Three Australian partners win for Microsoft

Three Australian partners have won reseller gongs at Microsoft's PartnerWorld conference in Canada this week.

Queensland-based WebCentral took out the award for the Asia-Pacific's top hosting service provider of 2004.

Western Australia's Brookstone Technologies added yet another Microsoft partner gong to its collection, taking out the ISV/Software Solution of the Year award.

Another Queensland company, IT services provider Dialog Information Technology, took out the Outstanding Partner-South Pacific prize.

Award winners were chosen from a group of finalists, one from each of Microsoft's partner regions, in 16 categories, Microsoft said in a statement.

"The awards recognise Microsoft Certified Partners and Microsoft Certified Business Solutions Partners that delivered exemplary solutions for their customers during the past year," Microsoft said.

Lloyd Ernst, CEO at WebCentral, said he felt the award proved that the Queensland webhost's services were world-class. Last year, the company had won the hosting award for the Asia-Pacific region.

"This is the first time a company outside the US has won this award, so it is a major achievement," Ernst said in a statement.

Kerstin Baxter, partner group director at Microsoft Australia, said WebCentral had demonstrated "exemplary" solution implementation and marketing of its hosted Exchange and Windows SharePoint service offerings.