In one word, many describe 2020 as a year of shocking, grief, crazy, fear, unprecedented, frustrating, surreal, sad, challenging, worrisome, crazy and WT#. Feel free to add your own adjective…..
This year, more than ever, we were about helping our families, friends, neighbours and our channel community. No one was a stranger anymore.
We saw so many amazing people step up to the challenge to do the same in 2020 and this Reseller Choice Awards is dedicated to these courageous people who just did whatever they had to do to make it through and help others at the same time.
As such, we added three new awards this year…
Best Support During The Pandemic which went to ITCLoud (a Microsoft cloud distributor). Best Virtual Event went to Sherweb (a Microsoft cloud distributor) and Best Channel Chief went to Rob Rae of Datto. You only need to get to know these 3 winners to understand why they won this top spot. Their passion for what they do simply shines through. More articles to come on this next level of abilities.
It was very interesting to see how the channel voted and ranked companies in all of the categories. The best overall vendor was also a big achievement and the top spot went to Lenovo.
The other big win for Best Distributor went to Ingram Micro for the first time. The first 12 years were dominated by Tech Data. Last year Synnex took over the top spot. It’s interesting to see the historic voting patterns in this category over the past decade.
If your company was nominated in any of the 68 categories, then it meant that channel partners voted for you as the best from their perspective. If your name was not on this list, well that is something that we cannot answer. If you were ranked in the top 3 finalist, you can rest assured that you did an outstanding job in the channel and it did not go unnoticed!
Well, if you won the #1 spot, then you know what it means. For all others, maybe you will step up bigger in 2021. Remember this is like an election where you need to get your voters out to vote.
Every year, we get asked “why does the Reseller Choice Awards matter?” To us it’s obvious as it’s the only award that you can “WIN” or better yet “EARN” if your channel partners voted for you AND you got the most votes! Not sure what could be a better recognition to receive in the IT Channel, than when your customers vote for you!
We get asked a lot “did we win?”. The final announcements are only made at the awards gala. Over 80% of the finalists attend and the winners get the big channel recognition as well as a chance to thank those who voted for them. Noting says you are doing a great job better than votes from your customers.
So, there were 637 vendors and distributors nominated in the 2020 Reseller Choice Awards. 68 categories were up for awards. Canadian channel partners voted between November 1st 2020 to January 15th 2021. Over these 2.5 months, we constantly invited our eChannelNEWS and ChannelNEXT Canadian communities of channel partners (over 8,000 VARs, MSPs, ITSPs and MSSPs) to vote at www.choiceawards.ca. The companies with the most votes won.
This year was the first virtual event of the Canadian Awards Gala. It ran just over 3.5 hours on Feb 4. It went much longer than expected. Winners had many great things to say. This time matters for people who did their very best and to set the example for others to follow. We congratulate and honour them.
This time we also “live streamed” the event on YouTube, FaceBook and LinkedIn. It was a test of things to come as we will be live-streaming most of what we do in 2021. A new-normal for us.
Now labelled as an essential service, IT companies were responsible for keeping everyone connected, working remotely and ensuring vital health systems as well as all governmental organizations to be up and running! Can you imagine the outcome of this pandemic without technology to keep us connected?
The winners for the 2020 Reseller Choice Awards are:
If there was one vendor who dominated the awards, it would be Microsoft. They won in just about every category they play in. Microsoft played a monumental role for so many during the pandemic.
| Best Of Category Name | First Place | Second Place | Third Place |
| Best AI Application | Scale AI | Cognitive Scale | |
| Best Anti-Spam | ESET | Microsoft | BitDefender |
| Best Anti-Virus | ESET | BitDefender | Sophos |
| Best Big Data Solution | Microsoft | IBM | DellEMC |
| Best Broad-Based Distributor | Ingram Micro | Synnex | Tech-Data |
| Best Business Notebook | Lenovo | HP | Dell |
| Best Business Printer | HP | Lexmark | Xerox |
| Best Business Projector | Epson | InFocus | NEC/BenQ |
| Best Business Router | Cisco | Fortinet | Sonicwall |
| Best Business Workstation | Lenovo | HP | Dell |
| Best Channel Chief | Rob Rae – Datto | Greg Salter – Zebra | Andrew Sage – Cisco |
| Best Cloud Backup and Disaster Recovery | Datto | Veeam | ITCloud.ca |
| Best Cloud Platform | Microsoft | ITCloud.ca | Sherweb |
| Best Cloud Storage | Microsoft | AWS | Dropbox |
| Best Cloud/SaaS Distributor | ITCloud.ca | Ingram Micro | Sherweb |
| Best Collaboration Tool | Microsoft | Datto | RingCentral |
| Best Computer Display | HP | ViewSonic | Samsung |
| Best Consumer Notebook | Lenovo | HP | Dell |
| Best CRM | Microsoft | ConnectWise | Datto |
| Best Customer Service (Distributor) | ITCloud.ca | Bluestar | Ingram Micro |
| Best Data Centre | Microsoft | Q9 – Bell | F12 Networks |
| Best Digital Document Management | Microsoft | Adobe | Open Text |
| Best Emerging Vendor | Zerto | Digital River | Backup Assist/Commvault |
| Best Endpoint Security | ESET | BitDefender | SentinelOne |
| Best ERP | Microsoft | Sage | SAP |
| Best Financial Software | Intuit | Sage | Microsoft |
| Best Firewall | Fortinet | WatchGuard | Cisco |
| Best Gaming Desktop | Asus | Dell | Lenovo |
| Best Interactive Digital Display | ViewSonic | HP | Samsung |
| Best IoT Solution | Cisco | Microsoft | Intel |
| Best IT Assessment Tool | Auvik Networks | Kaseya | WatchGuard |
| Best Label Printer | Zebra | Dymo | Brother |
| Best Mesh Wifi System | Ubiquiti Networks | Cisco | Asus |
| Best Mobile Device Management | Microsoft | SOTI | Cisco/Sophos |
| Best Mobile Scanner | PFU (Fujitsu) | Epson | Honeywell |
| Best Multi-Function Printer | HP | Lexmark | Brother |
| Best NAS | QNAP | Synology | Buffalo Technology |
| Best Network Operation Centre (NOC) | ConnectWise | ServiceNow | Solarwinds |
| Best Online Channel News Media | E-Channelnews | CDN | IT in Canada |
| Best Overall Vendor | Lenovo | Zebra | ESET/Datto |
| Best Password Management | Lastpass by LogMeIn | IT Glue | 1Password |
| Best Portable Projector | Epson | ViewSonic | InFocus |
| Best Portable Storage | WD | Seagate | Samsung |
| Best POS Vendor | Lenovo | HP | ELO |
| Best Print Managed Services | Xerox | HP | Lexmark |
| Best Product Support (Distributor) | ITCloud.ca | Bluestar | Ingram Micro |
| Best Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) | Solarwinds | Datto | NinjaRMM |
| Best Remote Work Solution | Microsoft | Splashtop | |
| Best SAN | HPE | Dell | Lenovo |
| Best Scanner | PFU (Fujitsu) | Canon | HP |
| Best SD-WAN | Cisco | Fortinet | Riverbed |
| Best Security Operation Centre (SOC) | WatchGuard | Palo Alto Networks | Arctic Wolf |
| Best Security Vendor | BitDefender | Fortinet | ESET |
| Best Server | Dell | Lenovo | HPE |
| Best Service Automation (PSA) | ConnectWise | Datto | Solarwinds |
| Best SMB/Enterprise Network Switch | Cisco | HPE | Ubiquiti Networks |
| Best SOHO Router | Cisco | Sonicwall | Ubiquiti Networks |
| Best Specialty Distributor (Non-Cloud) | Bluestar | D&H | GB Micro |
| Best Tablet | Apple | Microsoft | Samsung |
| Best Telephony (VOIP) | Cisco | Microsoft | RingCentral |
| Best UPS Battery Backup | Schneider | Eaton | Tripp Lite |
| Best Vendor Channel Program | Lenovo | Zebra | Datto |
| Best Vendor Support During Pandemic | ITCloud.ca | Lenovo | HP/Dell |
| Best Virtual Event | Sherweb | ITCloud.ca | Scansource |
| Best Virtualization Software | VMWare | Microsoft | Citrix |
Congratulations to all the winners of the 2020 Reseller Choice Awards!
Top 10 Cloud Vendors were:
1. Microsoft
2. Datto
3. VMWare
4. AWS
5. Google
6. Barracuda
7. ITCloud.ca
8.Sherweb
9. HPE
10. Ring Central
Women In Tech awards:
Jodi Bonham – Eaton
Lesley English – OCR
JoAnne Hardy – WBM
To win the cash prizes, the voters had to include their contact information when voting. To win the grand prize, the recipient had to have been live at the end of the award ceremony.
The winners of the “thank you for voting” cash prize draws of $200 each were:
Elyse Martel – Micro-Logic
Rick Taylor – PC Protex
Jason Teresko – Northern Nerds
Stéphane Trépanier – Hector Solutions
Allan White – Cassandra Management Systems
Note: Jason Teresko will be paying it forward as he will be giving this prize to a customer who recently was diagnosed with a terminal illness.
The winner of the $500 cash grand prize was Mat Berube of Leadwave.
A special thanks to all our sponsors….
Again, congratulations to all of the 2020 Winners! The next awards gala will be on February 3rd, 2022 (save the date).
Remember to subscribe to www.e-channelnews.com to keep updated!
