Awards categories – 2011

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 2011:

• Hardware Vendor
• Software Vendor
• Specialist Vendor
• Best Vendor Initiative with an Emerging Technology – This year’s focus will be on managed services. 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
• Solutions 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 three awards to outstanding individuals:

• Customer Service
• Sales Excellence
• Technical Excellence

Sustainability

Providing more sustainable solutions has become an increasingly critical component of all manner of IT solutions. ARN’s Green IT awards are aimed at recognising vendors and IT suppliers for their efforts in delivering greener, more environmentally-friendly offerings to their customers over the past 12 months.

Nominees will be judged on the environmental efficiencies and sustainability practices.

The three awards being presented in 2011 are:

• Vendor Sustainability
• Distributor Sustainability
• Reseller Sustainability

Telecommunications

Four awards will be presented in 2011:

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

Telecommunications Awards

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.

Hall of Fame

Over the past four 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 to three more worthy individuals in 2011.

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. The three individuals with the highest votes from our judges will be inducted. Inductees will have demonstrated a long-term commitment to the Australian channel.

The Hall of Fame: Phil Cameron, Ross Cochrane, Phil Cronin, John Grant, David Henderson, Peter Kazacos, Ken and Maree Lowe, Jon Shein, John Walters, David Dicker, Steve Nola, Laurie Sellers.

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, 2011 and only one vote per IP address will be accepted.

The Channel Choice categories for 2011 are:

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