CHANNEL INNOVATION CONFERENCE AND AWARDS | SEPTEMBER 24, 2020 | 1 PM
A 90-minute virtual gathering for ISV’s and Canadian channel player focused on how to excel in the new nomal. Join us for panels, presentations and awards celebrating the channels most innovative firms in the cloud.
SAVE THE DATE: SEPTEMBER 24, 2020, 1 – 2:30 PM (ET)
Details coming soon!
Compugen Finance
SmartOne
Datex
Mobia Technology Solutions
Tickit Health
Benchmark
Tidal Migrations
Shinydocs
WebSan Solutions
The Channel Innovation Awards (CIA) are an opportunity to celebrate the achievements of IT solution providers who have developed innovative products and services that help their customers thrive.
Earlier this year Computer Dealer News (CDN) invited channel players from across Canada to submit nominations for 11 awards to showcase the amazing work done by a broad cross-section of new technology leaders serving the channel.
Our judges have reviewed the submissions and selected Diamond and Gold award winners as well as the much sought after Solution Provider of the Year award.
The awards were presented during a special celebration on September 24. Celebrating the Innovation Journey featured networking, awards and a special “live podcast” discussion about the challenges of innovation during a time of rapid change.
When: Tuesday, September 24, 2019
Where: Universal Eventspace | 6250 Highway 7, Vaughan, ON L4H 4G3
Agenda:
| Time | Item |
|---|---|
| 4-4:15pm | Workshop registration |
| 4:15-5:15pm | The Challenge of Selling Technology Solutions in Canada: Jason Bremner, IDC |
| 5:15-6:15pm | Gala registration & networking |
| 6:15-7:30pm | Awards presentation |
| 7:30-9:00pm | Networking reception & dinner |
IDC Canada’s Jason Bremner discussed how Canadian solution providers are evolving their business to meet the needs of Canadian enterprises. At this workshop attendees were the first to receive insights from IDC Canada’s and CDN’s joint 2019 Canadian Channel Survey. As digital transformation remains a top priority for businesses, solution providers that are growing and achieving higher margins on services stand out by operating differently. Learn about the different business models, services and vendors that leading partners are embracing in a digital world.
As part of the Channel Innovation Awards gala festivities there was a main stage discussion – in podcast form – involving three leaders at the forefront of business innovation thinking.
Valerie Fox, Chief Innovation Consultant, The Pivotal Point, Jonathan Moneta, Founder and Creative Director, MakeLab Studio, and Suzanne Stein, an Innovation Professor at OCAD University, will present Being Human in a Digital World. They will offer guidance on how to stay innovative as the speed of technology advance accelerates.
The discussion will explore the questions:
This award recognizes the most innovative implementation of security in either an on-premise or cloud environment. Nominations of a physical security hardware solution are welcome. The winning entry will demonstrate how the customer’s operation became a safer place to do business, or prevented data leakage. Evidence can range from resolving a single crisis to vastly improving the overall security posture of a company.
Top Data Management Solution
This award recognizes a state-of-the-art data management solution that enables end users to integrate, cleanse, migrate, analyze, and manage data across platforms to produce accurate, consistent information in a clear and precise manner.
Top Collaborative Solution Transforming Workspaces
Workspaces are changing. As AV and IT networks converge, businesses need to accommodate the evolving communication needs of mobile and tech-savvy employees that are demanding more in exchange for their commitment to corporate service. This award recognizes the most innovative solution that increases collaboration, communication, and productivity in the workplace. The solution can involve any part of the workspace’s transformation from the reconfiguration of physical environments to the development of collaboration platforms or AV/IT solutions supporting connectivity, security, productivity metrics or associated processes.
Open Source tools and software are changing the way companies build applications, operate their datacenters, and run their businesses. The Top Open Source Solution will honour the company that has developed the best open source project that drives innovation by enabling developers, operators and security professionals to provision, secure, run and connect cloud-computing infrastructure.
Top Solution Supporting Business Agility
This award honours the most innovative and problem-solving hardware, networking, mobile, cloud, big data or software-defined solution that has helped a company or organization improve their business agility.
Top (Federal/Provincial/Municipal) Government Solution
This award recognizes the most innovative and problem-solving hardware, networking, mobile, cloud, big data or software-defined solution for a federal, provincial or municipal government, or crown agency.
Top Solution Provider Supporting Sustainability
This award honours a solution or solution provider that supports efforts that have a sustainable impact on our communities. Solutions that allow companies to go paperless, reduce their use of packaging or contribute to a reduction in e-waste are just a few examples. Qualifying initiatives can be internal, external or both.
CDN Award for Diversity and Inclusion
The award recognizes an organization that excels in providing unique service and solutions to help solve diversity and inclusion challenges. The organization’s nomination must demonstrate a commitment to equity, inclusion, social justice, or community and social responsibility and a record of acting on that commitment. This commitment, which includes thought leadership, is not limited to a single project and may be expressed in many areas of the nominee’s operation.
Next Generation Channel Innovator (under 3 years in business)
This award is presented to an up-and-coming channel business that has been operating commercially for three years or less. he winning company will have documented successful results in digital innovation. This could include successfully deploying digital technology or a digital transformation; improving how it approaches digital; delivering effective digital strategies; creating business value, efficiencies and cost savings, or improving services through the use of digital technology; or helping a company handle the challenges that come with digital.
This award recognizes the solution provider that has disrupted a business, industry, market, or long-held way of doing something through the innovative use of technology. This could be disruption at an internal, operation level, or disruption at a customer-facing level. Judges will examine how disruptive the solution/service has been as well as the business results and innovation it has generated.
Solution Provider of the Year (selected by judges)
The Solution Provider of the Year is awarded to an organization that has demonstrated excellence by adapting quickly to the ever-changing tech space, providing quality service, and providing its customers with solutions proven to make their businesses more efficient.
Any questions? Please contact Desere Cowin or Sophia Khan
All award nominations are evaluated by an independent panel of experts from within the Canadian technology scene. The selection of winning solutions is based on a variety of considerations, including innovation, design and user experience, and customer service as well as the overall technological advancement for their respective categories.
Note: Judges reserve the right to not designate a winner in a given category if none of the submissions are deemed sufficiently innovative.
Category winners will be chosen based on the following criteria:
| Innovation: How original is the application of the IT solution to solving the business problem? |
| Improved sales or revenue: Is there evidence that the solution benefited the customer by growing sales, improving revenue, or reducing costs? |
| Improved efficiency: Is there evidence that the solution brought about greater efficiency? |
| Customer service: Is there evidence that the solution benefited the client by improving internal and/or external customer service? |
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CIA winners and all finalists will be recognized at CDN’s Channel Innovation Gala. Submitting solution providers will be invited to a VIP pre-event partner workshop featuring a noted industry expert. All qualified nominations will be posted on the CDN website. Winning solutions will be profiled in CDN Magazine and Direction Informatique, ITWC’s a French language publication devoted to the Quebec marketplace. Winners will also receive a digital badge for use on their websites and in social media to help gain industry-wide recognition and end-user exposure.
