Microsoft annual Partner Conference, awards ceremony

Microsoft Sri Lanka held its annual Partner Conference and Awards Ceremony recently, at a grand ceremony held at Waters Edge Battaramulla. In a landmark event for Microsoft and their quality partners, the evening kicked off with the launch of Office 365 marking the availability of Cloud services in Sri Lanka.

Award winners

As customary, the evening culminated in Microsoft's premier partner organisations being awarded for another year's outstanding performance. Top industry players Tech One Global (Pvt) Ltd emerged champions of the evening, winning the title of 'Best Distributor'. Tech One also bagged the award for Best "Attached at Source" COEM Distributor and Named Partner.

ZILLIONe Technologies and Millennium Information Technologies (Pvt) Ltd were recognised as the joint recipients of the 'Best Managed Partner' award while the title of 'Best Partner Led Competitive Win Back' also going to Millennium Information Technologies (Pvt) Ltd. Maldivian IT services supplier, MAXCOM Technologies walked away with 'Best Partner - Maldives' award and 'Best Partner in the Public Sector' was won by MS Technologies (Pvt) Ltd. The title of 'Best Microsoft Learning Partner' went to NetAssist International (Pvt) Ltd.

Three special recognition awards were also presented at the awards ceremony. Millennium IT won the award for the 'Unified Communication Solution of the Year". IronOne Technologies (Pvt) Ltd won the 'Application Development on Microsoft Platform' award and Metropolitan Group (Pvt) Ltd won the award for 'The COEM Partner with Highest Revenue Contribution'.

Wasantha Weerakoon, COO of Tech One Global, Winner of the 'Best Distributor' award said "We have been an exclusive Microsoft distributor from the inception and the benefits we've received from this partnership has helped us succeed both in local and foreign markets. Our long-standing partnership with Microsoft has been challenging, yet in a most positive way, where both companies have benefitted greatly and grown because of this close-knit relationship. Working with Microsoft as always has been a rewarding experience."

Another significant part of this year's partner conference was the unveiling of Microsoft's new 'Partner Awards Scheme', set to kick off in the new year.

The 2013 partner awards, will be more in line with business changes that have taken place within Microsoft with the introduction of Cloud based products and looks at recognizing, new types of partners as well as different business segments. While the new award categories will give partners the opportunity to better showcase their achievements and milestones, the system will also attempt to align Microsoft business with that of their partners.Pubudu Basnayake, Director, SMS&P, Microsoft Sri Lanka, who made the announcement,said that the new awardswouldhave a Sales Specialist -Software developer (ISV) for New Enterprise Business category andseparate awards for Partners who manage Windows 8 and Windows phones. The small business segment will also generate interesting awards in FY13.

He also unveiled the fresh new look to the Partner trophy and the new logo for the future Partner Conference.

Bernice Paris, APAC Enterprise & Partner Group - Microsoft Corporation, who also attended spoke about how partners needed to harness the excitement created by Office 365 cloud offering for mutual business growth.

"This is one of the greatest offerings from Microsoft where partners will have the opportunity to successfully accelerate the sales process for Office 365 and other cloud services, cutting the sales time in half compared to using traditional, premise-oriented sales processes. There will be opportunity to reach new consumer segments and grow revenue in new and exciting ways."

Speaking at the event, Sriyan de Silva Wijeyeratne, Country Manager of Microsoft Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, emphasized the significant role played by the partners in Microsoft's success.