Microsoft Malta has launched five new awards to recognise and reward the achievements of local partners and customers who have made the best effort to develop their partnership with Microsoft through their use of Microsoft tools and technology to increase growth and the most innovative use of Microsoft solutions in enterprise.
The winners of the five awards – Partner of the Year, Innovation in the Enterprise, Partner in SMB, Retail Partner of the Year and Sales Person of the Year – were announced by Microsoft Malta country manager Adrianna Zammit at a networking meeting hosted at Palazzo De Piro in Mdina.
Opening the short presentation, Ms Zammit said: “Microsoft Malta is committed to nurture the ongoing strong synergies that already exist with local partners who, like Microsoft, believe that today’s technology has the power to transform lives for the better. We help our clients get better business results, by helping them to gather better data and turn it into better insight so that they can take advantage of new opportunities in media and technology, enabling them to thrive and support a healthy software ecosystem.”
Referring to the organisation’s local operations, Ms Zammit noted how many business organisations still fail to realise the full potential of their IT platform and how much of this potential is still untapped. “In our role in Malta, we have to ensure that customers are realising the value of their investments by helping them deploy our technologies as efficiently and effectively as possible. We seek to increase the customer experience through structured engagement with a special focus on helping customers understand the Cloud, what their options are and what transition opportunities exist for them.
Ms Zammit pointed out that one of Microsoft Malta’s main priorities is Cloud technology and they are currently focusing on four main strategic solutions: virtualisation, customer relationship management, unified communications and hosted cloud services. She said the organisation is currently running an awareness campaign to highlight the risks of wrongly licensed software, while promoting the importance of using genuine software.
“Whilst working closely with partners who will be offering their own Microsoft-based offering, one of our priorities is to promote Microsoft-based services as the solutions of choice when it comes to Cloud-based services. Over the next few months, we plan to host a number of joint partner events and will also be launching Office 365 and a number of offerings through our partners. In fact, the Office 365 trials are now available,” said Ms Zammit.
The Partner of the Year Award was won by Systec for an impressive year-on-year growth over two consecutive years in terms of Microsoft-related revenue, across various Microsoft business segments and for its strategic partnership engagement with Microsoft Malta on Microsoft’s virtualisation technology. Systec’s Business Development Manager Wayne Hewitt said: “We are delighted with this award, which recognises Systec’s focus and commitment towards the Microsoft brand, complementing our solutions as the value added distributor of choice for Malta and Gozo. We look forward to continue strengthening our partnership with Microsoft in the years to come.”
The Innovation in the Enterprise Award went to APS Bank’s IT team in recognition of the successful delivery of three key projects focused on helping the bank create exceptional customer experiences and simplify internal business processes. APS Bank head of Information Luciano Anastasi said: “At APS Bank, technology plays a critical role in the provision of a personalised and efficient service both to its internal and external customers. Our partners at Microsoft have always been there to support us in achieving these objectives with their products, expertise and sterling service. We are therefore honoured to accept this prestigious award”.
Kinetix won the Partner in SMB Award for a number of core infrastructure optimisation initiatives with their existing SMB customers, introducing newer technologies such as Microsoft virtualisation in SMBs. “This award reflects the success through collaboration when a global vendor and a local partner understand the needs of the local market and provide IT solutions for this market which, in our case, is predominately an SMB market,” said Kinetix managing director Curt Gauci. “Microsoft products and technologies enable us to deliver affordable IT systems by which organisations of any type and size can achieve both short-term and long-term value. Through the use of the core infrastructure optimisation, we manage to keep IT systems closely aligned with business requirements so our customers can use their IT systems more effectively and therefore benefit from greater returns on investment and also gain a competitive edge”.
The Sales Person of the Year Award went to Reuben Caruana for continuously communicating Microsoft’s core value messages to customers and the Retail Partner Award went to Forestals as a result of the company’s drive and commitment to undertaking a variety of Microsoft licensing training as well as placing increased importance on the development of its retail sales people.
In conclusion, Ms Zammit said: “At Microsoft, our mission is to help people and businesses realise their full potential. We believe that technology has the power to transform lives for the better and Microsoft is constantly seeking ways of helping address the country’s most difficult challenges. As well as supporting and rewarding major players in industry, we also support technology start-ups in an effort to drive the local software industry to create economic opportunities and address national priorities. Microsoft also provides the tools and products that broaden access to technology, build local skills and enable new businesses to thrive and support a healthy software ecosystem.”