SAN JOSE, Calif., October 25, 2006 - A New York financial services firm, a Florida healthcare provider and a Virginia international nonprofit organization are among this year's winners of the Cisco Growing with Technology Awards. Cisco® today announced the winners of its annual awards program, which recognizes small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) and nonprofit and public sector organizations for their unique adoption of networking solutions as a strategic asset to help drive business success.
One grand-prize winner and two runners-up in each of five categories were selected from more than 400 applications received by Cisco for this year's contest.
Though all applicants exhibited a distinct level of excellence in the development of their solutions, representatives from Cisco worked with a diverse panel of industry experts to narrow the broad field and select the 15 winning companies.
"Our business focuses on healthcare robotics and fundamentally relies on Cisco products and capabilities, so we were extremely proud to have received Cisco's prestigious award last year," said Yulun Wang, Ph.D., CEO of InTouch Technologies, Cisco Growing with Technology Award 2005 Grand Prize Winner for Operational Excellence. "One of the ongoing challenges that we face today is our ability to bring high-quality service to all individuals at the lowest possible cost. The advances made in Internet and networking capabilities enables our business to offer a technical solution through remote presence robotics."
The winners of the Cisco Growing with Technology Awards 2006 are:
Innovators in Customer Relationship
- Grand Prize: Mobile Medical Corp. (40 employees), based in Pittsburgh, Pa.
- Runners-up: Integrated Building Controls (25 employees), based in Dayton, N.J.; and Satellite Logistics Group of Companies (99 employees), based in Houston.
Innovators in Nonprofit
- Grand Prize: NetHope (6 employees), based in McLean, Va.
- Runners-up: Soaringwords (2 employees), based in New York; and Women's Initiative for Self Employment (20 employees), based in Oakland, Calif.
Innovators in Operational Excellence
- Grand Prize: Suncoast Medical Clinic (345 employees), based in St. Petersburg, Fla.
- Runners-up: ColorQuick (14 employees), based in Pennsauken, N.J.; and Arkansas Physician Management (175 employees), based in Little Rock, Ark.
Innovators in Public Sector
- Grand Prize: City of Lawrence, Kansas (810 employees), based in Lawrence, Kan.
- Runners-up: Mariemont City School District (200 employees), based in Cincinnati, Ohio; and Monticello Central School District (500 employees), based in Monticello, N.Y.
Innovators in Sales and Marketing
- Grand Prize: Childs Capital (14 employees), based in New York, N.Y.
- Runners-up: Somnio Solutions (20 employees), based in Austin, Texas; and MajesticInvites.com (7 employees), based Brooklyn, N.Y.
Winners were recognized during an awards presentation ceremony last night at Santana Row's Hotel Valencia in San Jose, Calif. Grand-prize winners receive $25,000 worth of Cisco networking equipment, and one complimentary Cisco networking assessment and consultation valued at $3,000. The first runners-up receive $15,000 worth of Cisco networking equipment, and the second runners-up receive $10,000 worth of Cisco networking equipment. In addition, winners will receive recognition through post-awards marketing outreach efforts.
"Selecting the winners from the hundreds of submissions we received this year was a difficult task for our panel of judges since we received so many quality applications from organizations who have dramatically improved their business through the use of technology," said Peter Alexander, vice president of worldwide SMB marketing at Cisco. "Each winner is a role model within the business community, and each preserves the spirit of technical innovation and entrepreneurship, which are key to business success."
For further details on the Cisco Growing with Technology Awards, please visit www.cisco.com/go/technology_awards.
