The ITAM Review 2017 Excellence Awards Winners

On the 10th November, The ITAM Review announced the winners of the third ITAM Review Excellence Awards at our Charity Gala Dinner at Lillibrooke Manor, Maidenhead in aid of our chosen charity – Sebastian’s Action Trust.

This year, we received high quality nominations for ITAM professionals, service providers, technology vendors and specialists who are progressing the industry and leading the field around the world. We also received just under 600 votes in the public vote for ‘Tool Provider of the Year’ and ‘Partner of the Year’ – so a big thank you to everyone that voted.

The awards were presented by our independent industry judging panel which consisted of:

• Martin Thompson, Owner and Founder of The ITAM Review.
• Colin Simmons, Group IT Asset Manager of Kingfisher Plc and winner of last years ‘Lifetime Achievement award’.
• Kylie Fowler, Principal Consultant of ITAM Intelligence.
• Tony Crawley & Gillian Leicester of Synyega and winners of the ‘Professional of the Year’ and ‘Project of the Year’ awards back in 2015.
• Jochen Hagenlocher, Head of Software Asset Management at Novartis and last years winner of the ‘Professional of the Year’ award.
• George Arezina, Head of Software Asset Management at Roche and last years winners of the ‘Project of the Year’ award.

The ITAM Review Excellence Awards 2017

The Results

ITAM Partner of the Year 2017

Recognising excellent ITAM service providers, resellers or partners:

SoftwareOne

SoftwareOne, winners of the Partner of the Year Award 2017 (Shadi Khoshab, Sean Robinson and Darryl Sackett, SoftwareOne – presented by David Bicket, far right)

Speaking about the ITAM Partner of the Year Award Darryl Sackett of SoftwareOne said:

“SoftwareONE is honoured and humbled to be awarded the Partner of the Year 2017. It’s a reflection of the value and return on investment we realise for our customers, and the tireless work to constantly improve. It’s great to be recognised as the leader in this field and we look forward to an extremely productive year ahead with our customers, partners and colleagues.”

Martin Thompson commented:

“Congratulations to the SoftwareOne team for winning The ITAM Review 2017 Partner of the Year. This award recognizes excellent service providers, resellers or partners across the ITAM industry. This year, the final decision was made by ITAM Review readers in a public vote and SoftwareOne stood out head and shoulders above other nominations in terms of positive feedback from their customers.”

ITAM Professional of the Year 2017

Recognising excellence in ITAM professionals:

Rory Canavan

Rory Canavan (Right), winner of the Professional of the Year 2017 Award (presented by Jochen Hagenlocher, Left)

In response to his win, Rory commented:

“This award is as humbling as it is surprising; so once again, thank you to the awards panel for deeming me suitably worthy.

Driving change through ELPs is the hardest slog, so please keep an eye out in 2018 for what SAM Charter and it’s partners intend to do to refresh the SAM discipline.”

Martin Thompson commented:

“ITAM Professional of the year was a strong category for 2017. We received some outstanding submissions and the final nominations stretched to over twenty worldwide ITAM professionals. Congratulations to Rory Canavan for winning 2017 ITAM Professional of the year and his lasting contributions to the ITAM profession.”

Tool Provider of the Year 2017

Recognising excellent tools or technology suppliers:

Snow Software

Jelle Wijndelts, Dan Kirtley and Su Kent from Snow Software, winners of the Tool Provider of the Year Award 2017 (presented by Glenn Thompson, Right)

In response to their win, Axel Kling, CEO of Snow Software commented:

“It’s fantastic to have been honored for the success of our work in the ITAM field and to be recognized for it by the public vote. We want to say a huge thank you to all our customers and community members that voted for Snow. As digital business transformation sparks an explosion of software and cloud assets, effective asset management is crucial to ensure that organizations don’t overspend or introduce undue licence risk. We are also thrilled that our valued partners and colleagues have won recognition at these prestigious awards”

Martin Thompson said:

“The ITAM Review Tool Provider of the Year for 2017 was decided by public vote. Snow Software received an enthusiastic response to the awards by their customers and channel partners. We are pleased to recognize Snow Software as Tool Provider of the year for 2017 and thank them for their contributions to the growth and maturity of the ITAM industry.”

ITAM Project of the Year 2017

Recognising excellent ITAM teams or ITAM service providers:

Google SAM Team

Google SAM Team, winners of the Project of the Year Award 2017 (presented by Tony Crawley)

The SAM Team at Google, left to right, Brad Curl, Ryan Thirding, Nikki Gibson, Mat Carlson, Heather Young, and Jon Savino.

Heather Young, Corporate Software Asset Management Lead at Google, said:

“We are thrilled to have our work recognized by the ITAM Review. Our team is proud to provide our internal users with the software they need quickly and easily, while also carefully managing costs and mitigating risk. This year we’ve also driven automation and simplification efforts, and have continued to work in close partnership with our peers in security, privacy, and other internal operational and engineering teams. We appreciate the great resources from the ITAM Review to help us stay current on trends across top publishers.”

Martin Thompson said:

“Everyone knows the financial benefits of centralising software management, so how do you apply that in a dynamic culture that empowers engineers to develop their own side projects, innovate and just get the job done with a credit card? The ITAM Review is pleased to recognize the SAM team at Google, one of the largest, widely used and publicly recognized brands on the planet, for their SAM endeavours. Congratulations to Heather and the team for implementing SAM in the most modern, dynamic and complex environment.”

Licensing Specialist of the Year 2017

Recognising excellence in Licensing Specialists:

Gemma Walker

Gemma Walker, winner of the Licensing Specialist of the Year Award 2017 (presented by Colin Simmons)

Commenting on her win, Gemma said:

“Feeling humbled and genuinely surprised to get this award. Thank you to the people that nominated me and the esteemed judging panel in making excellent choices across all categories. Really proud to attend the evening with my colleagues from Livingstone and support raising money for Sebastian’s Action Trust on behalf of ITAM Review”

Martin Thompson commented:

“A new category for 2017, The ITAM Review is pleased to recognize global licensing specialists for their contributions to the ITAM Industry. Congratulations to Gemma Walker, an authority on Microsoft Licensing, for winning 2017 Licensing Specialist of the year. We also thank Gemma for her valued voluntary contributions towards the ITAM Review forum”

Innovation of the Year 2017

Recognising new ideas, innovation and creative approaches:

Astute LDM – Astute Licensing

Astute LDM – Astute Licensing, winners of the Innovation of the Year Award 2017 (presented by Martin Thompson)

Speaking of the Innovation, Chris Morgan of Astute Licensing commented:

“It’s a great honour to be recognised by the best and brightest of our industry for our innovation with AstuteLDM. Our goal of ending audit risks permanently, predicting and reducing future software spend is a huge goal, so to have that validated by our peers is great testimony to our on going success”

Martin Thompson said:

“Recognising new ideas, innovation and creative approaches is fundamental to our excellence awards – and what better example of innovative thinking than Astute LDM. In layman’s terms – it does for Datacentre SAM what an automated request catalogue does for desktop SAM. A great step forward in managing risk and costs in the datacentre, forged as a result of experiences at the coalface. The ITAM Review is very pleased to recognise Chris Morgan and the team at Astute for their innovation and wishes them the very best for future growth.”

Lifetime Achievement Award 2017

Recognising valuable long term contribution to the ITAM industry:

David Bicket

David Bicket, winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award 2017 (presented by John Tomeny)

David Bicket:

“Thank you to ITAM Review and to my many colleagues in ISO WG21 who conspired to give me the lifetime achievement award.  My greatest pleasure has been helping others work together to achieve common goals.  It is the team which gets results, not individuals.  Thank you, team – past, present, and future.  To those looking to join the cause, join WG21.  Help drive market uptake of the 19770 family of standards.  And look for the revised ITIL ITAM Guide early next year!”

Martin Thompson commented:

“The ITIL V3 SAM Book and original ISO/IEC 19770 Standard for SAM – Fundamental resources and building blocks of SAM industry we have today. David Bicket was the driving force behind both of these initiatives and many more. The ITAM Review has great pleasure in recognizing David for lasting contributions to the field of IT Asset Management”

Colin Simmons, member of the industry judging panel commented:

“As the ITAM Review continues to expand its reach beyond Europe, we have seen a significant increase in the nominations and/or submissions for the awards this year with entries from Australia, Europe, North America and the UK.  It has been interesting to read about so many SAM projects and people involved in those projects and to learn how various organisations take on the challenges of ensuring that they manage their IT assets and software licensing.  All the nominations have demonstrated innovation and excellence in their approaches, and it was very difficult to select the winners from so many best of breed SAM projects. I congratulate all those nominated for the awards, especially the winners.”

Sebastian’s Action Trust

We were honoured to have Mark Courage, Chair of Trustees and Peter Boon, COO of Sebastian’s Action Trust join us at the event. Before the awards, Mark gave a heartwarming speech about the Trust, giving us an insight to the charity and the difference our donations make.

Mark Courage, Chair of Trustees, Sebastian’s Action Trust

Following Marks speech, we played a pub quiz lead by Quiz Master – Rich Gibbons which raised some additional funds for the charity.

Gala Dinner attendees participate in a Pub Quiz to raise money for the Charity

We’d like to say a huge thank you to everyone that came along and for all those that contributed additional donations. The event was a great success and your donations, combined with the money raised on Martin’s Great Wall of China Trek takes us to a grand total of:

£16,498.00

(As of 15th November, more to come!) Live Total here.

…which will go a long way in the Bluebells!

Why not join us for our second year of Go-Karting to raise some additional funds for Sebastian’s Action Trust on Wednesday 24th January 2018 in Reading? Join us to take home the trophy and win bragging rights for your company! Click here to learn more.