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We’re now accepting entries for the 2014 RCP/RRCG Award. Here’s a peek at why Axis Group LLC was one of last year’s three winners.

We’re now accepting entries for the 2014 RCP/RRCG Award. Here’s a peek at why Axis Group LLC was one of last year’s three winners.

This award, sponsored by Redmond Channel Partner magazine, and Revenue Rocket Consulting Group, recognizes and honors excellence in growth, and will be awarded to up to three IT services companies whose innovative business strategies resulted in sustained growth over a three-year period.

Last year the award went to three deserving companies, Axis Group LLC in Berkeley Heights, N.J.; Envision LLC in St. Louis, MO; and Atlanta-based Intellinet Corporation, who we will be profiling in this blog over the next few weeks.

Why the Axis Group won in 2013. For most of its history Axis Group was a heavy Business Objects partner. In 2007 when SAP AG announced it was buying Business Objects, management felt a little skittish, wondering if partner companies like his might be less important to SAP than they had been to Business Objects.

With that assessment the company started to disengage from SAP/Business Objects. The company had been keeping an eye on QlikView, a product that combined extract, transform, load (ETL), data warehousing and a visual-analytic front-end. A few years earlier, the product seemed promising but unready for Axis Group’s customers. As the SAP situation developed, management took another look. At the same time, Axis Group also focused its sales efforts into specific verticals rather than selling to any company with BI needs.

The strategy helped Axis Group more than double its revenues over the last three years while substantially increasing profits. Focus also brought Axis Group into a much more productive relationship with QlikView than it enjoyed with previous vendor partners.

To read more about the winning strategies for these three firms click on the link below for the article that profiled these companies in Redmond Channel Partner magazine.

http://rcpmag.com/articles/2013/10/01/rcp-rocket-awards.aspx

 How you can enter for the 2014 Award.

The 2014 award is open to all U.S.-based IT services companies with annual revenues between $5 million and $75 million that provide a 1-2 page case study describing their business strategies, and how they have resulted in growth over the past three years. Deadline for submissions is June 1, 2014.

The award will be evaluated on two key criteria:

First, the strategies. What unique combination of strategies did you employ to generate the results you achieved? This section will constitute three quarters of the evaluation as we are most interested in understanding what and how various strategies drove success.

Second, the results. What did your company achieve over a three-year period in terms of revenue, profit, and other relevant metrics you deem appropriate? This will account for a quarter of the evaluation.

To be considered for the 2014 RCP/Rocket Excellence in Growth Award, please submit an essay, in case study format, that documents and supports your company’s growth for 2011, 2012 and 2013.

The format of the case study should include:

  1. Company Background: Describe how you are positioned and differentiated in the market in terms of vendor alignment, technology focus, geographic reach, vertical emphasis, etc.
  2. Strategic Initiatives: Identify the key strategic initiatives that your company implemented and how they drove your business over this period. This could include mergers and acquisitions, geographic expansion, new service line offerings, sales and marketing programs, key hires, etc.
  3. Performance: Describe your company’s performance over this period, including revenue, profit and any other metric that makes your case.
  4. Lessons Learned: What have you learned as a result of this effort?

In addition to an award plaque, winners will also be the focus of an article in a future issue of Redmond Channel Partner magazine and have a donation made in their name to a charity of their choice. Send submissions to sbekker@rcpmag.com.

The winners will be announced during the Microsoft Worldwide Partners Conference in July. The winner’s profile will appear in the October, 2014 issue of Redmond Channel Partner magazine.

Remember the deadline for submissions is June 1.