ICT Excellence Award winners announced

14-04-2005

by Charlie Taylor

Vodafone walked away with two awards at the annual ICT Excellence Awards, while the chairman of Forfas was voted ICT Industry Person of the Year.

The awards, which pay tribute to the movers and shakers in the Irish information and communications technology sector, attracted over 100 entries from companies nationwide this year.

Vodafone, which was nominated for three awards in total, went home with the prize for Best in Show and Technology Marketing Campaign of the Year awards.

The ICT Industry Person of the Year was Eoin O'Driscoll, chairman of the governmental advisory board Forfas.

O'Driscoll, who is managing director of the IT consulting company Aderra, was appointed chairman in July 2004. Prior to founding Aderra, he held a number of senior posts at Lucent Technologies. O'Driscoll was also chair of the Enterprise Strategy Group, which was given the task of charting Ireland's enterprise strategy over the next decade.

Despite a less than auspicious start to the year, which included the sacking of chief executive officer, Carly Fiorina, Hewlett-Packard was awarded the ICT Company of the Year award, while Ryanair's IT team scooped the ICT Professional of the Year.

Megazyme, a company which develops and supplies diagnostic test kits and analytical reagents for the cereals, food, feed, fermentation, and textiles industries, was nominated for best eCommerce Implementation award in both the private and SME categories. However, in the end the firm walked away with just one honour after losing out to DirectSki for the Best eCommerce Implementation (SME) award.

IB Solutions, a firm which provides integrated finance, procurement and e-business products and services to the commercial and public sector, beat off stiff competition from Lan Communications to scope the Best eCommerce Implementation (public) award.

Other winners at the event, which was held at the Burlington Hotel in Dublin on Wednesday included Damovo Ireland, System Dynamics, Labyrinth, Enovation Solutions, CMS Peripherals, ESB Telecoms, Puca Technologies and Fineos.

Noreen O'Hare, Cable & Wireless's new local country director, won the Women in ICT award, while Clare Dillon from Microsoft took home the Young IT Person of the Year award.

Microsoft Ireland sponsored the annual awards this year and the company's general manager Joe Macri said that he believed that the high level of quality amongst entrants in 2005 was indicative of just how well the local ICT sector is doing.

"The calibre of the people and companies involved in the Awards gives an indication of the continuing strength of the industry in Ireland," commented Macri.