The winners of Pastel Evolution’s Outstanding Business Partner competition were announced at an awards dinner held during the Pastel Evolution conference in early November.
The competition acknowledges Pastel’s implementation and business associates that have contributed to the growth and success of Evolution, Pastel’s ERP solution. This is an annual award that has been running for the past ten years, but this year is the first time local and international partners were recognised at a joint ceremony. Winners are determined by achieving individual sales targets and renewals revenue and will benefit from the prestige of being named one of Pastel Evolution’s top business partners.
The awards were split in two categories, local and international. In the local category, which falls under the name Softline Pastel, the regional winners for Gauteng, Western Cape and Kwa-Zulu-Natal were Brilliant Link, EBM technologies, and MRBM Consultants respectively. The top nine finalists were fully sponsored by Pastel to attend the conference held at the Mount Grace in the Magaliesberg. All business partners that were present benefited from the discussions and workshops regarding the future roadmap of ERP and had the opportunity to share knowledge, ideas and experiences with their local and global counterparts.
This year a brand new category was introduced to include the South African public sector sales. This has seen a large uptake in Pastel Evolution, particularly since the launch of Evolution’s municipal billing module, which is aligned with both the GRAP and MFMA requirements that govern how municipalities should be run. “The public sector has been an exciting growth area that has experienced some real successes,” says Daryl Blundell, Pastel’s divisional director. The winner of this category is Walter Muwandi from Camelsa Consulting which stood out not only for its top revenue but its passion and belief in Evolution as a product.
The international category which includes over 52 countries and falls under the name Sage Pastel, recognised only the top 15 business partners and included partners from as far a field as Kenya, Australia and Cyprus. Blundell comments, “The global economy has presented some real challenges over the past couple of years, and considering that Sage Pastel operates in over 50 countries world-wide, to be ranked as one of the top finalists is an honour.” The international winner is Chips Computing services in Zimbabwe, followed by Pastec Distribution in Namibia and Usage Business Solutions operating in New Zealand and Australia.