CNME hosts seventh annual ICT Achievement Awards

Computer News Middle East, last night, once again brought together prominent industry stakeholders from across the region, as it celebrated leadership and excellence in the ICT industry in a glittering ceremony at the seventh annual ICT Achievement Awards.

Held at the Conrad Hotel in Dubai, a blend of the top vendors and end-users were commended for their efforts in creating new value using technology through innovation. Be it pioneering a new technology or applying an existing technology to a new purpose, these organisations and individuals are setting the standard for the rest of the region.

The winners who were named during the awards gala has been selected after a rigorous application and review process by a panel of judges comprising CIOs, academics and consultants. This year’s esteemed panel of judges was comprised of industry pundits Ghazi Atallah, CEO, NexGen Advisory Group; Ian Wakeford, MD, DW Consultants; Javed Abbasi, Principal Consultant, GISBA; MN Chaturvedi, Director of IT, Oasis Investment Company.

The evening also saw keynote addresses from Abubaker Almarzooqi, Senior Director, Etisalat UAE, and Mohammed Amin, Vice President, Turkey, Middle East and Africa, Dell EMC.

The awards proceedings started out with the Deployment Categories followed by the Vendor Categories and then the End-user Categories. Scooping the two main individual accolades were Awad Ahmed Ali El-Siddig of ADNOC Distribution, who was named ‘Future CIO of the year’, and Sebastian Samuel Chief Information Officer, AW Rostamani Group, who won the coveted ‘CIO of the year’.

Two esteemed organisations were also presented with the ‘Editor’s Choice Award.’ The winners of the editor’s choice awards were chosen by the CNME editorial team for displaying excellence in innovation and strategic use of technology. The ‘Editor’s Choice Award for the Public Sector’ was presented to Ministry of Interior, Saudi Arabia while the second ‘Editor’s Choice Award’ was received by McDonald’s.

Here is the full list of winners:

Deployment
Government deployment of the year: General Civil Aviation Authority
BFSI deployment of the year: Emirates Islamic
Education deployment of the year: Hamdan Bin Mohammed Smart University
Construction and real estate deployment of the year: Aldar Properties
Telecom deployment of the year: Mobily
Retail deployment of the year: Al Safeer Group
Hospitality and tourism sector: Gulf Air
Healthcare deployment of the year: Canadian Specialist Hospital
Energy sector deployment of the year: ADNOC Distribution

Vendors

Hardware vendor of the year: Dell EMC
Software vendor of the year: SAP
Security Solutions Provider of the Year: Help AG
Security vendor of the year: Palo Alto Networks
Storage solutions provider of the year: Pure Storage
Managed services provider of the year: eHosting DataFort
Systems integrator of the year: TransSys Solutions

End-user
IT team of the year: AECOM Middle East
Future CIO of the year: Awad Ahmed Ali El-Siddig, ADNOC Distribution
CIO of the year: Sebastian Samuel, AW Rostamani Group

Editor’s choice:
Ministry of Interior, Saudi Arabia
McDonald’s