Australian solutions provider Ethan Group has been crowned the Candefero Partner of the Year for the Asia-Pacific region at the Canalys Channels Forum in Shanghai.
Ingram Micro’s Asia-Pacific president, John Soumbasakis, presented the award to Ethan’s vendor alliance manager Nick Stranks in front of hundreds of channel luminaries from all over Asia and ANZ.
“To win an award like this was a surprise,” Stranks told CRN immediately after the ceremony. “It’s recognition for our staff and the effort they’ve put in for the last 10 years, to [receive an award] at Asia-Pacific level.”
Canalys analyst Alastair Edwards said that Ethan “really stood out in terms of exceptional financial performance, business transformation and innovation”.
Ethan Group was the sole Australian winner among the six categories, although Dimension Data’s Asia-Pacific operations as a whole won Security Partner of the Year. Indian resellers took out two awards, with China and Singapore nabbing one trophy each.
While the other Candefero award categories are chosen from self-nominations, the major Partner of the Year gong is solely determined by the judging panel of senior Canalys analysts.
This year’s big win by Ethan Group follows its Managed Service Provider Partner of the Year honour at last year’s conference in Thailand. Datacom scored the main prize in Bangkok, while the first ever Partner of the Year in 2012 went to Dimension Data.
Stranks said that the Canalys conferences have been invaluable for Ethan Group.
“As a company this event is one of the highlights in our calendar. It’s an opportunity for us to see what the other partners are doing, regionally and locally,” said Stranks. “It’s also a chance for us to see what vendors are doing regionally, because normally we only get to interact with them at a local level.”
CRN is a media partner of the 2014 Canalys Channels Forum APAC in Shanghai on 4-6 November.
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