Microsoft Honors Winners of the Windows Embedded Partner Excellence Awards

Posted By Dan Javnozon
Director – Windows Embedded Marketing

Each year, we recognize partners who stand out by delivering excellent Intelligent Systems solutions. From their work in health, retail and manufacturing, to automating data handling and improving workflow, our partners around the world are delivering creative problem-solving software, devices and Intelligent Systems using Windows Embedded solutions. To honor their great work, we awarded three global awards for retail, manufacturing and health solutions, along with six regional awards, at the 2012 Intelligent Systems Leadership Summit held recently in Seattle. The Windows Embedded team is pleased to congratulate the following winners of the Windows Embedded Partner Excellence Awards for 2012.

Global Awards

Retail – PAR Technology Corp.

The winning solution of the Global Partner Excellence Award for retail is an automated task-management solution that enhances workflow for food-safety inspection processes, and reduces the time it takes to complete inspections. This is a handheld-based solution that provides checklist management for testing and recording food temperature for Hazard Analysis & Critical Control Points food safety programs and employee-assigned tasks. With the Windows Embedded-powered PAR EverServ SureCheck solution, Royal Carribbean has reduced the average employee’s food-inspection time from five to two hours, a 60 percent reduction in labor hours, reclaiming the employees’ workday for more strategic projects.

Health – Omnicell, Inc.

The winning solution of the Global Partner Excellence Award for health is a dispensing system that collects data from the Hospital Information System, Pharmacy Information System and nurses who use the G4 client cabinets placed throughout the hospital. The dispensing system stores this data in a database running on an application server. The G4 cross-references centralized data and pushes back business insights to all three entities (HIS, PIS and nurses) to create value and improve customer, employee and partner interactions, thereby decreasing the risk of human error and saving significant pharmacy time by eliminating the need for repetitive entry of drug formularies and rules in multiple locations. 

Manufacturing – ASEM

The winning solution of the Global Partner Excellence Award for manufacturing is designed to connect through the cloud to manage Breton’s fleet of 4,000 pieces of marble and granite manufacturing machinery for hundreds of customers around the world. This solution helps improve Breton reduce costs and improve customer service to stay competitive--all important enhancements to Breton’s business, because service accounts for 40 percent of their sales.

Regional Awards

Americas – HP and HealthCast, Inc.

The Partner Excellence Award for the Americas was awarded to HP and HealthCast, Inc. for their single-sign on Thin Client solution featuring the HealthCast QwickACCESS™ application enabling hospitals to provide a “single-tap” access to applications like electronic health records. The solution is deployed at many hospitals, but the award is motivated by the work HP and HealthCast, Inc. have has done at Rockford Health System (Illinois, US) which has delivered strong benefits by providing instant patient record information, allowing the doctors to spend more time with patients and improve regulatory compliance with tailored workflows and privacy configuration.

Central and Eastern Europe – Wincor Nixdorf

The Partner Excellence Award for Central and Eastern Europe was awarded to Wincor Nixdorf, a company known for decades as provider of leading-edge embedded devices, powered by Windows Embedded. Over the last couple of years, Wincor Nixdorf has developed an analytics solution targeting the retail sector (TB.Net), based on the Microsoft SQL Server platform. The solution is helping our joint customers improve store management through better analytics and insights, enabling faster and better decision making.

Southern Europe – IER

The Partner Excellence Award for Southern Europe was awarded to IER for its Intelligent Systems solution that uniquely addresses an everyday problem: environmental and traffic congestion in Paris. By providing easy access for the citizens and tourists to short-term rentals of more than 2,000 electric cars, this solution delivers an end-to-end experience for the customer and automates data flow from the car, handhelds and kiosks to the back-office servers. Through these connection points, data can be aggregated and automated, enabling better business decisions by Autolib, which in turn improves their customer’s experience.

China – Beijing Strong Union Co., Ltd.

The Partner Excellence Award for China was awarded to Beijing Strong Union Co., Ltd. for its intelligent systems solution that addresses customer service and retention challenges for major Chinese bank, ICBC. The solution is a “cloud-connected slate” which is used in ICBC branches to improve customer service by immediately addressing their banking questions as an alternative to queuing for a bank clerk. The solution is built on Windows Embedded Standard 7, SQL Server, Internet Explorer and Microsoft Office, and delivers real-time and personalized customer data in a secure and trusted environment.

Taiwan – Advantech

The Partner Excellence Award for Taiwan was awarded to Advantech for its Intelligent Systems solution which allows systems integrators to monitor and control remote embedded devices in real time. Designed to be cloud-based, it delivers on-demand software services so SIs can download and upgrade applications as needed. It provides customers with remote devices monitoring, switch machines, desktop connection, system recovery and system protection features that help them access multiple clients through a single console for remote device management. Running on Windows Embedded Standard 7, the solutions provide a great return on investment, reducing service costs by over 15 percent and decreasing on-site support expenses by over 50 percent.

Japan – NEC Corporation

The Partner Excellence Award for Japan was awarded to NEC Corporation for its Intelligent Systems solution addressing the need to increase customer satisfaction for Japanese retailer Sogo & Seibu. The solution includes 46-inch ultra-narrow displays and content distribution services which automatically display advertisements, reduces the need for paper-based advertising such as posters, and contributes to a more contemporary atmosphere in the stores. The digital signage solution, powered by Windows Embedded Standard, use images, animation and sounds to attract customers, display product information, and generates valuable data that enables retailers to measure the effectiveness of their content.