Celebrating homegrown excellence

19.04.13: ARN is pleased to announce the launch of a new category for the 2013 ARN ICT Industry Awards. The Homegrown Innovators Awards recognise Australian-made excellence in the ICT industry.

The two awards will be Service Provider of the Year and Software Developer of the Year.

The new awards highlight local excellence and ingenuity on a national level.

ARN is enthusiastic to recognise companies which have established their businesses in Australia as start-ups (rather than being a multi-national subsidiary).

The Service Provider award recognises an IT partner who provides a service (for example, managed, hosted, network, storage, application) to customers. At least 80 per cent of their revenue comes from providing services – and the service provider has a billing model that delivers a constant recurring revenue stream.

The Software Developer award recognises an organisation that specialises in all facets associated with the software development process (for example, research, design, development, testing of software and/or applications).

The Judging Criteria for each award will be identified on the ARN website prior to nominations opening on June 11.

This year's other Awards categories are listed below.

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Awards Categories 2013

Vendor Categories

The ARN vendor awards categories recognise high-achieving technology organisations for their channel efforts over the past year. These awards stretch across hardware, software, specialist and innovative technology players.

Vendors will be judged by the ARN Judging Panel on delivering high-class and innovative product sets, innovative channel rewards, training and marketing programs and above-par support.

Four awards will be presented in 2013:

• Hardware Vendor
• Software Vendor
• Specialist Vendor
• Best Vendor Initiative with an Emerging Technology – This year’s focus will be on vendor solutions addressing Collaboration. The criteria for this award will change every year to reflect emerging technologies.

Distributor Categories

Distributors are an integral link between vendor and reseller organisations when bringing technologies to market. The distributor awards aim to honour those organisations doing the best job of helping resellers secure customer sales and ongoing revenue streams.

Nominees will be judged on their abilities around credit, logistics, marketing and services initiatives.

Four awards will be handed out this year:

• Hardware Distributor
• Software Distributor
• Specialist Distributor
• Best Distributor Initiative

Reseller Categories

As a whole, the reseller awards are about saluting small, mid-sized and enterprise IT providers for their customer successes, productivity, technology delivery and growth.

The four awards categories are:

• Enterprise Reseller
• Mid-Market Reseller
• SMB Reseller
• Best Reseller Performance Initiative

Personal Innovation Categories

The ARN IT industry awards are not just about recognising channel organisations – we’re also keen to honour those individuals behind the scenes who contribute to their company’s customer, technical or sales triumphs.

The Personal Innovation category awards are open to individuals from vendor, distributor and reseller companies.

This year, we will be presenting four awards to outstanding individuals:

• Customer Service
• Sales Excellence
• Technical Excellence
• Management

Community

This year’s ARN awards will recognise those companies that are going above and beyond to give back to the community. The Sustainability Award recognises a company that has worked hard to minimise its customers’, and its own, impact on the environment. From reducing power usage, to sustainable recycling practices, the Sustainability Award will go to the company making real investments and progress in keeping the world ecologically sound.The Corporate Citizenship Award goes to a company that is actively working with charities, undertaking philanthropic initiatives and using its resources and capabilities for the betterment of mankind. In 2013, ARN will recognise an individual who has been fighting the good fight. The Channel Champion Award will go to an individual who has, outside of his or her daily working life, been heavily involved in charities, non-profits or personal philanthropy.

Telecommunications

Within the category there will be four awards: vendor, distributor, reseller and best telecommunications initiative.

The vendor award recognises the vendor delivering telecommunications via the IT channel. The winner will have gone the extra mile to embrace resellers and assist channel partners where possible. They will have provided an exceptional product or products, relevant support programs and services to facilitate the channel.

The distributor award applauds the distributor who has done the best job delivering a telecommunications offering to resellers in order for them to add a new revenue stream to their business (or increase an existing one). Key offerings will include product breadth or specialisation, systems and service delivery, support programs and exceptional customer service.

The telecommunications reseller award will recognise the reseller, solutions provider or services integrator who has successfully integrated telecommunications as part of their customer solutions over the last 12 months.

The reseller must be able to show growth over the past 12 months, as well as investment, business development and reputation.

Finally, the Best Telco Initiative recognises the best technology, product or business-based initiative introduced by any telecommunications-related company over the past 12 months.

The winning entry could be a newly established business unit, it could be complementary business units, solution and technology programs, or reseller services.

Judges will consider market relevance, innovation, channel friendliness and how the initiative has helped to bridge the gap between IT and telecommunications.

Four awards will be presented in 2012:

• Telecommunications Vendor of the Year
• Telecommunications Distributor of the Year
• Telecommunications Reseller of the Year
• Best Telecommunications Initiative of the Year

Hall of Fame

Over the past six years, a host of the IT industry’s finest have been inducted into the ARN Hall of Fame. We look forward to presenting this exclusive accolade in 2013.

ARN’s industry judging panel, as well as previous Hall of Fame inductees, will be asked to nominate one person from a vendor, distributor and reseller worthy of recognition. Inductees will have demonstrated a long-term commitment to the Australian channel.

Previous inductees:

Phil Cameron, Ross Cochrane, Phil Cronin, David Dicker, John Grant, David Henderson, Peter Kazacos, Ken Lowe, Maree Lowe, Pip Marlow, Moheb Moses, Steve Nola, Wendy O'Keeffe, Laurie Sellars, Jon Shein, Craig Somerville, Andrew Thomas, Nick Verykios, John Walters

Channel Choice categories – by popular vote

Much like the popular-vote TV Week Logie Awards, ARN’s online-only, people’s choice awards give ARN readers a chance to choose their favourite vendor, distributor, reseller or retailer over the past 12 months. The winners of the four Channel Choice category awards will be those organisations with the most votes through ARN’s online poll.

Voting will run for four weeks, from July 25 to August 16, 2013 and only one vote per person/business email address will be accepted.

The Channel Choice categories for 2013 are:

• Vendor of the Year
• Distributor of the Year
• Reseller of the Year