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This year’s Comms Business Awards were a resounding success, with a 600-strong crowd of respected channel members from both fi xed line and mobile entertained till the early hours at the Royal Lancaster Hotel, Hyde Park, London.
Miles Bossom, publisher and founder of Miles Publishing, says he was impressed by both the quality and number of entries for this year’s Awards. He explains: “I was dumbfounded this year with the number of high quality entries received for the awards. Business conditions are tough, of that there is no doubt, and yet more companies than ever before took the time to prepare and submit detailed entries.
“Passions ran high on the night with over 600 people attending what was a fantastic night for the Channel. The Comms Business Awards are now, without any doubt, the Awards to win, with more support than any other. I am very proud to be involved and to be so well supported by the industry we serve,” Bossom claims.
Mobile winners
20:20 Mobile won Most Innovative Channel Product (Mobility Solution) for its eMerit application from TrackTech, and Barclay Communications took top honours for Mobility Reseller of the Year. SpiriTel won the Enterprise Convergence Solution Award, and chief executive of the company, Alistair Mills, took the Channel Entrepreneur of the Year Award in a well deserved double win.
On the Award for Most Innovative Channel Product (Mobility Solution), 20:20 Mobile and Tracktech are delighted. The eMerit application typifies 20:20 Mobile Group’s approach to partnering developers with an outstanding product to provide them with instant access to the mobile market across a wide range of sectors, states David Hinc, sales director for 20:20 Mobile.
Hinc comments: “eMerit is a really innovative mobile application for BlackBerry devices. We were delighted to receive the acknowledgement of our industry piers for the eMerit mobile application. The partnership with eMerit has worked really well in developing a compelling go to market proposition that offers resellers a real USP over their competitors, an incremental sale with ongoing revenue, as well as giving end users real business benefi ts. Based on our success in the UK we continue to work with eMerit to drive sales and market penetration through existing and new routes to market, as well as developing an international proposition for 20:20 Mobile Group companies across Europe.”
Partner success
While developer of eMerit, Tracktech managing director and application reviewer for Mobile Business, Tim Corke, says on receiving the Award: “Receiving an award from peers within any channel is always enormously satisfying, but this award is particularly fulfi lling as it recognises not only the innovation and strength of the product itself, but also the fantastic partnership between 20:20 and eMERIT in getting to this point. The ceremony itself was well attended and was a testament to the value that the channel places on receiving one of these awards. It is an award that we will be proud holders of.”
On winning the Award for Mobility Reseller of the Year, Adrian McCourt, director of Barclay Communications, says: “We are delighted with winning such a prestigious award and it is a testament to our staff for their efforts over the past few years. The transition from a mobile phone company to a mobility reseller has thrown many challenges at our business, and recognition within our industry peers gives us great pleasure. We are confi dent that we can build on this success and continue our growth through careful strategic planning and acquisition.”
Double whammy
And on the double win for SpiriTel, with the Enterprise Convergence Solution Award and Mills’ Channel Entrepreneur of the Year Award, Mills comments: “It is an honour to receive the Entrepreneur of the Year Award. SpiriTel has a highly skilled and committed staff and I am proud to have the opportunity to thank the whole team for their efforts and hard work during a period of signifi cant progress for the Group.”
The other categories were won by: Reseller of the Year (Small), RedCube; Reseller of the Year (Medium), Lloyds Communications; Reseller of the Year (Large) & Overall Reseller of the Year, Datasharp UK; Hosted IP Telephony Supplier of the Year, Titan Technology; SMB Convergence Solution, Utilize; Green Channel Company Award, Charterhouse Voice & Data; Most Innovative Channel Product (Hardware), Mitel Networks; Most Innovative Channel Product (Software), Union Street Technologies; Most Innovative Channel Product (Service), Exponential-e; Channel Sales Person of Year, Lee Broxon of Griffi n Internet; Internet Service Provider, murphx; Distributor of the Year, Nimans; and Network Operator of the Year, Opal.