Business continuity in financial services
During these uncertain times, Microsoft is committed to supporting financial service customers and their regulators around the globe.
Aisling Curtis
Former Director of Strategy & Sustainability
Globally, our partners play a crucial role in helping our customers fundamentally digitially transform their businesses. It is a complex and challenging task, which our partners work tirelessly to achieve.
Every year, we host awards globally to recognise those partners who embody this. Any Irish partner that makes the shortlist has demonstrated the key qualities of innovation, culture and excellence in execution that is on par with the best in our global network. The annual Microsoft awards programme recognises partners who have demonstrated excellence in innovation and implementation of customer solutions based on Microsoft technology; the Country Partner Award is the most prestigious, singling out the best company in a region.
Only one can be named as Microsoft Ireland Country Partner of the Year.
This year, I am delighted to annouce that Ergo has won the prestigious Microsoft Ireland Country Partner of the Year Award for 2020. This is the fifth time in ten years for Ergo. In fact, they have won this award more than any other Irish company since the awards were established. Ergo has demonstrated outstanding expertise in implementing and supporting Microsoft technologies and services, and just as importantly, the skills to innovate around them to meet the different needs of our customers and ensure that together, we empower success for our customers.
Ergo excels in matching technology to business needs and has been helping organisations achieve their strategic goals for over 25 years. Ergo helps clients achieve business advantage through digital adoption and by encouraging its team of more than 400 IT professionals to continually lead from the front.
Ergo’s technical cloud prowess, innovation, specialisations and growth recognised globally
The Microsoft judges were impressed by many aspects of Ergo’s Microsoft practice, including its technical capability, its innovation coupled with the consistent upskilling of its people in competencies that enable them to take on the most complex and challenging IT projects.
Ergo has been on an incredible journey to achieve market-leading maturity in Microsoft cloud migrations, operations, and application modernisation. Ergo recently fulfilled rigorous and independent certification processes, to become certified as an Azure Migration Expert, elevating them to Microsoft’s Cloud Partner of Choice in Ireland. Having achieved advanced specialisations in ‘Windows Server and SQL Server Migration to Microsoft Azure’ and ‘Modernization of Web Applications to Microsoft Azure’, Ergo is now part of an elite group of only three Microsoft partners worldwide with two Azure advanced specialisations.
In addition, Ergo is also the only partner in Ireland to achieve Microsoft 365 FastTrack-ready status, which means customers are in the best-possible hands to accelerate the deployment and end-user adoption of Microsoft 365.
The judges praised Ergo’s growing DevOps practice, the software development methodology that the Azure environment encourages. Ergo’s Azure business has also grown faster in the last year than any other Irish provider, but perhaps the biggest differentiator, according to the judges, is the focus on change management. With Modern Workplace projects, Ergo’s ability to bring employees on the journey through extensive training workshops stands out from the crowd.
A recent addition to Ergo’s Microsoft portfolio was also significant, the Microsoft Teams Rapid Enablement and Adoption Service. A direct response to Covid-19, it helps businesses quickly set up and support employees working from home with enterprise-class solutions that don’t compromise on security or performance. Throughout the pandemic Ergo has run webinars around Microsoft Teams and Windows Virtual Desktop that have been attended by over 700 people.
On a personal note, I was also impressed by Ergo’s Make-A-Wish Ireland initiative. Ergo raises money for the charity by donating 2% of all monthly subscriptions generated by Microsoft Azure services. Make-A-Wish helps make wishes come true for children with life-threatening medical conditions.
Aisling Curtis
Commercial Director