Over the past few months, resellers across the country submitted their entries. The CRN team then crunched the numbers to determine which companies have the most top-tier partner levels for selected premium vendors.
This is a tangible, measurable way of quantifying how versatile an IT provider is – if it can offer a wide array of technology services to clients – as well as its value to vendor partners.
This year, the CRN MVP club includes 20 companies. The CRN MVP program currently recognises partner levels across 17 different vendors – VMware, Symantec, Microsoft, Intel, Lenovo, IBM, Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, HP Inc, EMC, Dell, Citrix, Cisco, AWS, Oracle, NetApp, Veeam, and Huawei. This vendor roster comes up for renewal each year.
Every 2016 CRN MVP has a proven depth of knowledge of vendor technology and the industry landscape to justifiably be labelled the best of the Australian IT channel. CRN celebrates these companies as industry leaders in 2016.
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How we measure eligibility
To qualify as a CRN MVP, a channel partner must have at
least four top-tier partner levels across 17 vendors listed below. “Top tier” generally refers to the top one or two levels within a vendor’s program. The CRN team decides which partner tier/s qualify based on barrier to entry, exclusivity of the tier, and number of partners across the entire partner program.
Eligible vendors
Amazon Web Services
Cisco
Citrix
Dell
EMC
Hewlett-Packard Enterprise
HP Inc
Huawei
IBM
Intel
Lenovo
Microsoft
NetApp
Oracle
Symantec
Veeam
VMware
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CRN MVP Eligible Vendors
Top tier
Cisco Gold
Citrix Platinum
Dell Premier
HPE Platinum
HP Inc Platinum
IBM Premier
Lenovo Diamond
Microsoft Gold
Symantec Gold
VMware Premier
NetApp Gold
Other
AWS managed services partner
EMC Silver
Intel Security Associate
Oracle Gold
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Kiwi-born Datacom’s massive Australian operation is in the top tier across 11 CRN MVP-eligible vendors, giving it a share of the top of the league table with Data#3 and Dimension Data. The company scored the Cisco ANZ managed services partner of the year award at the Cisco Live conference in Melbourne in March.
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CRN MVP Eligible Vendors
Top tier
Cisco Gold
Citrix Gold
Dell Premier
HPE Platinum
HP Inc Gold
Lenovo Diamond
Microsoft Gold
Symantec Gold
Others
VMware Enterprise
Oracle Gold
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Ethan Group has gone from a four-person operation in 2001 to one of the largest privately owned solutions providers in the country, with estimated annual revenue exceeding $200 million. The company says its second CRN MVP award is just “recognition of the fundamentals we have held core to our heart for 15 years - innovation, excellence in customer service, growth and financial success”.
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CRN MVP Eligible Vendors
Top tier
IBM Premier
Lenovo Gold
Intel Security Gold
Microsoft Gold
Other
AWS partner
Cisco Premier
Dell Preferred
Citrix Silver
Symantec Silver
VMware Enterprise
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The Missing Link has again made the CRN MVP club with another year of fruitful vendor relationships. Last year, MD Alex Gambotto told CRN that his company spent $150,000 to $250,000 per year to maintain its top-level vendor accreditations: “From a technical perspective, it’s exam time and opportunity cost. And for sales teams, it’s exams, on-site training programs and workshops.”
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CRN MVP Eligible Vendors
Top tier
IBM Premier
Lenovo Diamond
Microsoft Gold
NetApp Gold
Others
Cisco Select
Citrix Silver
HPE Authorised
HP Inc Authorised
Symantec Registered
VMware Enterprise
Oracle Gold
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Meridian IT debuts as a CRN MVP in 2016, growing beyond its IBM channel roots. The Aussie arm of the US solutions provider now boasts top-level relationships with Lenovo, Microsoft and NetApp, becoming a diversified player more in keeping with its cousin branches overseas. Steve White says Meridian IT “takes a holistic view” in using technology to solve problems.
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CRN MVP Eligible Vendors
Top tier
HP Inc Gold
Lenovo Diamond
Microsoft Gold
Huawei Gold
Others
Cisco Premier
Citrix Silver
Dell Registered
HPE Silver
IBM
Symantec Registered
VMware Enterprise
Veeam Silver
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Advance Vision Technology makes its debut as a CRN MVP in 2016. The Melbourne-headquartered firm qualified this year after we added Huawei as an eligible vendor. AVT offers consulting, project management, business analysis and managed services, and boasts offices in Shanghai and Ho Chi Minh City.
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CEO Laurence Baynham
Staff 1,100
CRN MVP Eligible Vendors
Top tier
Cisco Gold
Citrix Platinum
EMC Gold
HPE Platinum
HP Inc Platinum
IBM Premier
Lenovo Diamond
Intel Security Gold
Microsoft Gold
Symantec Platinum
VMware Premier
Others
Dell Registered
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Brisbane-headquartered powerhouse Data#3 is the only Australian-born solutions provider of the “big three” CRN MVPs that are in the top tier across 11 eligible vendors. In March, Data#3 clinched an EMC Australian partner of the year award, Cisco’s Asia-Pacific enterprise partner of the year trophy while two executives, Graham Robinson and Chris Day, picked up individual Cisco gongs.
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CRN MVP Eligible Vendors
Top tier
Citrix Gold
Lenovo Gold
Intel Security Gold
Microsoft Gold
Symantec Platinum
VMware Premier
Others
Cisco Select
Dell Registered
EMC Registered
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Insight Enterprises told CRN last year that investments in vendor relationships are “expensive” but “absolutely treated as an investment”. The firm works with vendors that are innovative, have a deep “R&D focus” and “put clients first”.
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CRN MVP Eligible Vendors
Top tier
Dell Premier
HP Inc Platinum
Lenovo Diamond
Microsoft Gold
Others
Citrix Authorised
EMC Authorised
HPE Silver
IBM Authorised
Intel Security Authorised
Symantec Silver
VMware Authorised
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Historically best known as a US stationery retailer, Staples Australia has rapidly earned a reputation as an IT provider since fully taking over the Corporate Express brand in 2012. The firm made headlines as one of the original authorised Microsoft Surface resellers, and also won the 2015 Lenovo Australia partner of the year.
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CRN MVP Eligible Vendors
Top tier
HP Inc Gold
Lenovo Diamond
Intel Platinum
Intel Security Gold
Microsoft Gold
Others
Cisco Select
EMC Standard
HPE
Symantec
VMware professional
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Sydney’s ASI Solutions celebrates its second year as a CRN MVP. Lowe told CRN last year that the desire to be independent drives the significant effort required to maintain top-level vendor accreditations. “It’s a commitment and experience to be self-sufficient rather than be reliant on vendors for support all the time.” The solutions provider has its roots in PC building from 1985.
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CRN MVP Eligible Vendors
Top tier
Cisco Gold
EMC Gold
HPE Gold
HP Inc Gold
Lenovo Gold
Intel Security Platinum
Microsoft Gold
Symantec Gold
VMware Premier
Oracle Platinum
NetApp Platinum
Others
Citrix Strategic
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Dimension Data’s Australian arm did the country proud in March, winning Cisco’s Asia-Pacific partner of the year. Pete Murray told CRN at the time that the company was celebrating 25 years of partnership with the networking vendor. This sort of legacy is replicated with 10 other CRN MVP vendors, scoring it a place at the top of the MVP ladder with Data#3 and Datacom.
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CRN MVP Eligible Vendors
Top tier
Cisco Gold
HPE Platinum
Microsoft Gold
NetApp Platinum
Others
Citrix Silver
EMC Silver
HP Inc Silver
VMware Enterprise
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The infrastructure solutions arm of UXC Limited, which recently merged with CSC Australia, entered the 2016 CRN MVP race as a standalone entity successfully with its Cisco, HPE, Microsoft and NetApp partner levels. The company said last year that it was “the first partner in Australia to deploy Cisco’s Application Centric Infrastructure solution to an enterprise customer”.
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CRN MVP Eligible Vendors
Top tier
Cisco Gold
HPE Platinum
HP Inc Gold
Intel Security Gold
Microsoft Gold
VMware Premier
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Telstra has boosted its CRN MVP vendor tally by one, courtesy of the split of Hewlett-Packard into HPE and HP Inc. Chief financial officer Warwick Bray said in February that the IT services unit is “still in the growth phase”, even after the team raked in $1.3 billion of revenue in the latest half-year. The giant telco last year brought on a new chief executive, Andrew Penn, to replace David Thodey.
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CRN MVP Eligible Vendors
Top tier
Cisco Gold
Citrix Gold
HPE Platinum
HP Inc Gold
IBM Premier
Oracle Platinum
NetApp Gold
Microsoft Gold
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NEC Australia has gone from strength to strength as a solutions provider, adding to its traditional business as a technology vendor. Its Oracle and NetApp credentials, as well as the Hewlett-Packard split, has helped NEC shoot up the CRN MVP ladder in a hurry this year. The firm triumphed at the global Cisco Partner Summit in March, taking out the Asia-Pacific solution innovation partner award.
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CRN MVP Eligible Vendors
Top tier
Cisco Platinum
Dell Premier
EMC Gold
HP Inc Gold
Microsoft Gold
Symantec Gold
VMware Premier
NetApp Gold
Other
Citrix Strategic
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Thomas Duryea is one of the most qualified CRN MVPs. Since its establishment in 2000, the company has punched above its weight, first becoming a trailblazing VMware partner and then grabbing the limelight last year for its Windows 10 deployments complemented with Dell end-user computing.
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Australia CEO Basil O’Reilly
Staff Australian staff 150, including Malaysian staff that are part of Logicalis Australia
CRN MVP Eligible Vendors
Top tier
Cisco Gold
Citrix Platinum
Dell Premier
EMC Gold
Microsoft Gold
Others
AWS Authorised
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The local arm of the global giant Logicalis joins the CRN MVP club for the first time after expanding in December with the pending acquisition of Thomas Duryea. The move diversifies it from its traditional Cisco networking practice into the Microsoft, Dell and EMC world.
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CRN MVP Eligible Vendors
Top tier
HPE Gold
HP Inc Gold
Lenovo Gold
Intel Security Gold
Microsoft Gold
Veeam Gold
Others
AWS
Cisco Registered
Citrix Silver
Dell
VMware Enterprise
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Somerville Group is in the top tier across more eligible vendors than any other debutante in this year’s CRN MVPs. The Sydney firm’s strength is in the education sector. In December, Somerville launched an integration with Microsoft ExpressRoute to deliver schools a low-latency, highly secure connection to Microsoft Azure.
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Optus Business MD John Paitaridis
Staff 9,000
CRN MVP Eligible Vendors
Top tier
Cisco Gold
HPE Gold
HP Inc Gold
Microsoft Gold
Other
Citrix Silver
Symantec Registered
VMware Professional
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Australia CEO Tsuyoshi Kawashima
Staff 200
CRN MVP Eligible Vendors
Top tier
Citrix Gold
HPE Platinum
HP Inc Gold
VMware Premier
Others
Oracle Gold
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CEO Damian Kay
Staff 180
CRN MVP Eligible Vendors
Top tier
Dell Premier
HPE Gold
Lenovo Gold
Microsoft Gold
Other
Cisco Silver
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Australia CEO Mike Foster
Staff 5,000
CRN MVP Eligible Vendors
Top tier
Cisco Gold
EMC Gold
HPE Platinum
HP Inc Gold
IBM Premier
VMware Premier
NetApp Platinum
Others
Citrix Global SI
Microsoft Global Alliance
Symantec International
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Over the past few months, resellers across the country submitted their entries. The CRN team then crunched the numbers to determine which companies have the most top-tier partner levels for selected premium vendors.
This is a tangible, measurable way of quantifying how versatile an IT provider is – if it can offer a wide array of technology services to clients – as well as its value to vendor partners.
This year, the CRN MVP club includes 20 companies. The CRN MVP program currently recognises partner levels across 17 different vendors – VMware, Symantec, Microsoft, Intel, Lenovo, IBM, Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, HP Inc, EMC, Dell, Citrix, Cisco, AWS, Oracle, NetApp, Veeam, and Huawei. This vendor roster comes up for renewal each year.
Every 2016 CRN MVP has a proven depth of knowledge of vendor technology and the industry landscape to justifiably be labelled the best of the Australian IT channel. CRN celebrates these companies as industry leaders in 2016.
Never miss IT industry coverage. Sign up for our free Channelwire news service!