Changing face of the Channel Awards

With a new set of categories and a new voting system for most awards, the Channel Awards 2003 will give companies of all sizes and descriptions a better chance of winning than ever.

This year the Channel Awards include a set of categories that will recognise achievements equally among vendors, distributors and resellers for the first time. There are three reader-elected reseller awards in place, and two additional Innovator awards.

With the backing of CRN's sister title Computing, these accolades will heighten the contribution of resellers and systems integrators more than ever.

The categories for vendor, distributor and reseller awards have been brought into line with each other so that the awards will recognise the most outstanding organisations with a specialist focus, in the SME and corporate sectors, and the best-performing company in each category overall.

There has been a major change in the process for selecting winners for eight of the awards this year. The main awards for the top vendor, distributor and reseller are being decided on a straight vote, which means whoever gets the most votes wins.

For nine of the awards the readers of CRN and Computing will be asked to vote for the winner from a short list selected by a panel of 12 judges.

In addition, two awards - the Editor's Choice and Channel Personality - will be selected by the editor of CRN, Paul Briggs. A short list for the Outstanding Product of the Year has been drawn up by VNU's technical panel, and readers are also being asked to vote for the winner from this list.

The two CRN/Syscap Approved Technology Innovator of the Year awards will be chosen by the judges of the monthly awards.

Cast your vote
You can cast your vote for this year's Channel Awards here. The deadline is 24 October and the event takes place on Wednesday 19 November.

For further details on the Channel Awards, including table bookings and sponsorship opportunities, contact Mark Lloyd on (01923) 330 220, email [email protected] or visit www.crn.vnunet.com/awards.

Voting is verified by the Audit Bureau of Circulation.

Channel Awards voting short list 2003

Corporate Vendor Partner
3Com
Avaya Cisco
Fujitsu Siemens
Hewlett Packard
Veritas Software

SME Vendor Partner
Acer
Avaya
BT Indirect Channels
Hewlett Packard
IBM
Veritas Software

Specialist Vendor Partner
D-Link
Exchequer Software
Kingston Technology
Legato
RSA Security
Sophos

Corporate Reseller
EACS
Elcom IT
Equanet
Esteem Systems
Lynx Technology
Teksys

SME Reseller
EACS
Elyzium
Parity ICT IT Partnerships
PC World
Prior Analytics
WStore

Corporate Distribution Partner
Computer 2000
ETC
Ideal
Ingram Micro
Westcon

SME Distribution Partner
Computer 2000
Hammer
Ideal
Ingram Micro
Interchange
Midwich

Specialist Distribution Partner
Allasso
CMS Peripherals
Crane Telecommunications
equIP Technology
Hammer
Norwood Adam
Unipalm

Outstanding Product of the Year
AMD Opteron 64bit processor
Intel Centrino processor
Microsoft Windows Server 2003
Acer TravelMate 800 series
D-Link DSL-604+ wireless modem router
Smart Board SB-560
HP/Compaq Tablet PC TC1000
Bluesocket WG-2100 wireless gateway
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