GROWTH in Scotland’s digital sector has been reflected by a 50 per cent jump in entries to the annual Digital Technology Awards.
A record number of firms will vie for recognition at the award ceremony at Glasgow’s Old Fruitmarket on Wednesday, April 20. ScotlandIS, the trade association championing the digital technologies industry, published the shortlist.
The top award, Large Digital Tech Business of the Year, will be a straight head-to-head between Skyscanner, the flights, hotels and car hire comparison website, and Iomart, the Glasgow-based information technology and cloud computing company.
The awards, in their sixth year, celebrate the talent and ideas in Scotland’s world-class digital technologies industry. There are 15 categories for 2016, including three new awards. ScotlandIS chief executive Polly Purvis said: “The Scottish digital technology sector is not just buoyant, it is thriving. It continues to grow year on year.
“I am delighted to see this reflected in the number of entries for the competition, up by more than half this year. The diversity, scale and sheer innovation of the companies on the shortlist is impressive and demonstrates the opportunities available for those interested in a career in the sector.”
The new categories are CEO of the Year, Best Education Provider/Training Programme and the Data Lab-sponsored Transformational Innovation Through Data award.
Scotland’s digital technologies industry contributes £5 billion in gross value added (GVA) to the economy and some 84,000 people are employed in the sector. According to KPMG’s Tech Monitor, the number of tech sector enterprises in Scotland grew 43.4 per cent between 2010 and 2015, second only to London’s 54.6 per cent.
The sponsors are Cathcart Associates, Head Resourcing, Bright Purple, Hewlett Packard Enterprises, SQA, The Data Lab, Doc-department, Sheppard and Wedderburn LLP, Enigma People Solutions and Hudson.
The finalists are: Best B2B Technology Product/Service – Edge Testing, FreeAgent, Swipii, Zonal Retail Data Systems.
Best B2C Technology Product/Service – Mallzee, StormID.
International Technology Star – FanDuel, HotDocs, Traceall Global.
Best Financial Services Product Service – Float, Nucleus, Share In.
Best Public Sector Product/Service – Informed Solutions, School Cloud Systems, Spider Online.
Best Education Provider/Training Programme – Avaloq, Edge Testing, PLAN C (Professional Learning and Networking for Computing).
Outstanding Marketing Performance by a Tech Company – Nucleus, Rookie Oven.
Investment Deal of the Year – DataVita, FreeAgent, Mallzee.
Transformational Innovation Through Data – Barrachd, Global Surface Intelligence, The Royal Bank of Scotland.
CEO of the Year – Administrate, Clear Returns, Edge Testing, Mallzee.
Digital Agency of the Year – Ambergreen Internet Marketing, MadeBrave, StormID.
Emerging Digital Tech Business of the Year – Cofficient, Indigo Technologies, Senshi Digital.
Small Digital Tech Business of the Year – Adimo, Escrivo, Mallzee.
Mid-sized Digital Tech Business of the Year – Administrate, Calnex, Edge Testing.
Large Digital Tech Business of the Year – Skyscanner, Iomart.
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