EMEA Channel Partner of the Year award winners revealed

Canalys revealed the winners of the 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 today 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, Data Center Builder, 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, who took into consideration 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:

•        Elmec, for outstanding performance in several areas, including growth, services and innovation (overall EMEA Partner of the Year), presented by Nestor Cano, President Europe, Tech Data.
•        Softcat, for demonstrating continued outstanding revenue and profit growth (Revenue Growth winner), presented by Gerhard Schulz, President Europe / Senior Executive VP, Ingram Micro.
•        MarkIT, for capitalizing on fast online sales growth while balancing the need for traditional channels (Online Sales winner), presented by Marc Schnyder, Managing Director, Also.
•        Business Connexion, for building managed services practices that continually invests in new areas (Managed Services winner), presented by Jesper Trolle, VP Sales EMEA, Arrow.
•        Lutech, for deployment of an innovative healthcare solution, combining software, data center, storage, mobility and application tools (Innovation winner), presented by William Geens, Managing Director, Prianto.
•       ACP, for developing its data center business, operating data centers in Austria and Germany (Data Center Builder winner), presented by Graeme Watt, President, Avnet.

Rinaldo Ballerio, CEO of Elmec – winner of the EMEA Partner of the Year award – said, ‘We are delighted to have been selected as the Candefero EMEA Partner of the Year.’ He added, ‘Our strategy is to adapt to the rapidly transitioning technology landscape, by adding complementary technologies to our existing portfolio. These include data center and mobility. Furthermore, we are achieving this in a very difficult Italian market. This is an important award for our employees and we would like to thank them for their dedication.’

Martin Hellawell, Chairman, Softcat, said, ‘Our team has continued to deliver outstanding revenue and profit growth. We are very proud of what we are achieving, growing organically, in a tough market.’

Kairo Alloja, Partner at MarkIT, said, ‘We are thrilled to win the Online Sales award. Now that we have established online procurement services in 27 European countries, our goal is to go global, starting with expansion into the North American markets, delivering an outstanding IT procurement experience for multinational enterprise customers.’

Douglas Woolley, TG Business Line Executive at Business Connexion, said, ‘Winning the Managed Services award recognizes our commitment to delivering services across the African continent. We are proud of our achievements and this award further recognizes us as a leading managed services provider.’

Winner of the Innovation award, Raul Arisi, Marketing and Alliance Manager at Lutech, said, ‘This is an important award for Lutech. We have created an innovative solution in the healthcare market. This includes software, apps, storage and mobility, which reflects the transformation currently underway in the IT market.’

Erich Striedacher, CEO at ACP, said, ‘Winning the Data Center Builder award is testament to our strategy of delivering local data center services to our mid-market customers in Austria and Germany.’

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 1 to 3 October 2013, in Barcelona. The APAC event runs from 22 to 24 October 2013, in Bangkok, where the announcement of the awards for the APAC region will be made. The forums, in their sixth year in EMEA and running for the second 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 3,000 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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