TORONTO – Despite ongoing consolidation in the channel, there are plenty of newcomers to the solution provider ecosystem in Canada. And, that trend was highlighted at the 14th annual CDN Channel Elite Awards (CEA) where Vancouver-based MediaValet won the Solution Provider of the Year award.
MediaValet becomes the first born-in-the-cloud solution provider to win the top prize at the Channel Elite Awards. The company describes itself as a digital asset management solution provider. The company was formed in 2010 with the premise that there was an emerging cloud-based economy they could exploit. This born-in-the-cloud channel player has a vision to support all companies of all size with solutions that are accessible from any browser in the world.
Company founder David MacLaren was on hand to accept the award from the new chief executive of Ingram Micro Canada Bill Brandel. Ingram Micro Canada has returned to become a major sponsor of the CEAs.
Along with Ingram Micro Canada, Rogers’ Enterprise Group is also a first time sponsor as well as Eaton Canada. These three major industry players are supported by long time CEA sponsors Dell Canada; now Dell EMC and AMD.
The other big winner from last night’s gala event was another former Solution Provider of the Year Infinite IT Solutions of Mississauga, Ont. Infinite IT won four awards including three gold prizes. Infinite IT won gold in Best Security Solution, Best Mobile Solution and Best Service Organization. Infinite’s fourth award was a silver in the Best Small Business category.
The winner in the Best Small Business category was Konverge Digital Solutions. Digitcom took home the bronze in this category.
A crowd of more than 200 people packed the Paramount Conference and Event Venue in North Toronto to witness a great night of recognition for channel innovation.
Navantis also had a big night at the CEAs. The Toronto-based solution provider won three awards all silver for Best Service Organization, Best Security Solution, and Best Enterprise Solution.
Previous Solution Provider of the Year in 2014 I3 Solutions won the Best Enterprise Gold. Compugen got the bronze.
Jolera, last year’s Solution Provider of the Year champion, got the bronze award in security and in mobile.
Another solution provider of the year winner IT Weapons captured the Gold in the Best Mid-Market solution area. They were followed by Compugen with silver and SELA Canada with bronze.
CDN Top 5 Solution Provider CompuCom Canada won the Best Managed Services gold over Asca Office Solutions who got the silver and ITNorth Network and Consulting who won bronze.
Montreal-based Orckestra Inc. struck gold as the Best Cloud Solution company, while ITNorth of Victoria, B.C. came in second and Insight Canada was third.
New to the Canadian market, New Signature Canada took home the silver award in the Best Mobile Solution category, while another newcomer HUB Computer Services of Winnipeg won the bronze as Best Service Organization.
CDN once again brought top end business intelligence to the channel community as CIO Jim Love unveiled new findings from the annual CIO Census to a packed audience of solution provider executives at the afternoon CEA Workshop.
