7 August 2008

Cisco's Growing with Technology Award winners announced

Polish businesses recognized for innovative use of networking technology.

by Annie Waite, Global Editor, the Internal Comms Hub

Cisco, a leading networking solutions provider, has revealed the winners of its first annual Growing with Technology Awards competition.

The award, created to recognize the most innovative uses of networking technology by small and medium-sized businesses, was presented on July 31 in Warsaw (pictured below).

Improving everyday tasks
The Awards program is aimed at recognizing successful integration of information and communications technology (ICT) solutions into everyday operations at work.

The winners receive Cisco equipment worth US$50,000 in total, as well as service and support for a year.

This year’s finalists included:
• one of the largest Polish internet retail shops;
• an outsourcing company for information and communications technology;
• an agency providing professional marketing services;
• a municipal heating company from central Poland;
• a local telecommunications service provider; and
• the Polish subsidiary of one of the world’s leading specialists in the field of industrial and factory automation.

Judging panel:
The entries were evaluated by a jury including Tomasz Kulisiewicz, a Polish ICT market expert and analyst; Jacek Pochlopien, deputy chief editor of Forbes Polska magazine; and Jaroslaw Kubicki, marketing and SMB sales manager at Cisco Poland.Winners of the Awards are also recognized for using networking technology in innovative ways. Prizes were awarded in 2 categories:

1. Customer Relationships.
2. Operational Excellence.

Faster collaboration
In the Customer Relationships category, the first prize went to Klonex-VCS PUH Sp. z o.o., an ICT outsourcing services company.

It was recognized for the way it's using internet and web solutions to improve internal communications and foster collaboration between divisions.

The company also introduced a remote support service for its clients that allows technicians to troubleshoot problems without having to be physically present.

Making connections
In the Operational Excellence category, the Slaskie Sieci Swiatlowodowe company took first prize. This telecommunications service provider successfully applied new web 2.0 technologies that improved its management capabilities, collaboration and internal processes.

Wojciech Apel (pictured, right), vice president of Slaskie Sieci Swiatlowodowe spoke with the Hub earlier this week about the reasons his company was chosen for the award. "Since the founding of our company in 2002, we have been using a wiki-based intranet (Twiki) to deal with our internal data flux. We use this system... to post notes, projects-in-progress and technical documentation."

"For network mapping we use our own software, based on maps.google.com functionality, which lets us present and discuss it online with our clients, and allows for checking from virtually any place, a plan of our network grid," Apel said.

Have your say
Do you struggle to introduce web 2.0 technologies to help streamline communication processes at your organization? What innovations have improved your internal processes?

Other recommendations:

Melcrum's Communicators' Network scoops SIPA award

Cisco signs Brad Whitworth for senior comms role

Building a global culture in a matrixed organization

Evolving the intranet at Cisco Systems

Got a news story? Contact the newsdesk

News archive