Microsoft honours leading Singapore partners

AvePoint takes home coveted Country Partner of the Year honours

Comments

Microsoft has honoured its top-performing partners in Singapore following a “landmark year” of growth through the channel.

Unveiled during a jam-packed awards ceremony at Koma in Marina Bay Sands, the vendor recognised the leading providers which have implemented customer solutions based on Microsoft technology, spanning a wide-ranging ecosystem of partners.

AvePoint was the standout winner of the night, taking home the coveted Country Partner of the Year award in addition to honours in Modern Workplace and ISV categories.

Specific to Azure, Tata Consultancy Services; T-Systems; Just Analytics and Telstra were recognised across artificial intelligence and analytics; data centre migration; data estate modernisation and OSS on Azure respectively.

Meanwhile, Customer Capital Consulting and AFON Systems excelled in Dynamics 365, with Insight taking the honours in security and compliance specific to Microsoft 365.

Certis Technology was recognised for excellence in industry services, in addition to Ingram Micro and Rhipe sharing the cloud solution provider (indirect) honours.

Further partner recognition came through Singtel for skills adoption on Azure, Jardine OneSolution in modern desktop and NetAssist Services in learning, alongside social impact wins for Empire; PALO IT and Total eBiz Solutions.

“2019 has truly been a landmark year for Microsoft in Singapore,” said Gerald Leo, director of Commercial Partners and Small Medium Enterprises Group at Microsoft Singapore. “As agents of change that help organisations in Singapore harness the best of technology to transform their businesses, the Microsoft partner ecosystem is already leading the way in tech intensity.

“At the same time, we would like to appreciate our entire Microsoft partner ecosystem for embarking on this incredible journey together with us as we collectively accelerate AI-enabled digital transformation, build coalitions to nurture a vibrant local technology ecosystem, close the digital skills gap and create societal impact from innovations in AI for a better, smarter Singapore.”

According to Leo, this year’s winners represent the “best and most innovative” technology leaders in the vendor’s Singapore ecosystem of partners.

“Not only have they delivered cutting-edge solutions to solve complex business challenges and enabled digital transformation successes for their customers, they have also demonstrated a unique customer obsession and competitive differentiation to stand out from the crowd,” he added.

In looking ahead, Leo said it is “more critical now more than ever before” for the Microsoft partner ecosystem to focus on building "tech intensity" in the city-state.

“By ensuring not just the adoption of the best-in-class technology but also nurturing local talents who are deeply knowledgeable about the latest technology as well as unique digital capabilities, this will empower our partners with the ability to maximise the impact of technology for organisations across all industries,” he added.

Alongside channel growth, Microsoft has also partnered with SkillsFuture and IMDA to enhance the nation's "tech intensity" and the development of the country’s 5G innovation ecosystem.

“By 2021, AI will nearly double the rate of innovation and employee productivity improvements in Singapore,” Leo explained. “At the same time, with over 41.6 billion connected devices generating close to 80 zettabytes (ZB) of data by 2025, the possibilities for those in the technology industry are limitless.

“With this untapped mine of data, coupled with the potential to harness the high-speed, high-capacity and low latency of 5G technology, this will open up new possibilities for the proliferation of innovative cloud-based applications across industries.”

By “infusing data, AI and mixed reality” into the cloud and powering it through 5G, Leo said the intelligent cloud and the intelligent edge represent “tremendous potential” for the industry to come together to nurture a local ecosystem to help transform enterprises.

Microsoft Singapore Partner of the Year Award winners:

Country Partner of the Year: AvePoint

Azure

Artificial Intelligence and Analytics Partner of the Year: Tata Consultancy Services