New categories, date, venue for 2011 Partner Awards

Media Release
10 March 2011
Microsoft announces new categories, new date and new venue for the 2011 Partner Awards

At the 2010 Partner Awards Winner’s Lunch held today, Microsoft New Zealand announced the date and new categories for the 2011 Partner Awards.

There will be 10 new categories at this year’s awards, designed to recognise the breadth of work conducted by the companies in the Microsoft Partner Network.

“The technology industry is continually changing with new products and services. It is important to adjust the award categories to represent this, and as a result, this year we will include awards that recognise excellence in developing applications for Windows Azure and Windows Phone just to name two” says Brent Colbert, Director – Partner Group at Microsoft.

“The 2011 event will be the fifth year of the Partner Awards in New Zealand, and we expect to see an increase in the number of entries, even more importantly the number of partners entering the awards should increase as a result of these exciting new award categories.”

The Microsoft New Zealand 2011 Partner Awards dates are currently aligned with the timing of the wider Microsoft Worldwide Partner Awards, giving local award winners the opportunity to compete on the global stage.

Paul Plester, General Manager at Express Data New Zealand, was awarded the Worldwide Distribution Partner of the Year at last year’s Worldwide Partner Awards.

“Heading to the global awards was a fantastic experience, and a great opportunity to get the company brand highlighted on the international stage. Our win at the 2010 awards was a huge boost to the team, and it’s fantastic Microsoft recognises its partners this way. Our win resulted in significant business benefits over the last 12 months and we look forward to entering the 2011 awards.”

Award submissions for the Microsoft New Zealand 2011 Partner Awards will be open from 24 August to 14 October, with finalists announced on Monday 31 October 2011. The New Zealand Partner Awards event will be held at the currently under construction Viaduct Event Centre on Thursday 17 November.

The awards categories will be split into five sub-categories, and those in italics are new for 2011:
Solution Competency Awards
• Core Infrastructure
o Desktop Deployment Solution of the Year
o Hosting and Data Centre Solution of the Year
o Virtualisation & Management Solution of the Year

• Application Platform
o Application Platform Solution of the Year
o Business Intelligence Solution of the Year
o Web Development Solution of the Year
o Windows Azure Platform Solution of the Year

• People and Productivity
o Content Management Solution of the Year
o Portals & Collaboration Solution of the Year
o Unified Communications Solution of the Year
o Windows Phone Solution of the Year

• Business Applications
o Dynamics CRM Solution of the Year
o Dynamics ERP Solution of the Year

Individual Awards
• Solution Architect of the Year
• Partner Choice CIO of the Year Award

MSN Awards
• MSN Campaign of the Year
• MSN Advertising Partner of the Year

Partnering Awards
• Distributor of the Year
• Reseller of the Year
• Retailer of the Year
• Learning Solutions Partner of the Year
• Online Services Partner of the Year

Innovation & Supreme Awards
• BizSpark Partner of the Year
• Citizenship Solution of the Year
• Software Exporter of the Year (previously ISV Solution of the Year)
• Small Business Solution of the Year
• Platform Value Partner of the Year

ENDS

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