European IT Excellence Awards finalists announced

· 49 companies from 16 countries represented

The finalists for the European IT Excellence Awards – the first pan-European awards event for IT and Telecoms channels – were announced today by IT Europa. A total of 49 companies from 16 countries have made the finals. The winners will be announced at the European IT Excellence Awards Dinner at the Intercontinental Hotel, in Frankfurt on 7th February 2008.

The European IT Excellence Awards are the first pan-European awards which recognise the crucial role that Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) and Solution Providers play in the delivery of real world solutions, and attracted entries from more than 30 countries. Entries were submitted by ISVs and resellers describing the solution provided and each had to be supported by an endorsement by the client.

“The quality of entries was extremely high and demonstrated the depth of talent in the channel community across Europe,” stated Alan Norman, Managing Director of IT Europa. “Nearly half of the finalists come from Central and Eastern European countries, reflecting the skills and enthusiasm of this emerging IT market.”

“The judges were impressed with the quality of all the entries and the obvious work that had gone into preparing them,” stated John Chapman, Editorial Director at IT Europa. “There was tremendous enthusiasm from the channel for such an awards event and we were inundated with enquiries, ranging from requests for advice on how to make a good entry to emails of support for what we were doing with the event.”

The awards categories are divided into two main groups: ISVs and Solution Providers. The ISV categories are for software-based solutions for which the ISV has written the bulk of the solution itself. The Solution Provider categories are for complete solutions that include hardware, software, communications and services. As well as the channel categories there are two supplier categories where channel companies nominate their distributor or vendor for the support they provide through their channel programs.

“Although there were only two categories for suppliers, the number of entries was exceptional and it is quite obvious that both distributors and vendors are putting a tremendous amount of effort into their channel development activities,” commented John Chapman. “The entries detailed the sales and marketing activities undertaken in partnership with the supplier and showed the results as far as new business development and market penetration.”

The European IT Excellence Awards finalists:

ISV Award Categories

Solution Provider Award Categories

Business Intelligence

Data & Information Management

SoftPro Tetral d.o.o.

Fordway Solutions Limited

Xtract Ltd.

Jcom UK Ltd

Communications & Mobility

E-Business

Aldata Solution

EuroOffice Ltd

HansaWorld

IBS

Medixine Oy

Itransition

SAAB SYSTEMS

Enterprise

Enterprise Application

Controlware Communications

IBA Group

IBA Group

Mamut ASA

Keystone Computer Group Ltd

Megabyte Ltd

SIVECO Romania SA

Sun Microsystems Hungary

Managed Service

Information Management

2e2 Ltd

Efecte Corp.

Aspire Technology

IBA Group

Northdoor plc

INFOTEHNA

STR SpA

Mobility

Anglia Business Solutions

SaaS Solution

Appear Networks

Aspire Technology

Logos a.s.

IBS

Pan European

Vertical Market

Central Telecom UK Ltd

edge IPK

Tango/04

SIVECO Romania

vc-net

Wipro Technologies

Supplier Award Categories

SMB

Care Telecom

Distributor Channel Program

SoftPro Tetral d.o.o.

ASBIS Croatia

Esprinet

Unified Communications

Wick Hill Group

Central Telecom UK Ltd

Controlware Communications

Vendor Channel Program

Excell Group

Avaya

EMC

Vertical Market

Fujitsu-Siemens

Anglia Business Solutions

Hitachi Data Systems

Central Telecom UK Ltd

HP

NS Optimum Limited

VMware

WatchGuard Technologies

The European IT Excellence Awards Dinner, where winners will be announced, will be held on 7th February 2008 at the Hotel InterContinental, Frankfurt. www.iteawards.com

The awards evening will be held during IT Europa’s premier ISV event, the European ISV Convention 2008, being staged at the Hotel InterContinental, Frankfurt from 6 – 8 February 2008. www.isvconvention.com

About IT Europa

IT Europa is the leading provider of strategic business intelligence, news and analysis on the European IT marketplace and the primary channels that serve it. It publishes European channel publications such as 8020 EUROPA, Channel Business Solutions and the IT Europa Newsletter. IT Europa also markets a range of database reports and organises European conferences and events for the IT and Telecoms sectors. For further details visit: www.iteuropa.com

For further information contact:

Alan Norman

Tel: +44 (0) 1895 454 604

Email: alan.norman {at} iteuropa(.)com