The 10 new categories are designed to recognise the breadth of work conducted by the companies in the Microsoft Partner Network.
"The technology industry is continually changing with new products and services. It is important to adjust the award categories to represent this, and as a result, this year we will include awards that recognise excellence in developing applications for Windows Azure and Windows Phone just to name two,” said Brent Colbert, Director – Partner Group at Microsoft.
The New Zealand dates are currently aligned with the timing of the wider Microsoft Worldwide Partner Awards.
Award submissions open from August 24th to October 14th, with finalists announced on Halloween before an awards event to be held at the currently under construction Viaduct Event Centre on Thursday 17 November.
The awards categories will be split into five sub-categories - those in italics are new for 2011.
Solution Competency Awards
Core Infrastructure
Desktop Deployment Solution of the Year
Hosting and Data Center Solution of the Year
Virtualisation & Management Solution of the Year
Application Platform
Application Platform Solution of the Year
Business Intelligence Solution of the Year
Web Development Solution of the Year
Windows Azure Platform Solution of the Year
People and Productivity
Content Management Solution of the Year
Portals & Collaboration Solution of the Year
Unified Communications Solution of the Year
Windows Phone Solution of the Year
Business Applications
Dynamics CRM Solution of the Year
Dynamics ERP Solution of the Year
Individual Awards
Solution Architect of the Year
Partner Choice CIO of the Year Award
MSN Awards
MSN Campaign of the Year
MSN Advertising Partner of the Year
Partnering Awards
Distributor of the Year
Reseller of the Year
Retailer of the Year
Learning Solutions Partner of the Year
Online Services Partner of the Year
Innovation & Supreme Awards
BizSpark Partner of the Year
Citizenship Solution of the Year
Software Exporter of the Year (previously ISV Solution of the Year)
Small Business Solution of the Year
Platform Value Partner of the Year