The Reseller categories in this year’s Channel Awards are more open than they have been for some years, with no clear favourites. A lot of names have never even appeared on the shortlists before.
The Corporate award is perhaps the one category where a favourite could potentially be identified; Equanet won this award in 2005, but last year was unseated by Kelway. The current holder is not in the running this year, so Equanet starts as favourite. However, it will face stiff competition from the likes of Basilica and Bytes Technology.
Last year’s winner of the SME award, Blue Chip, is a contender for the Corporate award in 2007 and its managing director, Richard Cook, is optimistic about putting up a decent challenge.
“There are some well-known names in the shortlist, however, last year proved that if you work hard enough, a relatively unknown name can walk away as the winner. We are in top gear and pulling out all the stops to encourage people to vote for us ­ the competition is definitely on.”
The SME award is perhaps even more open than it was last year with seven strong contenders, including two previous winners: PC World Business (PCWB) and WStore. The latter really knows the ropes in this category having been shortlisted for the past seven years, although it has only won the award once.
“That shows that CRN does not just hand awards out to the firms it knows best,” noted WStore commercial director, Stewart Hayward.
He thinks it will be a close contest this year and that as well as PCWB, there could be a big challenge from Insight Direct. Managing director of Insight, Angelo Di-Ventura, certainly believes it has a good chance.
“We believe Insight has a high chance of winning this award. Our track record, based on the criteria required to win, is strong.” But he thinks WStore will be the favourite, describing the firm as a “strongly established reseller with a growing reputation among SME clients”.
Mike Dearlove, managing director of EACS, also has previous experience of being on the shortlist and, like Hayward, sees PCWB as the most likely winner due to its nationwide scale. But that will not stop Dearlove pushing for votes.
“As well as sending a strong message to both our customers and vendors about our commitment, it focuses our staff on our achievements. It motivates them to get behind EACS as a company and support our growth and plans for the future.”
The Services Provider category promises to be even more keenly fought. Node4 is perhaps the outsider here as it is relatively small, while the others are well-known players and Eurodata Systems won the award last year. But 2e2, LinuxIT, Ramsac and Vistorm are all aiming to run strong campaigns urging customers to cast votes in their favour.
Both Vistorm and LinuxIT have been on the shortlist before and know they will have to work hard to win in this competitive category.
“This is the second year we have been shortlisted and obviously we would love to say we are the likely winner,” said Darron Antill, chief operating officer of Vistorm. “Each of the nominees is a success in their own specialism and just being shortlisted recognises this achievement.”
Peter Dawes-Huish, chief executive of LinuxIT Europe agrees. “Being a finalist for the industry award is humbling, but also gratifying. It is independent confirmation that LinuxIT is one of the leading providers of technical and support services. We are very proud of this, not least because the awards are not limited to the Linux world: they represent the entire industry.”
Ramsac has competed in the SME award in past years, but is new to the Specialist category. But director Dan May feels the company has a fair chance. “We are never complacent, but we certainly feel our proposition is unique and refreshing. Our approach to strategically led IT, we hope, sets us apart from our competition and our genuine commitment to the customer experience will hopefully encourage all our clients to lend us their support.”
2e2 is a well-known name, but a new one on the shortlists. Managing director of the firm, Neil Allpress, feels it has a decent chance, but is also managing his expectations.
“Our chances of winning are as
good as any other company’s. But as a former chancellor of the exchequer once said, ‘forecasting is a very hazardous business ­ especially when it involves the future’.”
The Specialist Reseller award will also be competitive, but the winner for the past two years has been the security specialist, Secon. The judges will want to see strong voting from other contenders this year and there is a good chance they will.
Education specialists Salford Software and Khipu Networks are likely to muster strong support.
These companies have the customer base to count as serious challenges. Salford Software, for example, claims to provide identity management services to 89 higher educational organisations in the UK ­ some with more than 30,000 users. VirtualizeIT is also likely to be a challenger for this award.
The final reseller category is Integrator of the Year and there is a strong line up for this award. Every one of the six contenders will feel they have a chance of winning, but there is also a good deal of respect for the competition.
All the shortlisted integrators can already be proud of their achievements notes Adrian McNay, executive director of Touchstone Group.
“The CRN Channel Awards are all about delivering real business benefits to end users. To be shortlisted provides independent endorsement by an extremely well-regarded organisation of how we deliver commercial benefits to customers. It is a great way of proving we deliver what we promise.”
Charles Davis, chief executive of the SAS Group also sees it as a powerful reference point. “It shows we are able to deliver on our promises and that our solutions are meeting and exceeding client expectations.”
All these resellers will be hoping to compete for the overall Reader’s Choice award for Reseller of the Year. This award is decided by votes alone and the winner of the Corporate category is usually the hot favourite. But with that category and all the others being so open this year and so many well-respected companies being included in the shortlists this award could go to any player.
The potential contenders for the Vendor and Distributor of the Year awards are easier to identify. Incumbent of the former, Fujitsu Siemens Computers will face stern opposition from HP, Acer, IBM, Microsoft and perhaps Oracle this year.
In distribution, Computer 2000 will once again be the front-runner with Bell Micro hoping to apply more pressure and finally overtake its rival. Ingram Micro and Westcoast should also be capable of mounting a decent challenge.
It is important to reiterate that in all categories ­ especially in the Reader’s Choice awards ­ every vote makes a difference. If you feel strongly that there is a channel company that deserves recognition this year, you should take your opportunity without delay. Voting closes this Friday, 19 October 2007, so make sure you make your vote count.
A tribute to the distributors