Version 1 Celebrates Winning Global Microsoft Partner of the Year Award
We are absolutely delighted to share the news that Version 1 has won a Global Microsoft Partner of the Year Award in the category of Modernizing Applications! This is a huge achievement for the team, and we’re immensely proud of the win.
What are the Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards?
The Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards are designed to recognise companies which are building innovative solutions using Microsoft technologies. They acknowledge the outstanding success of these projects in a range of industries, solution areas and cloud technologies. The awards showcase how partners provide high-impact solutions for customers and companies and represent the best of the best using Microsoft technologies.
There were over 4,200 submissions for all awards in 2023, and we are thrilled to be named as the winner against some of the biggest companies in the world. This huge achievement builds on our success as a finalist in the same category last year and is a true testament to our continued growth in knowledge and experience in the Microsoft ecosystem. We’re extremely proud to say that we are number 1 in the world for Microsoft in Modernising Applications, and we have the award to prove it!
Version 1 prides itself on its partnerships with the biggest technologies in the world but we’re also totally committed to putting our customer first, which is one of our Core Values. This is a part of every interaction, from our first meeting to final delivery and everywhere in between. Providing quality service and delivering value is extremely important, and we do that with a consistent and Agile approach to projects which helps us to deliver again and again [read our Customer Success Stories].
What Did We Win For?
Our award submission was for the National Incident Liaison Officers (NILO) project with National Highways (read the case study here). This team is responsible for providing rapid updates on road incidents all over England. Speed is an absolute necessity for this kind of reporting, which allows subscribers to the service to access real-time data to better inform their journeys. As partners with National Highways, we worked closely with the team to initially assess the current reporting platform. This investigation helped us to explore all aspects of the system and to appreciate the requirements both from a systems architecture perspective and a functional one for the end users. We then built a dedicated team to design and create a solution to the highest standards, with thorough testing along the way.
This solution was designed and delivered in just over three months using Microsoft technologies. To kickstart the project, we used our bespoke Foundations App Mod Accelerator, which allowed the team to spend much less time in setup, often known as “Sprint 0”. Instead, they were able to focus on implementing Functional Business Requirements faster, while also incorporating industry best practices from the start.
From there, a lean Agile methodology was deployed for the rest of the project. This helped the team to deliver business value rapidly, while also responding to any changes and updates in an iterative manner.
Ultimately, this allowed us to save between 6-8 weeks of delivery time and ensure a high-quality outcome with significant results. These included 150% faster reporting of incidents, more efficient incident closing, and a 50% increase in how fast reports can be created. These results led to improved journey times, easier navigation and ultimately increased safety for every person travelling across these major arteries in England, which carry up to 4 million vehicles a day.
National Operations Team Leader for National Highways, Tim Priest:
The new app has significantly speeded up our incident reporting enabling us to help inform road users more quickly and get traffic moving again. Congratulations to Version 1 for winning this prestigious award which, from our experience, is thoroughly deserved
What Does It Mean?
The Microsoft Global Partner of the Year Award is a powerful acknowledgement of the strength of the work being done at Version 1. It highlights the exceptional solutions and services which are built on Microsoft technologies and create a positive impact on customers all over the world.
It is also another example of the commitment to customers which is embedded in the core values of Version 1. We truly put the Customer First in every one of our interactions, drive Excellence at every turn and lead with Honesty and Integrity. That compels us to deliver solutions which are laser focused on impact and seeing real differences delivered every day. And those decisions all come together with the perfect partners, technical expertise and customers who are seeking to innovate on their digital transformation journey.
It’s also a testament to the work we have done with Microsoft, which has been building for more than 13 years. Their platforms allow us to do more, better and faster for customers and we continue to scale up our skills and experience within the team, including our first ever Microsoft Azure MVP this year. Our work is truly world-class, and it is wonderful to achieve this recognition.
Winning the award is a great achievement and we want to take this opportunity to thank the team involved with the project, from onboarding and implementation to execution.
Guy Hodges, Davey McGlade, Simon Kelso, John Bolger, Nitish Kumar, Rajeev Kalal, Shubham Pandey, Raghavendra Bagalur Nagesha, Doug Keating, Niall Scott-Murphy, Max Meulendijks, Saritha Kumari Bharatam, Amrita Sasikumar, Adrian Turner, Alec Lam, Andy Brown, Chris Hubbard, Jonathan Boyd, Kamalakannan Nagarajan, Neil Bailie, Robert Glanville, Rosario Diaferia, Sivakumar Sivachalam.
We also want to acknowledge the amazing partnership we have experienced working with National Highways on this and other projects. The team came to us with challenges that brought all of our abilities to bear, and working towards a solution has been a fantastic project from start to finish. Our thanks to Mike Ord, Digital Services – Operations Portfolio Lead, Tim Priest, National Operations Team Leader, and Lindsey Young, Performance and Assurance Manager.
The National Highways and Version 1 team
Version 1 CEO, Tom O’Connor said:
We are particularly proud to have helped National Highways to make England’s roads safer and thank them for partnering with us.
What’s Next?
Well, we’re delighted to say that our very own CEO Tom O’Connor will be heading along to Microsoft Inspire in July to collect the award in person. The local Irish and UK awards are coming up (fingers crossed!) and we’ll have more information about those soon.
Of course, Version 1 has a number of other exciting projects in various stages with customers around the world – using Microsoft services as well as those of our other partners.
For now, we’re going to enjoy this great news and celebrate with our colleagues and customers!
Contact us today to find out how we can help you on your digital transformation journey.