Johannesburg, 08 Dec 2015
The Venue at Melrose Arch, Johannesburg, recently played host to an Academy Awards-style, black-tie event and auction for the APC by Schneider Electric (Schneider Electric's IT business unit) channel partner programme.
Over the last 18 months, the APC by Schneider Electric team, together with its dedicated channel partner programme manager for Southern Africa, has focused on growing and uplifting the current partner programme. APC by Schneider Electric has demonstrated exceptional dedication in working with its partners at all levels by continually striving to be the most coveted, best-in-class, channel partner programme.
The awards evening recognised the efforts of the South African partners' best-in-class practices and celebrated the growth of the channel, both now and into the future. The channel partner programme, which covers distribution to system integration, has seen an increase of over 300% on the previous year.
After the welcoming drinks and presentation from Bruce Grobler, the vice president for Schneider Electric's southern African IT business unit, partners were recognised with the following awards:
* Elite partner of the year: Plessey
* Most certified individual: Shaffee Aziz, Plessey
* Newcomer award: Hitech - Gregfor Infrastructure
* Most certified partner: Diesel Electric Services
* Distributor of the year: Mustek Limited
* E & S distributor of the year: Drive Control Corporation
* Services partner of the year: XON Systems
* Premier direct partner of the year: Hitech - Gregfor Infrastructure
* DCIM / Netbotz partner of the year: Diesel Electric Services
* Sustainability distributor of the year: Mustek Limited
* ET Channel Partner of the year: Northern Enclosures and Powder Coaters (trading as Vennic)
No black tie event would be complete without a silent auction, and this event was no exception.
"Schneider Electric is passionate about sustainability, so for the event we teamed up with Green Beings with the mission to alleviate the risk and resulting devastation of shack fires in the townships," said Grobler. "We decided to auction off the 2015 Sustainability Award of the Year to the highest bidder, and we were overwhelmed by the response from our generous partners."
The auction raised R590 888 and Schneider Electric will put this amount towards the purchase and distribution of 1,688 Mobiya portable off-grid lighting units; these solar powered portable LED lamps with a built in mobile charger offer innovative, reliable and affordable products for people living without access to electricity. The highest bidder at the auction was XON Systems with its whopping donation of R206 000 with Schneider Electric's own Grobler matching the partner donations.
Speaking of the event Grobler said: "Schneider Electric's growing global partner network is an integral part of our overall growth strategy, and this year's award recipients have demonstrated both a substantial impact on, and commitment to, customers and those less fortunate than ourselves. By showcasing strong expertise and delivery capability, these winners are helping our customers rapidly transform their business infrastructure. And with their outstanding generosity, almost 2 000 families in the townships will have safe, reliable lighting. That is truly illuminating."
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