As those attending the Gala Evening toasted the winners they also raised more than £20,000 for the Help for Heroes charity.
Devon based reseller South West Communications scooped the title of Comms Business Awards Overall Reseller of the Year. South West Comms had already won the Reseller of the Year Award for organisations with a turnover on over £5milliion and beat off the other three reseller category winners to win the Overall Winner prize.
Sarah Flowers, Sales Director at South West Communications Group said, “We were thrilled and extremely proud to win the Reseller of the Year 3 award. To then go on to win the Overall Reseller of the Year award was absolutely fantastic.
It is a great accolade to be recognised by the industry for our achievements and a morale boost for all the staff who have contributed so much to the overall success of this project and our organisation generally in these tough times.”
Help for Heroes
The Awards were followed by a charity auction organised by Comms Business Magazine to help raise funds for Help for Heroes, the charity dedicated to providing assistance to servicemen and women injured serving our country.
Items such as tickets to the Community Shield football match and a round of golf with a celebrity were quickly snapped up by bidders from the audience and Comms Business Magazine would like to thank all the individuals and companies that both donated and bid on items as we went on to raise more than £20,000 for the worthy charity.
After the auction revellers danced and drank the night away in the luxurious surroundings of the Lancaster Hotel.
Award winners were keen to express their delight at their successes with Dave Thorn, head of channel, commented: “All of us at Uniworld are absolutely delighted to have been presented with Switchless Reseller of the Year Award. It really is testament to the hard work that all of my colleagues at our Gosport head office put into making our business excel. I’d like to thank all our Channel Partners for their tremendous loyalty and support, and reiterate our commitment to sustain and grow our presence within the Channel.”
To make it a double celebration, Gamma Telecom, Uniworld’s parent company, was awarded the Network Operator of the Year award in a reader vote. Bob Falconer, CEO at Gamma, commented, “Winning this award means so much to us and is a testament to the hard work and level of service that all of our staff gives to our channel partners. We are truly humbled by the fact that this was an independent vote and that people have made the effort to nominate us without so much as an ask from us to do so. 2009 was our best ever year financially and this couldn’t have happened without the achievements that our channel partners have made in delivering Gamma’s services to market. Our continued commitment to the channel and focus on delivering innovative and profitable solutions remains and we look forward to another year of mutual success.”
Leon Mangan, sales director indirect channel, Siemens Enterprise Communications told us, "I am delighted that yet again Siemens Enterprise Communications have won a prestigious Comms Business award that recognises our innovative product portfolio for the channel. Over many years the HiPath 3000 has been a phenomenally successful solution and not only addresses the Digital and IP Market, but now brings outstanding UC features, advantages and benefits to any user regardless of endpoint or network.”
Picking up the Hosted Telephony Supplier of the Year, David Dadds, Managing Director of VanillaIP, said, “It a real achievement to receive the Hosted IP Telephony Supplier of the Year, it is validation of the ongoing hard work of the last five years of both our staff and resellers to develop a platform and service that enables the resellers to confidently sell Hosted IP Telephony and SIP Trunking into their base.”
Convergence Success
Commenting on winning the SMB Award for Convergence Solution, Alastair Mills, CEO of SpiriTel said, “After a very busy year for the company it is very pleasing to see that our customer service and quality of work is recognised as market leading, and I would like to thank the whole SpiriTel team for their hard work and dedication.”
Meanwhile, winners of the Enterprise Convergence Solution Award IP Integration were equally as delighted with Managing Director Steve Walker saying, “IP Integration is a technically focussed organisation and this award is a testament to our engineers ability to successfully deliver complex converged solutions and above all, customer satisfaction.”
Hertfordshire based Mitel reseller Comms Solve Technology won the ‘Reseller of the Year” Award for organisations with a turnover of up to £1million.
Managing Director Ty Gardner said, “This award is testament to all the hard work our team put in during the last 12 months and we are really excited to have won. The award demonstrates that smaller companies such as Comms Solve Technology has all the organisational skills to put together and successfully implement large projects on behalf of our clients.”
Graham Bevington, Managing Director of Mitel EMEA commented, "Mitel is delighted to congratulate Comms Solve on winning the Comms Business Award for Reseller of the Year (Small) 2010. Comms Solve have an absolute focus on customer value, understanding how the latest technologies, leveraging Mitel solutions, can deliver real & affordable benefits to customers. This win is well deserved."
Double Award
It was a Great Night for Griffin and their Partners. Griffin Internet picked up two awards, ISP of the Year and Channel Sales Person of the Year for Mark Frost.
Cherie Everett, Marketing Manager at Griffin commented, “It was fantastic to win ISP of the Year again this year. This award means at lot to the team as it is voted for by the channel and verified by Comms Business. We would like to thank everyone who voted for us. We were also delighted to pick up Sales Person of the Year for the second year running.”
Mark Frost, Griffin’s award-winning Partner Manager had this to say, “I really didn’t expect to win and so was really chuffed. Lee won it last year and so I knew there were big shoes to fill. I am really pleased with deals won for my key Partners and am delighted with the positive growth achieved. I was also really happy to see so many of our Partners pick up awards on the night.”
Channel Entrepreneur
As Entagroup celebrates its twentieth year in business its founder and CEO, Jason Tsai was recognised for his innovation and commitment to the IT channel by being awarded the title of ‘Channel Entrepreneur of the Year’ by the Comms Business Awards.
Tsai said: “I am absolutely delighted to win the award and be named as ‘Channel Entrepreneur of the Year’ and this is particularly poignant timing as we are currently celebrating Entagroup’s twentieth year in business. 2010 is proving to be a very special year for me personally, the company and all of our employees and customers. It marks a real achievement in a turbulent economy.”
Entagroup has come a long way since its establishment by Tsai in 1990 when he started selling computer components from his garage in Bridgnorth. The group now employs over 175 staff, has a combined turnover of over $200million.
Another Double!
Chairman Julian Niman said he was “delighted and proud” after Nimans and Rocom were voted Distributor of the Year by the readers of Comms Business magazine - in a repeat of last year’s triumph for him.
“The awards are designed to recognise brilliance in the channel and acknowledge the cream of the crop of the voice, mobile and data arenas. It is very pleasing to come out on top for the second year in a row,” said Julian.
Winning the accolade follows Nimans’ acquisition of Rocom in March last year, as Julian added: “Rocom was the 2008 winner, Nimans won last year and now both companies are joint recipients - so it is clear we are held in the highest regard by the channel. The platform is in place for us to remain in prime position at the forefront of the distribution industry where serving the customer remains our number one goal.”
Julian concluded: “It is particularly pleasing to retain this award because the winner of our category is decided by vote from the thousands of resellers who read the magazine, representing many of our customers. The loyalty and hard work of our dedicated staff along with the support of customers and suppliers helped us win this award for the second year in a row. I am proud and delighted by this joint triumph. A big thank you to everyone.”
Award Category & Winners
Reseller of the Year (Small) - Comms Solve Technology
Reseller of the Year (Medium) - Marcom
Reseller of the Year (Large) - South West Communications
Mobility Reseller of the Year - Barclay Communications
Overall Reseller of the Year - South West Communications
Hosted IP Telephony Supplier of the Year - Vanilla IP
Network Operator of the Year (Reader Vote) - Gamma Telecom
ISP of the Year (Reader Vote) - Griffin Internet
Distributor of the Year (Reader Vote) - Rocom/Nimans
SMB Convergence Solution - SpiriTel
Enterprise Convergence Solution - IP Integration
Green Channel Company Award – Outsourcery
Most Innovative Channel Product (Hardware) - Siemens HiPath 3000 V8 and OpenScape Office
Most Innovative Channel Product (Software) - Mitel - Mitel and VMware
Most Innovative Channel Product (Service) - O-bit - Purple Networx VoIP
Most Innovative Channel Product (Mobility) - Vodafone Sure Signal
Switchless Reseller of Year - Uniworld
Channel Sales Person of Year - Griffin Internet - Mark Frost
Channel Entrepreneur of the Year - Entanet - Jason Tsai