Microsoft Canada congratulates the winners of its 2020 Impact Awards

Microsoft Canada has recognized 16 partners across Canada for their achievements in providing transformational solutions that have an impact in their communities. The 2020 Impact Award winners were announced during the Microsoft Inspire Digital Event.

Suzanne Gaglis, VP, One Commercial Partner, Microsoft Canada, said that this year's awards had added value to the way partners stepped up to meet the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. "Our Canadian partner ecosystem truly rallied as digital first responders to drive business continuity, so it's important that they are recognized for their tireless efforts," she said.

Microsoft's success as a company depends on its partners who drive more than 95 percent of the company's commercial revenue. The awards go to partners who develop innovative solutions using Microsoft products.

Winners are chosen from nominations submitted by partners based on a list of decisive criteria such as customer excellence and economic impact. This year, Microsoft has added metric-based awards to recognize partners who have been very successful in driving overall growth.

Making a difference during the pandemic:

The slate of nominations this year was impressive, Gaglias said. "I am most proud of the way our partners have stepped in during this epidemic to serve customers," she said. "The level of passion, flexibility, agility and creativity to support that he has shown is truly remarkable."

For example, Crisis Champion Award winner, Novari Health, took less than ten days to train more than 1000 health care professionals on how to build and use a province-wide virtual care waiting room. During the crisis, patients with non-COVID-19 symptoms were afraid to go to the ER and family doctors lacked personal protective equipment to see patients. The virtual waiting room allows patients to diagnose, diagnose and treat non-urgent issues without leaving their homes. The solution was built on the Azure cloud and Novari used Microsoft teams to quickly train healthcare professionals.

Similarly, Social Impact Award winner Redbit used Azure to help SecondReast's FoodRescue.ca platform to meet the need for fresh food by hungry families during the epidemic. The organization's site was not strong enough to meet demand and could not scale quickly. RedBit optimized the existing platform in Azure Cloud and developed a mobile app and a portal using Dynamics 365. "Having this technology available so quickly across the country has helped thousands of communities receive food in times of unprecedented crisis," said Lori Nikkel, CEO, Second Harvest.

When the lockdown occurred, the education sector had to move quickly for students to learn online. Edsby received the Public Sector Impact Award for its digital learning platform for K-12 education. The all-in-one platform provides solutions for learning, attendance, report cards and parent interaction. It relies on several Microsoft technologies including Teams, Azure and OneDrive.

Innovation at its best:

Many of the winners were chosen to develop innovative solutions to common business problems, such as the challenge of tagging thousands of digital assets so that they could be managed. MediaValet, the AI ​​& Machine Learning IMPACT Award, solved that problem. It automates the process using Microsoft Azure cognitive services. By doing so, it dramatically reduced tagging time and improved property searches for its clients.

"We feel very blessed and humbled by the achievements of our colleagues," Gaglias said. “I would like to extend my gratitude to all your colleagues and thank you for your final exams. Thank you for helping us accelerate our Microsoft mission of empowering every organization and individual in the world to achieve more. "

And the winners are:

Winners for partner self-nominated awards:

Social IMPACT Award: RedBit Development

Modern Workplace IMPACT Award: Bulletproof

AI & Machine Learning IMPACT Award: MediaValet Inc.

Business Applications IMPACT Award: XRM Vision

Datacenter Migration IMPACT Award: Tata Consultancy Services

Commercial IMPACT Award: Adastra Corporation

Application Innovation IMPACT Award: Dapasoft Inc.

Public Sector IMPACT Award: Edsby

Surface IMPACT Award: Insight Canada Inc.

Winners for metric-based awards:

Enterprise IMPACT Award: Accenture / Avanade

Regional Cloud Solution Provider IMPACT Award: ProServe IT

National Large Solution Provider IMPACT Award: Insight Canada Inc.

Indirect Cloud Solution Provider IMPACT Award: Ingram Micro Inc.

Data Platform Modernization IMPACT Award: Lixar I.T. Inc.

ISV IMPACT Award: PointClickCare

Modern Marketing IMPACT Award: Ingram Micro Inc.

Tech Intensity IMPACT Award: ISM Canada

Crisis Champion IMPACT Award: Novari Health