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Microsoft Recognises Australian Partners for Excellence

SYDNEY, Australia, Thursday 27th November, 2003

Abstract:
Last night, at its annual Australia and New Zealand Partner Conference, Microsoft Australia announced the winners of the Microsoft® Australia and New Zealand Partner Awards 2003.

Press Release:
Last night, at its annual Australia and New Zealand Partner Conference, Microsoft Australia announced the winners of the Microsoft® Australia and New Zealand Partner Awards 2003.

“The winners will have demonstrated outstanding use of technology to meet customers' needs,” said Kerstin Baxter, Microsoft Australia Partner Group Director. “The awards reward and recognise our partners acknowledging their innovation as they've been all been doing wonderful work with customers to deliver business value through technology,” she said.

Microsoft and Microsoft Business Solutions Gold Certified and Certified Partners in Australia and New Zealand are eligible for the awards which recognise partners who delivered exemplary solutions for their customers during the past year.

Congratulations to this year's Australia and New Zealand Partner Award winners:

Microsoft Partner Awards:

Platform Solution Partner of the Year in Small Business: Professional Advantage. Professional Advantage is one of the largest providers of end-to-end business IT solutions in Australia, supporting over 600 clients. It provides medium sized businesses with Customer Relationship Management, ERP, eBusiness and Business Intelligence solutions in a broad range of industries. The company is being recognised for its work with A-Gas, who was looking for a replacement for its business IT solution that addressed three main concerns; the lack of business information, lack of system integration and inefficiencies seen throughout the whole process that should not be there.

Platform Solution Partner of the Year: Avanade. Avanade is a key technology integrator for Microsoft enterprise solutions. It is being recognised for its work with Australia's leading general insurer, Insurance Australia Group while under going a number of takeovers and mergers. While these mergers brought commercial success they also presented technology challenges as the newly merged companies owned a diverse set of applications and architecture that made it difficult to create company-wide initiatives.

Business Productivity Solution Partner of the Year in Small Business & Microsoft Partner of the Year in Small Business: Brookstone Technologies. Brookstone has uniquely positioned its products & services in the areas of Internet, mobile & wireless development, and eBusiness systems towards facilitating the conduct of business electronically. It is being recognised for its work with Unity Insurance, a small business involved in general insurance that required a marketing system to address customer support needs.

Business Productivity Solution Partner of the Year: Oakton. The focus of Oakton Solutions is on delivering business improvement by providing complete e-business solutions that integrate business processes into an Internet enabled, centralised system that streamlines communications between customers, suppliers and employees. It is being recognised for its work with Dan Murphy's Cellar, Australia's largest liquor retailer who is operating a tailored GreatPlains ERP system managing all financial, accounting, and inventory.

ISV Partner of the Year & Microsoft Partner of the Year: Wireless IP. Wireless IP Technology is a software development company specialising in wireless applications that integrate to ERP solutions. Wireless IP is being recognised for its flagship ConnectiX solution that is the industry leading wireless solution which integrates into the Microsoft Business Solutions product range, including the soon to be launched Microsoft Customer Relationship Management software.

Learning Solutions Partner of the Year: Dimension Data Learning Solutions. Dimension Data Learning Solutions is one of three divisions of Dimension Data Australia, a global IT company. They provide technical training in Australia's six main land states, with training facilities in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide and Canberra. They are authorised to deliver Microsoft (Gold Certified Partner) Cisco, Checkpoint. Citrix, Comptia, Lotus Novell courses.

Microsoft Business Solution Partner Awards:

Fastest Growing Partner of the Year: Eclipse Computing. The Eclipse brand ?Intelligent Solutions - Old Fashioned Service' is the basis of its corporate culture and business model. Its primary goal is to be the leading Microsoft Business Solutions reseller for "customer service" and therefore have the highest levels of customer additions and customer retention in the market place. Eclipse is recognised by Microsoft for its work with G&S Engineering, a provider of engineering services and asset management to the resource and construction industries. G&S required an ERP solution to replace its in house system that did not provide effective forecasting, analysis or visibility of business units as a whole.

Most Innovative Solution Partner of the Year: Wireless IP. Wireless IP Technology is a software development company specialising in wireless applications that integrate to ERP solutions. Wireless IP is being recognised for its flagship ConnectiX solution that is the industry leading wireless solution which integrates into the Microsoft Business Solutions product range, including the soon to be launched Microsoft Customer Relationship Management software.

Partner Choice Awards

Distributor of the Year: Express Data and Tech Pacific. Tech Pacific, a leading technology distributor with over 400 employees, has been recognised by Microsoft and its partners for its delivery of value by offering the broadest range of market leading vendors, skilled and customer focused people and world class distribution systems.

Sharing the Distributor of the Year award is Express Data, an Australian and New Zealand IT distributor that supplies leading edge products and technology from world leading brands. Express Data prides itself in integrating new technologies into common work practices. It has robust and sophisticated in house systems and a distribution system that is measurably world class. Express Data invest in the vision and culture of customer service, its objective is to deliver uncompromisingly on time, with exceptional customer focus.

About the Awards
The awards are a new initiative from Microsoft Australia and the winners were chosen based on their innovative use of Microsoft's latest technologies to deliver exemplary solutions for their customers. This year Microsoft introduced the Small Business Category, which recognises work focused on small business solutions where the customer has less than 50 employees.

About the Microsoft Certified Partner Program
The Microsoft Certified Partner Program helps partners build successful Microsoft technology-based businesses by offering a variety of resources including training, technical support, products and peer-networking opportunities.

About Microsoft's Australia & New Zealand Partner Conference 2003
Microsoft's Australia & New Zealand Partner Conference combines the best elements of two previous events -- Fusion, for Microsoft partners, and Stampede, for Microsoft Business Solutions partners -- to provide even more valuable and informative learning opportunities in leadership, sales, marketing, services and technology. More information can be found at /australia/partner.

About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT") is the worldwide leader in software, services and Internet technologies for personal and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through great software -- any time, any place and on any device.

The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

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For more information and/or to arrange an interview please contact Anne Flanagan or Stephen Rodi at Howorth Communications on 02 9904 2618 or email howorth@howorth.com.au.

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