Software Business Partners Earn IBM Beacon Awards

Key Information Systems, Franktown, Colo., and Tech Frameworks, Santa Rosa, Calif., earned "Excellence in Partnering" awards. The solution providers allied to provide Gundlach Bundschu Winery with a solution to manage its 3,000-plus wine club members. Bundschu expects payback on the initial investment in less than three months.

More than 130 business partners from 23 countries were nominated for Beacon Awards, with journalists, industry analysts and IBM executives as judges.

For the "Best Leveraging Information for Competitive Advantage Solution,"

Belgium-based IBM Premier Business Partner Andersen won top honors for its work with Delta Lloyd Life. The solution provider connected disparate information systems at DLL, which had gone through a number of mergers and acquisitions.

For the "Best Managing Technology Solution," Datatrends Technologies, Minnetonka, Minn., took the No. 1 spot for creating a check-imaging repository solution for a major U.S. financial institution.

Rochester, N.Y.-based NetSetGo won for the best WebSphere e-business solution. Digital Union UK won "Greatest Innovation in e-Business" for Speak-ez, its voice-enabling solution built on WebSphere Voice Server, and Sysinct won "Greatest Midmarket Success" for the Java-based solution it crafted for manufacturer Industrial Scientific.

IBM also presented four distinguished geography awards. In the Asia-Pacific region, Mesiniaga Berhad took top honors for achieving year-to-year revenue growth of more than 221 percent in IBM software in 2001. In Europe/Middle East/Africa, Tectrade Computers was recognized for its storage solution expertise.

Grupo PISSA garnered the top spot in Latin America, after achieving more than 30 sales and technical certifications in IBM products. And Silicon Plains Technologies, West Des Moines, Iowa, won in the North America category for growing its IBM software revenue 400 percent year over year.