WARSAW, Poland, August 1, 2008 - Cisco revealed the winners of its first annual Growing with Technology Awards (GWTA) competition in Poland, presented July 31 in Warsaw. The award was created to recognize the most innovative uses of networking technology by small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). This year's finalists included one of the largest Polish Internet retail shops, an outsourcing company for information and communications technology (ICT), 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.
Small and medium-sized businesses are a key part of Poland's national economy, making up 99 percent of all Polish businesses. They are employing more than 6 million people, more than 60 percent of the country's total workforce. State-of-the-art information and communications technology is a key differentiator that can help Polish SMBs operate more competitively and efficiently within international supply chains.
The Cisco® Growing with Technology Awards program is aimed at recognizing small to midsize organizations that successfully integrate ICT solutions into their everyday operations and use networking technology in innovative ways to promote products and services, deliver superior value to their customers, improve internal operations, conduct online transactions and extend the geographical reach of their services. Prizes were awarded in two categories: Customer Relationships and Operational Excellence. The winners will receive Cisco equipment worth US$50,000 in total, as well as service and support for one year.
In the Customer Relationships category, the first prize went to Klonex-VCS PUH Sp. z o.o., an ICT outsourcing services company that was recognised for the way it is using Internet and web solutions to improve internal communications and foster collaboration between divisions. Furthermore, the company also introduced an innovative remote support service for its clients that allows technicians to troubleshoot problems without having to be physically present.
In the Operational Excellence category, the first prize was awarded to the Slaskie Sieci Swiatlowodowe company from Gliwice. This telecommunications service provider successfully applied new web 2.0 technologies that improved its management capabilities, collaboration and internal processes. Over the past year, this fast-growing organization built a unique fiber-optic infrastructure connecting citizens and businesses in 14 towns in northern Silesia and Zaglebie.
"The first round of the Growing with Technology Awards showed that small and medium-sized companies can strengthen their position in the market by successfully using new technologies. We received a significant number of entries presenting innovative solutions, to the point where choosing the four winners in each of the two categories became a challenge," said Jaroslaw Kubicki, marketing and SMB sales manager at Cisco Poland.
The entries were evaluated by a jury composed of 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.
