Shining Stars: 2012 CRN Channel Champions Awards

2012 Channel Champions

CRN celebrated the 22nd annual Channel Champions awards at an event in Los Angeles Tuesday night as part of the XChange Solution Provider conference in Los Angeles. Throughout the evening, we honored the vendors that achieved the highest satisfaction scores in a survey of more than 2,000 solution providers across 27 technology categories including two new technology markets, CRM software and tablets. Awards were presented to the overall technology category winners as well as subcategory winners in the areas of technical satisfaction, support satisfaction and financial factors.

And now, on with the show.

Getting It Started

CRN Vice President and Editorial Director Kelley Damore kicks off the awards by thanking all of the attendees for helping build ’the vibrant channel that we have today.’

30 In Their 30s

This year marks the 30th anniversary of CRN. As part of the celebration, we are publishing 30 In Their 30s, a list of young solution provider and vendor executives in their 30s who are poised to drive innovation in the channel over the next 30 years. Some of those executives were brought on stage for recognition. The full list will be published later this month.

30 Peers With 30 Years

We are also honoring some of the channel trailblazers who have spent over 30 years in IT, helping build and shape the business models and partner programs that now drive the channel. The full list will be published later this month.

APC By Schneider Electric

Perennial channel power APC won the overall award for the Data Center and Power Management category, with top scores in technical satisfaction, support satisfaction and financial factors. Accepting the award from CRN’s Kelley Damore is Gordon Lord, director of distribution and channel marketing.

Kaspersky Lab

Kaspersky swept Network Client Security Software, an intensely competitive segment. Accepting the award from CRN Editor, News, Steven Burke is Nancy Reynolds, senior vice president, corporate sales, at Kaspersky.

Dell

After making steady channel gains over the last several years, Dell returned to the Channel Champions stage to pick up trophies in two categories as the overall winner in Enterprise Storage and SMB Network Storage. Accepting the awards from CRN’s Kelley Damore and Steve Burk are Bob Skelley, executive director, Global Certified Partner Program & Channel (far left) and Mary Catherine Wilson, PartnerDirect Marketing, Programs and Online (second from the right).

Intel

A triple-threat with high scores for technical satisfaction, support satisfaction and financial factors, Intel won the overall award for Processors. Accepting the award from CRN’s Kelley Damore and Steve Burke is Steve Dallman (center), Intel’s vice president and general manager, World Wide Reseller Organization.

Xerox

In a clean sweep, Xerox nabbed the trophy for Workgroup Color Printers. Accepting the awards from CRN’s Kelley Damore and Steve Burke are Gary Gillam (center left), vice president of channel operations and Tom Gall (center right), director of channel marketing. Gillam also received congratulations on a long and illustrious career as he prepares for his planned retirement next month.

Lenovo

This year marks the entrance of the Tablet category into the Channel Champions awards, with Lenovo taking home the inaugural trophy. Accepting the award from CRN’s Kelley Damore and Steve Burke is Chris Combs (center), director, North America Channel Programs.

Symantec

Symantec took home several awards including the overall win with a clean sweep in the Client Security Software category and the overall win in Backup and Recovery, where it clinched technical satisfaction and financial factors and tied for support satisfaction. Accepting the awards from CRN’s Kelley Damore and Steve Burke are Randy Cochran (center right), vice president, Channel Sales and Tricia Atchison (center left), senior director, Channel Marketing.

Samsung

With a long history of display technology innovation, it’s little wonder that Samsung nabbed the technical satisfaction award in the Flat Panel Displays category. Accepting the award from CRN’s Kelley Damore and Steve Burke is Richard Hutton (center), channel marketing director.

ViewSonic

ViewSonic was the overall winner of the night for Flat Panel Displays with victories in support satisfaction and financial factors. Accepting the award from CRN’s Jennifer Follett, Executive Editor, Online, is ViewSonic Americas President Jeff Volpe.

Seagate

Seagate picked up the overall win for SATA Hard Drives with a clean sweep of the category. Accepting the award from CRN’s Robert Wright, managing editor, social media, is Sarah Good, sales director.

Citrix

Citrix earned the financial factor subcategory award for Server and Desktop Virtualization. Accepting from CRN’s Jennifer Follett is Mike Fouts, senior director, Americas channels and marketing.

SonicWall

In a tough battle, SonicWall edged out its rivals to nab top scores in the Network Security Appliances category. Accepting the award from CRN’s Rob Wright is Louise Crawford, senior director of worldwide programs at SonicWall.

Juniper

VARs rewarded Juniper for its efforts to make sure that VARs who sell their product earn some good money with two financial factors subcategory wins: one in Network Security Appliances and the other in Enterprise Networking Hardware. Accepting the awards from CRN’s Jennifer Follett are Frank Vitagliano, senior vice president, Americas sales, and Luanne Tierney (right), vice president, Worldwide Partner Marketing.

SAP

CRM Software was another hotly contested Channel Champions category with three separate winners in each of the subcategories. SAP took victory for financial factors. Accepting the award from CRN’s Rob Wright is Karthik Manimozhi (left), head of channel expansion at SAP.

Oracle

Solution providers rewarded Oracle for engaging the channel with its broad product offering and integrated stack by giving it top scores for support satisfaction in the CRM category. Accepting the award from CRN’s Jennifer Follett is Tom LaRocca, vice president, channel solutions and go to market.

VMware

Fresh off of its partner conference, where its channel was jazzed about the increased incentives for its virtualization and cloud offerings, VMware picked up trophies for technical satisfaction in the Cloud Applications category and the overall win in the Server and Desktop Virtualization category. Accepting the awards from CRN’s Rob Wright is Sandra Cheek, director of global partner communications.

IBM

IBM picked up the award for technical satisfaction in Middleware as well as the overall win in Midrange Servers. Accepting from CRN’s Kelley Damore and Steve Burke are Shaun Jones (center left), vice president, IBM Software Group and Heidi Detloff (center right), vice president, North American business partners for IBM.

HP

HP proved to be a triple threat, bringing home three overall Channel Champions awards with a clean sweep for Volume Servers, Notebooks/Mobile Computers and Multifunction Printers, as well as a financial factors win in the category of Midrange Servers. Accepting from CRN’s Kelley Damore and Steve Burke are Mike Parrottino (center left), vice president and general manager, U.S. Channel Sales and Marketing, Personal Systems Group, and Ken Archer (center right), vice president of channels and alliances – Americas for HP’s Technology Services Organization.

Cisco

Solution providers recognized Cisco for consistently bringing them big profits in fast-growing emerging markets, giving the vendor overall victories in five technology categories: Enterprise Networking Hardware, SMB Networking Hardware, Unified Communications, Videoconferencing and Network Security Appliances. Jim Sherriff (second from the left), senior vice president, Americas Partner Organization, and the Cisco team accept the awards from CRN’s Kelley Damore (far left) and Steve Burke (far right).

Microsoft

The most decorated Channel Champion of the evening, Microsoft claimed victory with clean sweeps in Data & Information Management, Business Intelligence and Collaboration Software, as well as overall victories in Cloud Applications, CRM Software and Middleware. They also picked up subcategory nods in Backup and Recovery Software and Videoconferencing. Eric Martorano (fourth from the right), senior director, U.S. SMB Channel Group, and the Microsoft team accept the awards from CRN’s Kelley Damore (far left) and Steve Burke (far right).

To The Victors...

CRN’s 2012 class of Channel Champions show off their spoils.

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