Steve Brazier, Canalys President and CEO. ‘EMEA’s channel community plays a critical role in driving success, for their customers as well as for the vendors whose products and services they carry. They are crucial to helping businesses serve their customers, connect with partners and empower their employees by creating technology solutions that keep pace with the changing business environment.’

The Candefero Chanel Partner of the Year Awards recognize outstanding performance in five specific areas – revenue growth, online sales, mobility, managed services and innovation – as well as an overall ‘all-round’ partner of the year in the region. Winners were selected from the many nominations received by a panel of analysts, following interviews and research conducted to evaluate how each partner had made sustainable investments for the future, its performance, its demonstrated expertise and the resulting business value generated for its customers. The winners in each category were:

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  Softcat, for outstanding performance in several areas, including growth, services and innovation (overall EMEA partner of the year), presented by Bob Dutkowsky, CEO, Tech Data

• NTS Netzwerk Telekom Service, for demonstrating outstanding growth and customer satisfaction (revenue growth winner), presented by Alain Maquet, Senior Executive Vice President and President EMEA, Ingram Micro

• Bechtle, for capitalizing on fast online sales growth while balancing the need for traditional channels (online sales winner), presented by Gustavo Möller-Hergt, Chief Executive Officer, Also Actebis

• EBF, for outstanding customer satisfaction in enterprise mobile deployment (mobility winner), presented by Steve Brazier, President and CEO, Canalys

• Logicalis, for building a sustainable services practice that continually invests in new areas (managed services winner), presented by Graeme Watt, President, Avnet

• MarkIT, for smart deployment of analytics-driven online trading tools (innovation winner), presented by Fabian Von Kuenheim, President and CEO, Magirus

Martin Hellawell, MD of Softcat – winner of the EMEA Partner of the Year award – said, ‘It’s great to be in Barcelona alongside some of the most successful channel partners, distributors and vendors in Europe. This award further cements Softcat¹s reputation as a top IT reseller that continues to thrive regardless of the economic environment, owing to our commitment to excellent customer service and outstanding employee satisfaction, both of which, we believe, drive sales.’

He added, ‘Softcat has won many awards on the national stage, but this is our first European IT industry award. It follows on from our success this summer, when we achieved a top-50 ranking in the Great Place to Work list in Europe. It’s humbling for a small company like ours to win such a prestigious award on a European stage. And as a football fan, I’m particularly delighted to be part of an English team, winning something in Barcelona. That’s a rarity.’

Michael Sußmann, Sales Director of NTS, said, ‘We invest a lot to develop the company so it remains ready to meet the needs of the market and to enable company growth. An international award like this verifies that NTS is on the right track and we are extremely proud of that. As we continue to expand internationally and also to broaden our managed services portfolio, this is an important step that helps raise our reputation. We look forward to gaining further recognition of the quality of our customer services.

Martin Meyer, Head of eBusiness Strategy for Bechtle, sees its award as further confirmation that its investment in streamlining processes is on the right track for sustainable growth. ‘We have designed a win-win solution so vendors have access to broader markets, distributors have transparent sales and shipping data and, most importantly, customers have an efficient buying process. Our vision for a lean, fast and cost-effective IT purchase platform has driven our online sales success, and to be recognized in this vendor-neutral award is delightful,’ he commented.

Marco Föllmer, CEO of EBF, said, ‘It was a great honor to accept the award as the mobility partner this year at the Canalys Channels Forum EMEA. We are proud that our successful mobile IT projects have been noted at the highest levels and we are delighted to be chosen by Canalys analysts in this category. This prestigious award highlights our commitment to innovation and delivering extensive solutions for a smarter mobile enterprise and gives us more visibility and credibility on a large scale in the EMEA region.’

Ian Cook, CEO of Logicalis, commented, ‘Logicalis is one of only a handful of international IT solutions, managed services and cloud providers addressing the mid-market and we continue to make significant investments in cloud computing and managed services and in the solutions that we know will support the new services of tomorrow. We aim to provide customers with a choice of how they buy or consume IT, and how they support and manage it – whether for social and collaboration tools, data analytics or unified communications and computing infrastructure. This is a special award from Canalys as it recognizes the commitment and effort we continue to make to enable our customers to maximize the impact of their IT and business strategy.’

Kairo Alloja, Partner at MarkIT, said, ‘We would not have even dreamt, seven years ago when we started the MarkIT procurement platform, that it could grow into a pan-European business operating in 26 countries, 13 currencies, 23 languages and being used by many Fortune 500 companies. The Canalys award clearly reflects what new opportunities MarkIT has made available to its customers.’

About Candefero

Candefero is the exclusive global channel partner community run by Canalys. It provides the channel with an online forum to discuss the burning issues affecting their businesses and to get their opinions across to senior executives within vendor organizations. They also gain access to high-quality, independent market intelligence, trends analysis and advice from Canalys. Membership is free to qualifying employees of authorized channel partners only.

About the Canalys Channels Forums

The Canalys Channels Forum EMEA ran from 8 to 10 October 2012, in Barcelona. The APAC event runs from 30 October to 1 November 2012, in Singapore, where the announcement of the awards for the APAC region will be made. The forums, in their fifth year in EMEA and running for the first time in APAC, are the only independent events that unite senior managers from leading technology vendors, distributors and channel partners to discuss industry trends, forge new business relationships and create sales opportunities. In addition to vendor keynotes and theater presentations, the events feature more than 2,000 senior one-to-one meetings and prestigious gala dinners, among other networking activities. The events are open to senior business managers, both from IT vendors and channel partners. Journalists should contact press@canalys.com to learn how to obtain a press pass. More information about the events can be found at www.canalyschannelsforum.com.

About Canalys

Canalys is an independent analyst firm that strives to guide clients on the future of the technology industry and to think beyond the business models of the past. We deliver smart market insights to IT, channel and service provider professionals around the world. Our customer-driven analysis and consulting services empower businesses to make informed decisions and generate sales. We stake our reputation on the quality of our data, our innovative use of technology, and our high level of customer service.

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