The finalists for the European IT Excellence Awards - the leading pan-European awards event for IT and Telecoms channels - were announced this week by IT Europa. A total of 51 companies from 16 countries have made the finals. The winners will be announced at the European IT Excellence 2010 Awards Dinner at The Tower Hotel, London on 25 February 2010.

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 26 countries. Entries were submitted by ISVs, systems integrators and VARs describing the solution provided. Each entry 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," said Alan Norman, managing director of IT Europa. "Finalists have come from right across Europe with Central and Eastern European countries well represented."

"The judges were impressed with the quality of all the entries and the obvious work that had gone into preparing them," said John Chapman, editorial director at IT Europa. "What was so exciting and uplifting was the real skill and ingenuity shown by the channel in many of the solutions. Our judges have a lot of experience in the IT industry and of sitting on such judging panels, so to have such comments as ‘I was blown away with what that company has achieved' and ‘fantastic solution and amazing results' from them was incredible to hear."

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 three supplier categories where channel companies nominate their distributor, service provider or vendor for the support they provide through their channel programs.

"The entries in the categories for suppliers, showed that these companies have been putting a tremendous amount of effort into their channel development activities, particularly during the tough economic climate experienced in 2009," said 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 2010 Awards finalists:

ISV Categories Finalists
Business Intelligence
Jaspersoft
Northdoor plc
SIVECO Romania
Tango/04 Computing Group
Communications & Mobility
Appear Networks
Derdack GmbH
NoMachine
Enterprise Application
ACE enterprise Sovakia, s.r.o.
HansaWorld Group
Mamut
Tific
Information Management
Doclogix
Exalead
IBA Group
RetmarkerAMD
SaaS Solution
Flexera Software
Panda Security UK Ltd
The Planet Group
Vertical Market
Anglia Business Solutions Ltd
CTI Group
ERI BANCAIRE SA
SIVECO Romania

Solution Provider Categories Finalists
Data & Information Management
2e2 ltd
Intetics Co.
SIVECO Romania
E-Business
Itransition Group
SDL
Enterprise
Brookcourt Solutions
Critical Software S.A.
Vodafone UK
Wavex Technology Ltd
Managed Service
Azzurri Communications
Excell
Fluidata
Isotrak Ltd
Northdoor plc
Mobility & Communications
Derdack GmbH
Speedy Communications
Teneo Ltd
SMB
Origina
S&T Serbia
Teneo Ltd
Web Site srl
Unified Communications
Charterhouse Voice & Data
Siptel
Vodafone UK
Vertical Market
Excell
Interconsult Bulgaria
Interconsult Bulgaria
Siptel

Supplier Categories Finalists
European Distributor of the Year
Arena Bilgisayar San. ve Tic. A.S.
Azlan
DNS Deutschland GmbH von Arrow ECS
Info-Quest S.A.
European Vendor of the Year
Brocade
Citrix
Red Hat
European Service Provider of the Year
Level 3 Communications Limited
NESS Technologies

The European IT Excellence 2010 Awards Dinner, at which the winners will be announced, will be held on 25 February 2010 at The Tower Hotel, London. For further information visit: www.iteawards.com

The awards evening will be held at the end of IT Europa's premier ISV event, the European ISV Convention 2010, which is also being staged at The Tower Hotel, London on 25 February 2010. For further information visit: www.isvconvention.com