Vertiv has recognised the exceptional contributions that its Australia and New Zealand channel partners made to its IT and mechanical and electrical (M-E) businesses in 2021.

Vertiv has expanded its partner recognition this award season to include Emerging Partner and Champion Individual categories, praising significant industry growth.

Vertiv ANZ national M-E channel manager Bhargav Kumar Bhatt and his team have announced ten winners, awarding the company's partners for their commitment to the local channel throughout 2021, as well as the value they have brought to it.

"Business growth at a time when governments and industries were juggling trade disputes, port congestions, and several-month pandemic lockdowns would seem like a reality few and far between," Bhatt says.

"But despite the disruption, several companies have come out of these turbulent years with a backbone of resilience, and many with resources to accelerate new and innovative revenue streams.

"We believe our partners were at the vanguard of business continuity during this time.

"We would like to thank our 2021 winners and our entire team of reseller partners.

"Our success is a credit to their on-the-ground support and expertise, and we look forward to seeing this next year of business flourish under the full-line partner, offering more personalised, flexible service for any customer use case."

The winners include eight partners and two champion individuals, and all recipients celebrated their success at separate luncheons among their colleagues.

The complete list of winners includes:

Partner of the Year - SRA Solutions

Highest Sales - Natural Power Solutions

Best in Class Government - Secure Bits

Best in Class Solution Provider - Power Quality Group

Best in Class Thermal Solutions - Air Water Power

Best in Class Wholesale - Pacific Datacom

Emerging Partner M-E - Ecanet

Emerging Partner IT - Connected South Pacific

Champion Individual Technical - Scott Griffiths, SRA Solutions

Champion Individual Sales - Matt Smith, Intelli Systems

Vertiv has made strategic alliances with Ingram Micro, Tech Data and Orion to foster greater access to its offerings for end users and facilitate more channel opportunities as it continues with its plans to bring full and cohesive offerings to customers.

"We recognise the value of a true partnership model where our customers and their clients all benefit, and I'm glad to see this strategy in action with so many of our channel partners awarded for their hard work," Orion director Ross Palmer says.

"Since our inception in 1995, Orion has maintained an emphasis on supporting the products we represent and are proud to be associated with Vertiv as we continue to help organisations define their critical infrastructure needs and provide the right solutions."

The partner award celebrations come after Vertiv released its inaugural environmental, social and governance (ESG) report, the company's first public report of its ESG activities.

The report outlines Vertiv's approach to energy and water efficiency; diversity, equity and inclusion (DE-I); employee health and safety; and other ESG-related topics.

The content covered in the report serves as a baseline upon which the organisation will build future efforts, the company states.