Credit: IDG
DISTRIBUTOR
The Distributor awards recognise distributors innovating through the supply chain, providing value to vendors and partners across the channel.
Distributor - Software
Winner: Dicker Data
Distributor - Hardware
Winner: Dicker Data
Distributor - Specialist
Winner: Westcon-Comstor
VENDOR
The Vendor awards recognise vendors helping partners deliver innovative solutions to customers, through leading-edge technology and channel-centric programs.
Vendor - Software
Winner: Veeam
Vendor- Hardware
Winner: Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)
Vendor - Specialist
Winner: ConnectWise
Vendor - Cloud
Winner: Microsoft
Vendor - Security
Winner: CrowdStrike
Winner: Sophos
Vendor - Networking
Winner: Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) company
Vendor - Telecommunications
Winner: Vocus
Highly Commended: RingCentral
PERSONAL INNOVATION
The Personal Innovation awards recognise individuals who contribute to their company’s success.
Personal Innovation - Channel Excellence
Winner: Sandeep Sharma, Dicker Data
Sandeep has delivered double digit growth for consecutive years on a significant baseline of $500 million in annual revenue. To achieve this result, Sandeep and his team work closely with Australia’s largest IT partners to transform their businesses from a solely transactional revenue model into a mix of annuity-based and transactionally-based revenue models.
Personal Innovation - Technical Excellence
Winner: John Jurkov, The Missing Link
John was chosen as the lead penetration tester for an $800 million mega-project for one of Australia’s largest financial institutions, which is undergoing a major digital upgrade to modernise and consolidate its legacy systems, a significant digital transformation project that includes extensive system upgrades and innovation.
Personal Innovation - Management Excellence
Winner: James Bergl, Datto
James established Datto’s footprint in the A/NZ market and has been at the helm as the company’s partner ecosystem in the local market has, over the past three years, grown exponentially to claim more than 1,400 channel partners, servicing businesses across Australia, New Zealand and Asia.
Personal Innovation - Marketing Excellence
Winner: Carineh Grigorian, Arrow ECS ANZ
As the driver of Arrow’s marketing campaigns across A/NZ and 30-plus vendors, Carineh was the primary force behind Arrow’s new marketing structure, which today represents a highly effective internal agency model supporting both online and offline execution of marketing for the entire Arrow vendor portfolio and Arrow A/NZ.
Personal Innovation - Sales Excellence
Winner: Paul Friend, The Missing Link
Paul became The Missing Link’s number one sales rep in his second year with the company, and has held that position ever since. His sales figures show well over 115 per cent growth with an average of more than 50 per cent year-on-year revenue growth over the duration of his tenure — performance he puts down to a love of technology and what it can deliver.
CORPORATE CITIZEN
The Corporate Citizen Award recognises small, mid-sized and enterprise channel partners that have demonstrated a commitment to giving back to the community.
Corporate Citizen
Winner: NEC
NEC won this award for undertaking a project for the Australian War Memorial (AWM) in Canberra that employed the company’s facial recognition technology on a free basis, leading to the successful identification of hundreds of previously unidentified World War I (WWI) soldiers and providing a valuable service in the national interest at no cost to taxpayers.
CHANNEL CHOICE
Channel Choice, ARN’s online-only people’s choice awards give readers the option to choose their favourite software vendor, hardware vendor, distributor, partner and channel enabler over the past 12 months.
Channel Choice - Software Vendor
Winner: Cisco Meraki
Channel Choice - Hardware Vendor
Winner: CommScope
Channel Choice - Partner
Winner: The Missing Link
Channel Choice - Distributor
Winner: Leader Computers
Channel Choice - Channel Enabler
Winner: Angela Conlon, Exclusive Networks
HALL OF FAME
ARN Hall of Fame 2020 Inductee: Fiona Brown, Dicker Data
Fiona has been a central figure in the Australian IT channel for over four decades. She has been a champion of the IT distribution landscape since co-founding one of the most widely recognised brand names in the local IT industry, Dicker Data.
Since the late 70’s, Fiona has helped to guide the company for which she is a director from strength to strength, at the same time helping to guide the partners in her organisation’s channel network from strength to strength.
ARN Hall of Fame 2020 Inductee (in memoriam): Rod Lappin
Rod Lappin was a charismatic leader who boasted a wealth of senior management experience spanning decades. As a champion of the channel, he was a business leader for the likes of Dell and Lenovo across the entire Asia Pacific region.
Rod was senior vice president and chief customer officer at Lenovo’s Data Center Group until early 2019, when he sadly passed away. Since then, Rod has been fondly remembered by all who worked with him over the years.
ARN welcomes Fiona Brown and Rod Lappin as this year’s Hall of Fame inductees, and once again congratulates all winners, highly commended, finalists and nominees. Additionally, ARN would again like to thank the Innovation Awards judging panel, comprising many of the industry’s leading influencers.
