Honoring The Best IT Vendors For The Midmarket: The 2013 XCellence Awards

Midmarket-Focused IT Vendors Win XCellence Awards

The coveted XCellence Awards recognize the leading vendors catering to the IT needs and challenges of midmarket organizations today. More than 215 IT decision-makers cast their votes at this year's Midsize Enterprise Summit (MES) West conference, the world's largest gathering of midmarket CIOs, which was held at the JW Marriott Desert Ridge in Phoenix.

These awards measure attendees' perceptions of sponsor products, services and presentations during the event. The vendors had three days filled with opportunities to network with customers, partners, industry analysts and peers, present products and solutions to the IT executive audience, nurture existing business relationships and build new ones. The attending IT executives honor and value their commitment to the midmarket. Congratulations to all of the winners.

Best Midmarket Solution, Hardware

Winner: HP Intel
Nominees: Ruckus Wireless, Scale Computing, ShoreTel


HP presented its myriad of midmarket-focused products to the MES audience. Its server, storage, laptops, desktops, printers, monitors and other hardware offerings make it a continuous leader among its midmarket IT competitors. HP has also won this award twice in 2012.

Best Midmarket Solution, Software

Winner: Information Builders
Nominees: Condusiv Technologies, Dell SecureWorks, Interneer


This is the second consecutive category win this year for Information Builders as it was also voted to have the best midmarket software solution at MES East this past April. Its business intelligence, business analytics, integration and integrity (data quality) solutions help midmarket organizations unify their systems and information to improve the execution of mission-critical tasks, as well as to improve strategic planning and decision-making at all levels.

Best Midmarket Solution, Managed Solutions

Winner: Dell SecureWorks
Nominees: Igloo Software, ShoreTel, Xerox


This is the fourth consecutive category win for Dell SecureWorks as it was the yearly winner of the award in both 2012 and 2013. It offers managed solutions such as log monitoring, security device management, security monitoring, managed intrusion prevention technology and services, vulnerability management and Web security. "Our entire approach to information security is understanding and predicting future threats," said Jeff Multz, director of North America midmarket sales, in a release about the company's win. "Since we began in 1999, one of our primary focuses has been on meeting the security needs of the midsize enterprise market to help organizations secure their networks."

Best Solutions, Pavilion Booth Strategy

Winner: HP Intel
Nominees: Information Builders, Koi Consulting Group, ShoreTel


HP has always presented a phenomenal booth that stands out among the sea of booths in the solutions pavilions at MES events, and it surely did not disappoint at MES West 2013. Its modern furniture promoting networking with confirmed and potential customers, its bright blue lights and its impeccable signage have always drawn a crowd.

Most Innovative Technology Vendor

Winner: ShoreTel
Nominees: Condusiv Technologies, Information Builders, Scale Computing


This category is important because technology innovation is undoubtedly the driver of business transformation today, and ShoreTel is in the forefront of that innovation wave engulfing the midmarket. Its ShoreTel Dock, the product that landed ShoreTel this win, is among several unified communications (UC) system offerings including business phone systems, applications and mobile UC solutions. ShoreTel Dock is the industry's first business-grade docking station that transforms iPhones and iPads into desk phones when paired with ShoreTel Mobility. "ShoreTel is honored to have been recognized again at MES West," David Petts, senior vice president of worldwide sales at ShoreTel, said in a recent press release of the win.

Best Execution Of A Midmarket IT Solution

Winner: Scale Computing
Nominees: Information Builders, LifeSize, ShoreTel


Scale Computing, a midmarket-focused developer of hyper-converged solutions, has grown to over 1,000 deployments since the launch of its first scale-out storage solution in 2009. It has since expanded to offer HC3, its hyper-converged solution that integrates storage, servers and virtualization into a scalable, turnkey infrastructure that makes management easy for midmarket IT executives. This IT solution is always well received by the MES audience and continually lands Scale XCellence Awards wins each year.

Best Demonstration Of ROI

Winner: Scale Computing
Nominees: Condusiv Technologies, HP Intel, Interneer, ShoreTel


This is Scale Computing's second "best demonstration of ROI" category win this year. Its products and solutions have proved to have strong ROI for midmarket IT customers through its quick fire session, boardroom and solutions pavilion networking engagements with the audience.

Best Boardroom Presentation

Winner: ShoreTel
Nominees: HP Intel, Information Builders, Interneer


The goal of the boardrooms is for IT vendors to have the opportunity to present their midmarket solutions to a small peer group of 15-18 executives based on a specific technology interest, which are paired to align with that vendor's solutions. The ShoreTel team always retains the IT executive audience's attention in the boardrooms with the team's bright orange shirts, giveaways and engaging presentations.

Best Executive Presentation (Keynotes And Tech Symposiums)

Winner: HP Intel
Nominees: LifeSize, Ruckus Wireless, VMware


Vendor keynotes, full 30-minute exclusive theater-style presentations, and tech symposiums, shorter back-to-back presentations similar to vendor keynotes, are both great ways for MES event sponsors to reach the entire midmarket IT executive audience in one shot. Capturing and holding their attention while a long list of "to do's" are running through their minds and mobile devices at hand is something Aaron Mills, vice president of U.S. midsize commercial sales at HP, has perfected.

Best Quick Fire Vendor

Winner: Scale Computing
Nominees: Igloo Software, Mango Apps, SAS


The high-energy quick fire sessions are a unique aspect of MES, which put a line-up of sponsors on the main stage to present their pitches to the full audience. Each sponsor has 3 minutes on the countdown clock to entertain and make a lasting impression, or go down in flames. Vendors wear costumes, sing songs, play instruments, act out scenes and do all sorts of other forms of entertainment to draw the audience members to their booth in the solutions pavilion. This year, Scale Computing covered the song "Imagine" by the Beatles and added "no V-tax" (what they call the extra fees their competitors charge) to the lyrics. The company's CTO, Jason Collier, played the song live from his tablet piano app and really engaged the audience. Scale Computing also won this award at the 2012 MES West conference.

Best Of Show

Winner: HP Intel
Nominees: Information Builders, Scale Computing, ShoreTel


This is HP | Intel's fourth consecutive Best of Show win over the past two years. "We get tremendous value out of our participation with MES and the midsize customer community. The result of which has been incredible validation of HP's strategy and execution in the midmarket space, and we are delighted with the response that we received in Phoenix from the midsize customer community," said Aaron Mills, vice president of U.S. midsize commercial and inside sales for HP | Intel, on the coveted Best Of Show win.