Datacom and Intergen are leading the charge for awards in this year's Microsoft New Zealand Partner Awards, with Datacom a finalist in eight categories and Intergen a finalist in six, while Dicker Data, Exeed and Rhipe will battle it out for the distributor of the year award.

Intergen is vying for top honours in the cloud enterprise, data analytics, devices and deployment, marketing with Intergen's Andrew Kosmodakis also up for an individual award as partner seller.

Meanwhile, Datacom is a finalist in the cloud enterprise, cloud platform, collaboration and content communications, CRM and volume licensing categories, while two staff are up for individual awards with James Stainton up for partner seller and sales specialist where he will go head to head with colleague James David.

Microsoft New Zealand says it received a record number of submissions for the awards, now in their ninth year.

The awards, New Zealand's biggest technology awards, recognise excellence in the IT sector from companies who integrate Microsoft solutions into their products and services to accelerate innovation and go above and beyond customer expectations.

Brent Kendrick Microsoft New Zealand director for small and midmarket solutions and partner, says this year's awards saw an even broader range of entries.

“We were happy to see a good mix of new and old, large and small partners entering compelling IT solutions in their submissions,” Kendrick says.

“The relevance and impact of cloud computing continues to be a strong theme this year and the finalist partners are, by no accident, those that are transforming their businesses most intentionally and effectively toward cloud-based services.

This year's awards include a new special internal recognition category for top partner seller, recognising partners who are not only best-in-class solution sellers, but who also collaborate most effectively with Microsoft's team to deliver value to customers.

Kendrick says the category is unique in that it finalists are nominated by the Microsoft New Zealand sales team, rather than partners submitting projects themselves.

Kiwi companies have also traditionally done well in the Microsoft Global Partner Awards program, which will take place in July this year in Toronto, Canada.

“New Zealand has tended to punch above its weight in this global competition, as we celebrated two global winners and four global finalists in 2015,” Kendrick says.

He says the Microsoft headquarters team has taken special notice of the internal recognition category debuting here this year and will include it as a new category at the global level as well.

“Last year we included our new Marketing Partner of the Year award as a local New Zealand award for the first time ever.

“The Microsoft team in our Redmond headquarters loved this idea as well and have now included a similar marketing category in this year's Global Partner Awards,” Kendrick says.

The New Zealand Partner Award winners will be announced at a black tie dinner in Auckland on 31 March.

The full list of finalists is:

Cloud Enterprise: Dimension Data, Fujitsu, Intergen

Cloud Platform: Atmospheric, Datacom, NV Interactive, Timely

Cloud SMB: ComputerCare, IT Engine, Kinetics, Softsource

Collaboration and Content: Datacom, Information Leadership, Leapthought, Theta

Communications: Datacom, Lexel, Spark Digital

CRM: Datacom, Fusion5, Intergen, Magnetism

Data Analytics: Altis Consulting, Enlighten Designs, Intergen

Datacenter: CCL, Dimension Data, Spark Digital

Devices and Deployment: Fujitsu, Intergen

Distribution: Dicker Data, Exeed, Rhipe

Education: Cyclone, Enlighten Designs, New Era IT, pcMedia

ERP: Sable37, Theta

Hosting: MHA Cloud Computing, OneNet, Revera, Softsource

Innovative Software Product: 11 Ants Analytics, Datacom, Eight Wire, Putti

Innovative Technology for Good Citizenship: Fujitsu, Fusion5, NV Interactive

Learning: Auldhouse, Kinetics, Ripped Orange

Marketing: Acquire, Intergen, Provoke, Revera

Partner Seller: Andrew Kosmodakis - Intergen; James Stainton - Datacom; Justin Whelan – Spark Digital

Rising Star: AcrePC, Inde, SecureCom, Timely

Sales Specialist: Craig Davis – Dimension Data; David Ollason – Spark Digital; James David - Datacom; James Stainton - Datacom

Volume Licensing: Datacom, Insight, Spark Digital

Windows App Developer: Lazyworms Apps, NV Interactive