Microsoft recognizes outstanding contributions by suppliers

REDMOND, Wash., June 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- On May 19, Microsoft Corp. announced the recipients of the 2016 Microsoft Supplier Program (MSP) Excellence Awards. The MSP Excellence Awards recognize superior performance, exemplary service and innovation by suppliers that demonstrate what it means to be a preferred supplier at Microsoft. The purpose of the MSP is to build long-term relationships with a select group of strategic suppliers that create long-term value for Microsoft.

Winners of the 2016 MSP Excellence Awards were nominated by employees of Microsoft in various business units, MSP suppliers and Microsoft Procurement Professionals. An extensive panel of Microsoft employees and external judges selects all final awardees.

Award winners were based on excellence in a number of areas, including quality, value, service and innovation. Winners were announced during the 15th Annual MSP Summit on Microsoft's main corporate campus in Redmond, Wash.

"I am pleased to recognize this year's Microsoft Supplier Program Excellence Award winners for their exceptional performance," said Mike Simms, general manager and chief procurement officer at Microsoft. "Our suppliers' commitment to excellence, innovation and collaboration continues to impress us. The award recipients delivered high-impact results and contributed to the success of Microsoft. On behalf of Microsoft, I want to thank the award winners for their significant contributions and partnership as well as acknowledge all the nominees."

Winners were announced in three categories: Supplier Diversity, Responsible Sourcing Leadership (Bridging the Opportunity Divide, Climate Performance and Impact Sourcing), and MSP Supplier of the Year; large, medium and small categories. Following are the 2016 winners and an overview of their excellent service delivery.

Amaxra: Recipient of the 2016 Supplier Diversity Award
Based in Washington state, Amaxra Inc. is a premier business management and technology solutions firm. Amaxra maximizes measurable business outcomes by focusing on customer needs and objectives, supporting or optimizing their business processes, and using tailored customer- and case-specific technology solutions that deliver business results.

As part of Amaxra's core values, diversity is critical to developing its team and a crucial element in business success. Amaxra focuses on developing and promoting an inclusive culture to attract, develop and retain diverse talent.

As a certified diversity supplier (woman-owned since commencing business in 2007), Amaxra has benefited from the Women's Business Enterprise National Council status this provides in obtaining and developing relationships across a wide range of businesses, including Microsoft. As such, this is a goal that is also strong in Amaxra's own purchasing commitment and using diversity suppliers wherever possible, including the consultants they hire for engagements.

Amaxra's diverse spend in 2015 was 42 percent with a projected increase of 6 percent in 2016 across various diversity categories including women, black and Hispanic.

Techno Brain BPO ITES: Recipient of the 2016 Impact Sourcing Leadership Award  
Headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya, Techno Brain Group is an African IT training, solution and business process outsourcing (BPO) company that provides innovative solutions to advance the way organizations do business. With operations in 19 African countries and 23 countries worldwide, Techno Brain provides industry-leading technology solutions to NGOs, government and private organizations globally. Techno Brain's BPO Division offers voice, data, knowledge process management and IT-enabled services tailored to the global outsourcing industry for the past eight-plus years, spread across seven African countries. 

Through its Impact Sourcing model, Techno Brain BPO ITES helps secure employment for underprivileged youth through its partnerships with Rockefeller Foundation, World Vision International, and other NGOs and technology partners in building its BPO unit in seven countries in Africa. There are 800 people working in BPO within the organization, of whom 400 have come from underprivileged communities. In the past eight years, 300 youth from disadvantaged backgrounds in Kenya have been engaged, of whom 43 percent are women. 

Techno Brain BPO ITES was recognized for its leadership on Impact Sourcing. In addition to partnering with the Microsoft 4Afrika Initiative, where together the Techno Brain Training division has trained 10,000 African youth, Techno Brain BPO ITES has worked for the Microsoft Analog team to capture and label data for various projects. The judges for this award were "impressed with Techno Brain's extreme social impact that helped Microsoft produce high-quality products."

Infosys: Recipient of the 2016 Climate Change Leadership Award
Infosys Ltd. is a global leader in consulting, technology, and outsourcing and next-generation services that enable clients in more than 50 countries to outperform the competition and stay ahead of the innovation curve. With $9.50 billion in FY16 revenues and more than 194,000 employees, Infosys helps enterprises transform and thrive in a changing world through strategic consulting, operational leadership, and the co-creation of breakthrough solutions, including those in mobility, sustainability, big data and cloud computing.

Infosys provides services across Microsoft IT, business and product groups. Offerings to Microsoft include Application Development and Maintenance, Application Testing, Application and Infrastructure Support, Business Process Outsourcing, Package Implementation and Customizations, Partnership in Microsoft Product Development and Testing, and Business Consulting services.

Infosys was recognized by Microsoft for its leadership on climate change. Recognizing that reducing its overall carbon footprint can directly reduce Microsoft's supply-chain emissions, Infosys has put in place a comprehensive program to both rapidly reduce emissions on a per- employee basis, and ultimately reach carbon neutrality through the purchase of renewable energy. The program incorporates a broad array of efficiency measures in buildings and the large-scale procurement of wind and solar-powered energy. The judges for the award were "impressed with Infosys's collaboration with partners in industry, academia and government as well as their proposal to work jointly on reducing Microsoft's environmental footprint."

Moravia: Recipient of the 2016 Supplier of the Year Award — Large
Moravia has been named Supplier of the Year, large category, by the MSP for its partnership with its innovative Machine Translation evaluation platform to improve supply-chain management and help Microsoft deploy Machine Translation.

Moravia is a leading globalization solution provider, enabling companies in the information technology, e-learning and life sciences industries to enter global markets with high-quality multilingual products. Moravia's solutions include localization, product testing, internationalization, multilingual publishing, technical translation, content creation, machine translation and workflow consulting.  

Moravia maintains global headquarters in the Czech Republic and North American headquarters in California, with local offices and production centers in Japan, China, Latin America, Ireland, USA and throughout Europe.

Cartus: Recipient of the 2016 Supplier of the Year Award — Medium
Cartus Corp., a leading provider of global relocation services, has been named Supplier of the Year, medium category, by the MSP.  

Cartus has managed nearly 110,000 authorizations for mobility services for Microsoft since 1994. This covers all move types as well as logistical and financial services.  

Over the past 18 months, Cartus has provided implementation project management expertise and support to Microsoft's Global Mobility business leaders in the execution of several major projects that required a close partnership and collaboration across multiple entities.  

"The partnership with Cartus has been instrumental in the success of our program initiatives. Their superior support to the relocations of Microsoft employees is exemplified by their stellar survey results."

Anrui Digital: Recipient of the 2016 Supplier of the Year Award — Small
Anrui Digital has been named Supplier of the Year, small category, by the MSP for its partnership with digital, traditional and social marketing. 

Anrui Digital was founded in 2007 and is the leading content marketing, digital marketing and social marketing services provider in Greater China, and the trusted services advisor to leading business and institutions. 

Anrui Digital was successful in building the Storytelling BFAE (Benefit, Feature, Advantage and Evidence) framework to launch customer and industry-scenario marketing programs for several business groups within Microsoft, such as Office 365 and Microsoft Azure. Over the past 12 months, Anrui Digital has partnered with Microsoft to deliver a variety of marketing campaigns — O365 Company MBA Experience Program, Happy Microsoft Azure Journey Program and China Smart Partner Digital Marketing.  

Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT" @microsoft) is the leading platform and productivity company for the mobile-first, cloud-first world, and its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.

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SOURCE Microsoft Corp.

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