With just five days left before voting for the awards closes, time really is of the essence and it is vitally important to encourage all your partners and customers to head to channelweb.co.uk and register their votes for the channel’s equivalent of the Oscars.

Last November more than 1,900 people turned out for the awards at Battersea Park Arena and 16 companies walked off with 22 awards between them.

The 2008 event is shaping up to be just as big, if not bigger than its predecessor and to win an award is a true measure of success because it is completely voted for by partners, peers and customers. This year there are 21 voted-for categories and
competition is tougher than ever.

Every vote really does count, insists Sara Yirrell, editor of CRN. “The question I am asked the most at the moment is:
“Will the size of my company make a difference when it comes to counting the votes?” she says.

“My answer is always the same. If a smaller company receives an exceptionally large amount of votes in relation to its size, that will be taken into account when the votes are being added up.
“While this may be seen as unfair by some, it is a good way of ensuring that everyone has an equal chance of winning an award.

“The second question I am asked regularly is: ‘How do I win an award?” The answer is simple. Ensure your partners and customers vote for you,” she added.

When voting closes this Friday, each and every vote will be personally checked by Yirrell and CRN publisher Mark Burton to ensure there has been no block voting and to make sure every vote is from a genuine email address.

Richard Eglon, marketing manager at Comms-care, which is shortlisted in the Specialist Vendor of the Year category, said the weighting rule made a lot of difference to the smaller players.

“A lot of our partners have been very pleased that we made the shortlist and it is great recognition that we have done well,” he said.

“But, as a smaller player, to know that plenty of people will be voting for us has not always made a difference because there will always be a larger ISP with thousands of customers getting more votes.

“However, to know size will be taken into account is very reassuring and it certainly helps to create a more level
playing field for everyone.”

Other shortlisters emphasised the importance of getting votes.

Ian Kilpatrick, chairman of Wick Hill Group, which has entered the Security Distributor of the Year category for the first time this year, said: “We have been active in getting our customers to vote for us. It is recognition that we are doing our job as a value-added security distributor correctly.”

Winning support
Des Lekerman, joint managing director of VAR Eurodata Systems, which won the Services Provider of the Year Award in 2007 and is shortlisted in several categories this year, said: “If you do not get the votes, you have no chance of winning. If you do not put the effort into gaining votes, then why make the effort in the first place?”

Ian Moyse, UK channel director at Webroot, which bought rival Email Systems shortly after it won Security Vendor of the Year in 2007, said vendors in particular need to get their act together.

“To even get to the shortlist stage means you have already done a lot of the hard work, so why not go that extra mile and ensure that all your customers vote?” he said.

Moyse added that to not bother about securing votes is like turning up for the Olympics after not bothering to train.
“For a vendor the key thing to winning an award is the message it gives to partners and it helps you to stand out from the
competition as well as providing validation for all your channel efforts,” he said.

“The problem with a lot of vendors is that one or two people are involved with writing the entry and then are left to sort out the voting. The whole company needs to be involved in vote gathering.”