Fintricity, a UK technology consultancy, secured first prize by demonstrating its inventive annual growth plans to the independent judging panel.
The inaugural awards event was held on the decks of HMS President, moored on the Thames and forms the annual highlight of SAP’s programme to support British innovation, and was hosted by Richard Alvin, the group managing director of Capital Business Media, owners of Business Matters. (pictured above on the left with Alpesh Doshi of winner Fintricity & Ian Ansty from SAP right)
Go for Growth is the pioneering community for entrepreneurial professional services businesses with big growth plans, ready for international expansion or launching new countrywide initiatives. With over 500 registered businesses and growing rapidly, Go for Growth members focus on outperforming the market and proving that challenging economic times are no bar to success.
Sponsored by SAP and BrightTALK, the Go for Growth Excellence Awards reward the ten professional services companies judged to have the most innovative growth plans. Winner Fintricity secured a free implementation and a year’s free subscription to the SAP Business ByDesign™ on-demand solution – worth £53,000.
A distinguished roster of business names judged this year’s entrants including Marc Lawn as Moderator, Bill Liao, Claire Young and Richard Alvin.
Bill Liao, entrepreneur, philanthropist, diplomat and author, is a co-founder of the social network service XING and CEO of Finaxis AG, a financial services firm. On the state of British innovation, Bill said, “This whole process has been very innovative – it has been great to get an insight into how companies are starting up and growing, and it seems as though British innovation is alive and well.”
Marc Lawn pioneered the ‘making life easier’ management philosophy, one based on clarity, and has coined a ‘renaissance management’ theory, as well as acting as a regular expert contributor to business advice sections. Marc is also an occasional columnist with Business Matters (read his columns here)
Claire Young is the straight-talking businesswoman known for reaching the final of series 4 of BBC1’s The Apprentice (2008). Claire is a regular presenter for GMTV and writes a weekly newspaper column.
Richard Alvin is the founder and managing director of the Capital Business Media group, a serial entrepreneur, judge of many business awards, a business mentor and investor who has been named by The Observer newspaper and The Courvoisier Future 500 as ‘someone to watch’ in their top 100 business people.
Ian Anstey, UK Country Manager for SAP Business ByDesign said: “The strength of the SMB market in the UK is phenomenal, it is firms like these finalists and Fintricity that will become the business giants of tomorrow; and SAP is committed to supporting the Go for Growth community over the next year and the UK SMB community in general. Fintricity has demonstrated outstanding creativity and well deserves the SAP Business ByDesign solution that will enable them to make their growth plans a reality.”
Alpesh Doshi, Founder of Fintricity said: “I’m delighted with the award – it’s great to see that SAP are reaching out to small to medium enterprises and recognising innovation and growth despite the harsh economic climate. We look forward to using SAP Business ByDesign to provide greater service to our core client base, and to improve our operational scalability.”
The ten Go for Growth finalists, who each received an SAP Enterprise Health Check worth £15,000, include:
- ASH Projects & Contracts Ltd
- B2B Contact Marketing
- CNet Training
- Coracle Online Ltd
- Keytech Managed Services
- McDonald Butler
- omobono
- Simply Finance
- Volume Ltd
