Business Support Awards 2009 – finalists announced

PRESS RELEASE FROM BIZZONE
Re: Vero Excellence in Business Support Awards 2009 – finalists announced
Embargoed until 3pm 19 December 2008

NZ’s best business support companies positive

Better business support is improving the lot of thousands of Kiwi companies, helping them ride through the world economic crisis.

Finalists for the 2009 Vero Excellence in Business Support Awards are upbeat about the economy and innovative in services they are providing to support New Zealand companies according to the evaluation panel. There was a record number of entries for the 2009 awards and the quality of finalists was a notch higher than previous years.

The Vero Excellence in Business Support Awards are held annually. Sponsored by Vero, BDO Spicers and National Business Review and founded by business sector specialist, Sarah Trotman of Bizzone, the awards are a key event during the annual Bizzone Business Expo, New Zealand's largest event for business. The winners will be announced on 28 May in Auckland at a gala black-tie dinner attended by 600 people.

Entries for 2009 were stronger than ever says Bizzone managing director Sarah Trotman. “New Zealand businesses are being well supported by companies that are not buying into the doom and gloom mentality,” she says. “The evaluators were thoroughly impressed by the quality and number of entries – choosing winners this year will be extremely difficult.”

The award finalists were from large, small, private, government sector and not-for-profit organisations – all with an interest in supporting business in New Zealand Sarah Trotman says. “They included business advisers, educators, government departments, councils, product suppliers, information technology businesses and service industry companies; altogether the support services being offered by these companies are truly inspirational.”

Finalists were spread throughout New Zealand with government and Chamber of Commerce sectors having particularly strong entries; finalists from these categories included The Otago Chamber of Commerce, Rotorua Chamber of Commerce, Southland Enterprises Incorporated, Manukau City Council, Dunedin Economic Development (Dunedin City Council) and South Waikato District Council, Department of Labour - Immigration New Zealand, Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC), Ministry of Economic Development, Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand and Ministry of Social Development.

Some of the country’s largest companies are also finalists: Telecom, Kiwibank, Converga, Zeacom and Working In Limited will all compete in the Large business $10 million+ category.

Individual finalists for 2009 are Andrew Hamilton, CEO, The ICEHOUSE (Auckland) and Mike Tournier, Business Development Manager, carboNZero programme Landcare Research (Christchurch).

2009 marks Vero's fifth year as Foundation Sponsor of the Excellence in Business Support' Awards. Vero was awarded a Gold Medal by the New Zealand Business Excellence Foundation in 2008 for its own business excellence programme, one of only two organisations currently at this level. Roger Bell, Chief Executive of Vero Insurance, the Foundation Sponsor of the awards, says, “Having won gold for business excellence we recognise the great value of providing excellence in business support. We congratulate all of those who entered this year’s awards and this year's finalists who are providing business support in so many innovative ways to businesses throughout New Zealand. This support is invaluable to so many companies, and now even more so, as we all face a more challenging world economy.

“It is inspiring to see the increasing numbers of entrants who demonstrate international levels of best practice in their businesses and quality support as a key part of their business.”

The 49 finalists were selected by The New Zealand Business Excellence Foundation to provide an independent and robust evaluation process for the awards’ 12 categories.

“Good business support assists New Zealand businesses to build capability and capacity and in doing so they become more competitive and sustainable,” says Mike Watson, chief executive of the New Zealand Business Excellence Foundation.

“Companies offering excellent business support demonstrate a clear understanding of their customers and markets, have an understanding of customer requirements and knowledge of whether or not they are meeting customer requirements. This is backed up by business results demonstrating that they are successful, for example in the areas of customer satisfaction, customer retention, referrals and repeat orders.

“In finalists we look for organisations that demonstrate they have robust processes in place to address key business and stakeholder/customer requirements. The delivery of products and services should be based on sound processes and the business should demonstrate clear direction and specific objectives to achieve success. Most importantly we look for evidence of success via the outputs and outcomes from business processes.”

The 2008 overall Vero Excellence in Business Support Awards winner was MYOB.

Vero Excellence in Business Support Awards Finalists for 2009

Business < $5m T/O One on one Offering
Mobile Mentor Ltd
Kerridge & Partners
RimuHosting
Datum Connect Ltd
Franchize Consultants
WHK Business Growth

Business < $5m T/O One to many Offering
The Bottom Line
VIVA-LITE
Jericho
Rotorua Chamber of Commerce
Doubledot Media Ltd
GeoSmart
Xero

Business $5-10M T/O
Results.com
MedRecruit

Large Business > $10m T/O
Telecom
Kiwibank
Converga
Zeacom
Working In Limited

Not-for-Profit
AUT Business Innovation Centre
The Otago Chamber of Commerce
Southland Enterprises Incorporated
New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants

Local Government body
Manukau City Council
Dunedin Ecconomic Development (Dunedin City Council)
South Waikato District Council

Government Department
The Foundation for Research, Science and Technology
Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand
Department of Labour - Immigration New Zealand
Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC)

Education provider
Leadership NZ
The AUT Business School
New Zealand School of Export
The ICEHOUSE
Upstart Incubation Trustee Company Ltd

Public-private sector partnership
Ministry of Economic Development
Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand
Ministry of Social Development
Dunedin City Council / Chamber of Commerce

High growth sector
Landcare Research - carboNZero programme
The Interface Financial Group
AUT Business Innovation Centre
Movac

Individual
Landcare Research - carboNZero programme
The ICEHOUSE

Sustainable Development in Business
Landcare Research - carboNZero programme
Southland Enterprises Incorporated
exception interiors ltd

ENDS

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