The winners of the APAC Channel Partner of the Year Awards 2020 have been announced. As the Canalys Forum APAC came to the end of successful two weeks, a panel of senior Canalys channel analysts reviewed the nominations for the awards. The nominee channel partners came from the 1200 attendees at the event, the first independent, virtual pan-APAC event dedicated to the channel.
The Channel Partner of the Year awards recognize outstanding performance in specific areas: Growth, Diversity and Inclusion, and there’s an overall Candefero Channel Partner of the Year award. Senior Canalys analysts researched how a partner made sustainable investments for the future, its performance, its demonstrated expertise and customers’ resulting business value.
“The channel in APAC has come under extraordinary pressure in 2020. Countries in the region were the first in the world to grapple with the pandemic. Partners had to move with extraordinary speed to adapt and devise plans to support their employees, customers and vendors as COVID-19 wreaked havoc,” said Alex Smith, VP Channels, Canalys. “Our industry has been one of the lucky ones, however, because there has been an unprecedented need for IT services and products. This brought about a different set of pressures. So the awards recognized the impact of the pandemic and how the channel adjusted to dramatically fluctuating conditions affecting suppliers, clients and their own business.”
The overall Candefero Partner of the Year award was presented to CTC, a Japan based, pan-APAC partner. The company achieved good revenue growth during the first half of 2020 compared to H1 19 and is on track to deliver strong growth for its fiscal year 2021 amid challenging economic conditions. Canalys analysts were impressed by CTC’s medium-term management plan to concentrate on business transformation while focusing on technology areas such as artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT).
Diversity and Inclusion Partner of the Year, only the second year for this category, was awarded to ICT Zone. The Malaysia based partner has invested in youth initiatives to drive technology knowledge and adoption. The initiative also allows young people to learn leadership and entrepreneurial skills through the company.
Growth Partner of the Year was awarded to Mitra Integrasi Informatika. The Indonesia based company is a subsidiary of PT. Metrodata Electronics, one of the largest digital solutions and distribution companies in Indonesia. In the first half of 2020, despite challenges brought about by COVID-19, MII has seen an estimated revenue growth of 14% compared to the same period in 2019 due to its strong portfolio of cloud solutions and remote working applications driven by demand from Indonesian businesses.
The awards were announced to a record number of attendees at the Canalys Forum APAC, as the event shifted to a digital experience. “The move to virtual has been an exciting opportunity to reconnect the region’s most important distributors and their partners with vendors most committed to the IT channel,” said Charlotte Woodward, Canalys’ Events Manager for the regional conference.
Over 30 countries were represented from across APAC. The CEOs from Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Lenovo, and VMware were joined by international channel sales and markets presidents from Dell Technologies in delivering keynotes exclusively for the Canalys Forum audience. Attendees were able to access content on-demand throughout the two weeks of the event, enabling them to make a tailored schedule. Over 80 speakers covered 80 sessions, including analyst updates, partner CEO interviews, topic-based digital huddles with vendors and interviews with global channel leaders and regional chiefs from sponsors. There was also a session dedicated to participants of the Rising Star program. In its second year, the program aims to bring a new generation of diverse people from the channels community to benefit from the event’s networking and learning opportunities.
“Our event was completely virtual this year, powered by Canapii, an event management platform developed using more than a decade of Canalys’ world-leading in-house digital and events expertise,” added Charlotte. “We delivered market-leading experiences in terms of advanced functionality. For example, digital delegates used the integrated networking, planning, and video call tools to schedule and complete meetings. We also provided translations for multiple languages and delivered interactive ‘live moments’. The feedback has been so positive from delegates and sponsors and Canalys would like to thank them for their tremendous support in bringing this to fruition. We are excited to see what we can deliver digitally next year when we will hopefully also be able to bring many of the APAC channels community together in person.”
