Ventana Research Announces the Leadership Award Winners for 2016

    BEND, OR, November 30, 2016 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Ventana Research today announced the 28 winners of the 2016 Leadership Awards. These prestigious Awards, selected and presented annually, identify business and IT leaders who are using technologies and applying best practices to create the best possible outcomes in productivity, performance and support of an organization's goals and objectives. The awards thus recognize pioneering leaders and organizations that embrace technology to drive change and increase value for organizations across the world.

Ventana Research invited all organizations and its world renown analyst and research team to nominate individuals, organizations and technology suppliers to be considered for the Leadership Awards. The award recipients were selected based upon organizations' or individuals' leadership accomplishments innovating or enhancing the productivity and outcomes of business or IT processes. Ventana Research highlights and acknowledges the importance of these accomplishments through issuing Technology Leadership Awards.

"The Leadership Awards are the most prestigious annual industry awards today. They acknowledge and honor individuals, organizations, supporting vendors and consulting firms for their accomplishments using technology to drive exceptional results in achieving their goals and objectives," said Mark Smith, CEO and chief research officer of Ventana Research. "I would like to personally congratulate all the Leadership Award winners - individuals and companies, that have gone the extra mile to advance the use of technology through best practices and leadership."

These Leadership Awards are the largest business and technology awards program in the industry with 28 awards categories. The categories and winners for the Ventana Research 2016 Leadership Awards are:

Overall Business Leadership Award

Overall Business Leadership: Neil Gomes and Jefferson Health Using Domo

Technology Innovation Leadership Awards

Big Data: Seetha Chakrapany and Macy's using AtScale, Hortonworks and Tableau
Business Analytics: Geert Van Mol and Belfius using NGDATA
Collaboration: Lainie Cooney and DPI Specialty Foods using Ceridian
Cloud Computing: Joseph Schmitt and Pitney Bowes using Aria Systems
Internet of Things: James Stascavage and Caterpillar using Pentaho
Mobile Technology: Bill Dwyre and Weiler Abrasives Group using MicroStrategy
Wearable Computing: Roman Isakov and iTraq using First Line Software

Business Leadership Awards

Chief Financial Officer: Anuj Bhatnagar and International Game Technology using SAP
Office of Finance: Greg French and Bristol Bay Native Corp. using Tagetik
Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC): Gretchen Sikora and Dun & Bradstreet using BlackLine
Human Capital Management: Keegan Fisher and Providence Health & Services using Willis Towers Watson
Sustainability: Ylenia Tommasato and Barilla Group Using Tagetik

Operational Leadership Awards

Overall Operational Leadership: Dawn Zassick and Tucker Rocky using Agility Multichannel
Contact Center: Jami Blake / Heather Burrows and Tiffany & Co using Calabrio
Customer Excellence: Derek Vink / Marisa Wright and Sage using Verint
Marketing Excellence: Gaurav Bhatia and AARP Services using Adobe
Sales Excellence: Brent Mattson and National Instruments Using Xactly
Service and Supply Chain Excellence: Joanna George and Siemens using Demand Solutions

CIO/IT Leadership Award

Chief Information Officer: Ananthan Thandri and Mentor Graphics using Planview

Technology Leadership Awards

Overall Information Technology: Peter Antonucci and Pershing using Information Builders and Teradata
Business Intelligence: Mark Blanchette and Seacoast Bank using Denodo, SAS and Tableau
CyberSecurity: Nick Bleech and Travis Perkins plc using Splunk
Information Optimization: Mick Moran and Merck
Information Management: Maria Keller and Kellogg Company using Stibo Systems
IT Analytics: James Mercer and Flexi-Van Leasing using Nimble Storage
Operational Intelligence: Rick Hart and BioStorage Technologies using Denodo and MicroStrategy
Predictive Analytics: Parag Chitalia and VMWare using Alpine Data

To learn more about Ventana Research's awards programs, please visit: www.ventanaresearch.com/awards.

About Ventana Research
Ventana Research is the most authoritative and respected benchmark business technology research and advisory services firm. We provide insight and expert guidance on mainstream and disruptive technologies through a unique set of research-based offerings including benchmark research and technology evaluation assessments, education workshops and our research and advisory services, Ventana On-Demand. Our unparalleled understanding of the role of technology in optimizing business processes and performance and our best practices guidance are rooted in our rigorous research-based benchmarking of people, processes, information and technology across business and IT functions in every industry. This benchmark research plus our market coverage and in-depth knowledge of hundreds of technology providers means we can deliver education and expertise to our clients to increase the value they derive from technology investments while reducing time, cost and risk.

Ventana Research provides the most comprehensive analyst and research coverage in the industry; business and IT professionals worldwide are members of our community and benefit from Ventana Research's insights, as do highly regarded media and association partners around the globe. Our views and analyses are distributed daily through blogs and social media channels including Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. To learn how Ventana Research advances the maturity of organizations' use of information and technology through benchmark research, education and advisory services, visit www.ventanaresearch.com.

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