Software vendors name channel champions

Australian software provider Professional Advantage has won a worldwide partner of the year prize from US vendor Epicor for the second year running.

Professional Advantage won the Australia and New Zealand partner of the year category, and then was recognised as the best performing global reseller across all Epicor product groups.

Most of the awardwinners hailed from the US or UK.
 
Judges considered that Professional Advantage had stood out for its performance in delivering global financial management, CRM and ERP packages to the Australian mid-market, Epicor said in a statement.

Professional Advantage had been a top performing Epicor partner in Australasia for nine years.

Judges looked in general for outstanding performance in customer satisfaction, growth and overall dedication, total sales and commitment to Epicor's collaborative ERP, CRM and supply chain management software. 

Epicor held its 2004 Channel Awards at a conference this month in Las Vegas.

On the other side of the Pacific, security vendor Symantec gave Queensland reseller Data#3 its Asia-Pacific region award for channel partner of the year.

Services provider Data#3 was chosen from a field of 120 premier Symantec partner contenders from around the Asia-Pacific and Japan.

John Donovan, senior Asia-Pacific region channel director at Symantec, said the award was made with reference to a partner's "execution, certification and innovation" working with Symantec.

"Over the past 12 months, Data#3 has worked hard to expand its Symantec enterprise business portfolio and has proven it really understands the needs of enterprises," he said.

Data#3's revenue from Symantec security software sales had grown consistently. Also, Data#3 had shown commitment to industry certification and its long-standing relationship with Symantec, Symantec said in a statement.

Data#3 accepted the award at Symantec's Asia-Pacific Channel Partner Conference held recently in Beijing.

Laurence Baynham, general manager at Data#3, said security projects were still "the highest priority" for IT managers and CIOs.

"We will continue to develop our strong relationship with Symantec as well as expand our security skills and resources," Baynham said.