Aussies smash global Microsoft awards

By Steven Kiernan on Jun 1, 2016 7:25AM

Kloud at the 2014 Microsoft Australian Partner Awards

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A record number of Australian companies have been named winners and finalists at 2016 Microsoft Worldwide Partner of the Year awards.

Leading the pack were three channel partners who each took top position in one category and finalist in another.

Sydney-headquartered MOQdigital and Melbourne-headquartered Kloud are no strangers to Microsoft silverware.

This year, MOQdigital – which was born through the combination of four companies, Breeze, Technology Effect, Tetran and Skoolbag – was named Australian partner of the year, as well as a finalist in the Internet of Things category. Breeze previously won a global award for 'Application Integration' in 2014.

MOQdigital chief executive Nicki Page said: “As a Gold Partner and multi-award winning company, MOQdigital is extremely proud in working with Microsoft to create premium quality solutions which achieve real business outcomes for our’ customers.

"At MOQdigital, we are committed to plan, build and support our customers’ digital environments through the smart integration of technology, enabling people and businesses to achieve more.”

Kloud, which is now owned by Telstra, won the Enterprise Mobility award and was a finalist for Collaboration and Content category. Last year, Kloud won the global award for 'Cloud Productivity'.

Also scoring both a winner and a finalist nod was North Sydney-based 3P Learning, which topped the Public Sector Education category and was also a finalist in the Technology for Good Citizenship award.

Another Microsoft partner recently acquired by a carrier, Ensyst, which is owned by Optus, also won big, with the 2016 award for Hybrid Cloud and Infrastructure Platform.

There were a total of seven winners from Australia, with the leaders pack rounded out by Dimension Data-owned DDLS (Learning award), SMS Management & Technology (Public Sector Public Safety and National Security award) and Software Optimisation Services (Software Asset Management award).

Phil Goldie, Microsoft director of partner business and development, said: "I am delighted to announce that in this year’s Worldwide Partner of the Year awards we have more Australian winners than ever before. In total, seven winners and an additional four finalists across a number of categories.

"These annual awards celebrate top Microsoft partners who are demonstrating excellence in innovation and implementing customer solutions based on Microsoft technology. The winners and finalists have come from 37 categories that celebrate each of the core customer competencies. Over 2,500 entries were collected from a 119 different countries worldwide."

Winners