Kiwi Golds in Microsoft Worldwide Partner awards

Provoke has been named Country Partner of the Year in the 2011 Microsoft Worldwide Partner of the Year awards, with GreenButton bringing home gold as the global winner of the Windows Azure ISV Partner of the Year.GreenButton was also a finalist in both the BizSpark Parnter of the Year and Tech & High Performance Computing Partner of the Year categories, while NV Interactive was a finalist for the Web Development Partner of the Year award.Paul Muckleston, Microsoft New Zealand managing director, says GreenButton, Provoke and NV Interactive delivered ‘innovative, creative and superior Microsoft solutions and services, and stamped the Kiwi mark on the world as a hub for technology innovation’.Vivian Morresey, GreenButton chief marketing officer, says the recognition brought by the globally accepted and recognised award will help grow and drive new sales for the company, allowing it to position itself ‘as real market innovators, instead of a "who, from where”.’Provoke’s win of the coveted Country Partner of the Year Award 2011 follows a double-win at the awards in 2010. "As a design-lead software agency, we’ve worked really hard to build a reputation for delivering leading-edge solutions on the Microsoft platform, with an obvious niche in SharePoint 2010,” says Mason Pratt, chief executive of Provoke. NV Interactive was recognised for its work delivering ‘compelling live web experiences for New Zealand cricket players and fans alike’ using Microsoft technologies. Says Matt Pickering, NV Interactive managing director: "The Worldwide Partner Awards represent our World Cup and we’re thrilled to be recognised on the global stage for the wide range of innovative solutions we have delivered for New Zealand Cricket.”Award winners and finalists were chosen from nearly 3500 entries submitted by partners in more than 200 countries. Winners and finalists will be recognised at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference 2011 in early July.