Channel Futures Announces Finalists for 2023 MSP 501 Special Awards
The annual awards honor the achievements of top-performing managed service organizations and executives.
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Digital Innovator of the Year is given to a company that demonstrates excellence in intellectual property development. To qualify for this award, MSPs had to show how they invested in technology products and services they bring to market. These homegrown offerings are reviewed by our judging panel for how they put an organization ahead of its rivals and help to elevate their brand as a digital innovator. Each company had to document its innovation from functionality, pricing and competitive points of view
Finalists for this year’s Digital Innovator of the Year are:
Executive of the Year highlights an individual who has demonstrated outstanding leadership in the channel, possesses strong values, puts the customer first and is a model spokesperson for the strength of indirect sales. Judges took into consideration such factors as the executive’s marketing prowess, attention to and focus on the customer experience, financial success and operational efficiency, and any community service or outreach programs. Each applicant documented their individual achievements along with their company’s performance. The ranking on the MSP 501 was factored into along with judges ratings on each leader’s contribution to the industry.
This year’s finalists for Executive of the Year:
Pamela Diaz, CEO & President, Entara
Amber Bardon, CEO Parasol Alliance
Christian Pacheco, Managing Director, Virtual IT Group
Evan Desjardins, Founder & CEO, RoundTable Technology
A time-honored tradition at the gala is the presentation of the Lifetime Achievement Award. Each year, a past winner presents the award to the new honoree. This award is for an executive who has demonstrated commitment, perseverance, creativity and ingenuity throughout his or her entire career. To qualify, an applicant was required to describe what they had done to distinguish themselves in the IT channel over their career in various leadership roles or growing an organization to new levels of success. Judges reviewed a host of factors related to each individual’s career including the implementation of a strategy or process that solved problems, a pivot that changed the course of the business, a focus on recruiting exceptional talent and how the individual demonstrated continuous innovation over the years. Judges also examined how this person’s career shaped their leadership style and how the nominee advanced their company’s technology and maintained its commitment to unparalleled service. Judges looked for an extraordinary individual who sets his or her company apart from the rest over a long period of time in the tech channel.
Finalists for the Lifetime Achievement Award are:
Chance Weaver, President, I.T. Responsive
Joe McCartney, Founder, CEO & President, Pioneer-360
Phil Robinson, Owner & CTO, i.t.NOW
Vinod Paul, COO, Align
The MSP of the Year Award is given to companies that demonstrate business model innovation and excellence in business efficiency and agility in the face of an evolving market. The awards go to the industry’s high-performance and high-achieving MSPs that not only place prominently on the Channel Futures MSP 501 list but go above and beyond when it comes to customer expertise, employee satisfaction, relationships with vendors and suppliers, and commitment to improving the MSP industry. These awards are presented based on each company’s application describing their business accomplishments and industry impact. While the Channel Futures MSP 501 rankings are determined by a complex methodology that factors in many business metrics, this award goes beyond, looking for MSPs that truly set themselves apart from all others.
Finalists for this year’s MSP of the Year:
The Newcomer of the Year Award recognizes a company for its ability to break through and join the ranks of the Channel Futures MSP 501. (Although this year two of the finalists are from the NextGen 101.) The award is bestowed upon a first timer that is shaking things up in the managed services industry by its actions, brand, voice of its leader or by its sheer passion for this business. To qualify, organizations documented their company’s journey, including its history, market positioning, business model and current go-to-market strategy. Judges examined each organization’s unique business model and how it has propelled the company forward in a highly competitive market. Newcomers are also judged on their ability to quickly adapt and adopt new working practices to survive.
This year’s finalists for the Newcomer of the Year Award are the following:
The Vanguard Award is bestowed on a company that demonstrates thought leadership when it comes to digital transformation. The judges assessed each nominee’s ability to sell advanced digital services and how the sale of those services contributed to the company’s overall financial success. The finalists all demonstrated an ability to think outside the box by challenging the status quo. Each nominee documented how they were deploying technology inside their organizations to reduce teams’ workloads and help add more value to the company and how all of these elements contribute to revenue and profit growth.
This year’s finalists are:
New this year is recognition for the top-performing Cloud MSP of the Year. Given the growth of public and private cloud offerings, along with the growing reliance of channel partners on the hyperscalers — AWS, Google and Azure — this is an especially coveted award. These organizations were selected based on their performance in the Channel Futures MSP 501 where specific cloud metrics were analyzed. This award spotlights organizations that landed on the Channel Futures MSP 501 based on the depth of their cloud-focused solutions. These companies said their primary or secondary business models were cloud focused with at least 20% of their revenue in 2022 coming from cloud services and products. Channel Futures researchers also examined the strength of each organization’s cloud offerings, its cloud recurring revenue, the cloud vendors they partner and the overall robustness of their cloud business across software, security, networking and professional services. The Cloud MSP of the year represents the best in cloud-based managed services.
The finalists for this year’s award are:
CATS Technology Solutions Group
Also new this year is the Security MSP of the Year. For many MSPs, cybersecurity services are the backbone of their organization with security monitoring, protection and attack prevention representing a majority of their revenue. Given the importance of cybersecurity, Channel Futures is honoring those MSP 501 companies that have achieved outstanding performance in the security services market. These organizations are not only among the highest ranked companies on the list but have invested deeply in cybersecurity skills, talent and resources. These companies, which include MSSPs and MSPs, put a premium on cybersecurity through their business models, customer engagements, recurring revenue streams and supplier relationships. The award is based on financial performance along with the depth of cybersecurity solutions offered.
The finalists are:
The top-performing members of the NextGen 101 list will also be honored during the MSP 501 Awards Gala. These channel partners, focused on emerging technologies, are among the fastest growing and most innovative in the industry today. The NextGen list honors companies that represent the future of the technology channel. These organizations are often led by either young entrepreneurs or seasoned veterans who have pivoted their careers from the vendor or supplier side to run a partner organization. They are the most watched of all partners by their peers, suppliers and potential investors, as they represent a new way of engaging with customers and vendors. This list, which is pulled from MSP 501 applicants, represents MSPs and IT technology providers that are building tech businesses that will reshape the industry. These are young, formative organizations are considered trailblazers.
Companies being honored include:
This next award is significant in recognizing the accomplishments of women in tech channels. During the MSP 501 Awards Gala, woman-led and/or woman-owned MSPs will be recognized for their performance on this year’s Channel Futures MSP 501 list. These organizations are among the highest performing on the list and have made significant contributions to the industry. Over the past several years there has been a spotlight on the challenges women leaders face in the channel and the lack of women represented in the C-suite or in senior leadership positions in the vendor, supplier and partner community. This award recognizes organizations whose fortunes are tied to the influence and leadership of a woman or group of women leaders.
Companies being recognized include:
The third new award this year recognizes the Disruptor of the Year. It goes to a company that challenges current business models and product and service offerings by using innovative approaches to enter new markets and gain new customers, all while increasing revenue. As part of the MSP 501 application process and analysis, we ask channel partners of all business types to provide detailed information on their technology solutions and customer engagements. This data gives our research team the ability to develop benchmarks in a wide range of areas such as cloud, cybersecurity, growth rates and profitability, among others. From that we compile a list of disruptors based on their go-to-market strategy. In today’s industry, companies perceived and branded as channel disruptors are investing in leading-edge solutions, maintaining above-industry growth rates and bringing innovations that enable clients to realize their goals and beat the competition. We compiled our disruptors using a blend of science and art, with our editorial team and research experts providing the best possible guidelines around what defines a true channel disruptor.
This year’s finalists are:
The third new award this year recognizes the Disruptor of the Year. It goes to a company that challenges current business models and product and service offerings by using innovative approaches to enter new markets and gain new customers, all while increasing revenue. As part of the MSP 501 application process and analysis, we ask channel partners of all business types to provide detailed information on their technology solutions and customer engagements. This data gives our research team the ability to develop benchmarks in a wide range of areas such as cloud, cybersecurity, growth rates and profitability, among others. From that we compile a list of disruptors based on their go-to-market strategy. In today’s industry, companies perceived and branded as channel disruptors are investing in leading-edge solutions, maintaining above-industry growth rates and bringing innovations that enable clients to realize their goals and beat the competition. We compiled our disruptors using a blend of science and art, with our editorial team and research experts providing the best possible guidelines around what defines a true channel disruptor.
This year’s finalists are:
Channel Futures has announced the list of finalists for the 2023 MSP 501 Special Awards honoring top-performing managed service provider organizations and executives for their achievements and accomplishments. The awards include Lifetime Achievement, MSP of the Year, Executive of the Year and Woman-Led/Owned MSPs of the Year.
Winners will be named and honored Nov. 1 at the Channel Futures MSP 501 Awards Gala held at this year’s Channel Futures Leadership Summit at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach.
In keeping with tradition, awards will be presented in two phases. During the first, MSPs will be recognized for their performance on the 2023 Channel Futures MSP 501 and NextGen 101 lists. Those lists rank MSPs based on data provided by each channel partner during the application process. The MSP 501 Special Awards are presented during the second phase. These application-based awards recognize outstanding industry contributions by an organization or individual.
The finalists for this year’s awards include outstanding organizations and executives. Applications for the MSP 501 Special Awards were first reviewed by the Channel Futures editorial and content team then sent to a panel of judges representing some of the most prominent individuals in the channel. The judges carefully reviewed the merits of each application then voted on the top individual or organization for each award. Those votes were then tallied by our editorial team to determine the winners.
Hundreds of the most influential MSPs will be on hand for the ceremony as Channel Futures ushers in the newest slate of winners. The annual event attracts a who’s who of the MSP and channel partner community and is the highlight of the fall event.
See the slideshow above to find out who’s in the running for the 2023 MSP 501 Special Awards.
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