Toshiba Business Communications Division (BCD) today announced its Strata CIX100 communications platform and mobility products have been recognised at the ‘European IT Excellence Awards 2008’. In conjunction with Care Telecom, the small to medium sized enterprise communications specialist, Toshiba BCD’s products fought off competition from across Europe to win the SMB Solution category.

The award recognised a project to upgrade internationally renowned dance wear producer Freed of London’s telephony system. The company has sites in five locations within the UK, and required a dedicated broadband connection to carry inter-site voice traffic to encourage better employee communication.

Two Toshiba Strata CIX100 communication platforms were installed in the London factory and Leicester Distribution centre; the remaining three locations were provided with remote IP handsets and wireless SIP handsets which connect with the Strata CIXs through the VPN network.

Jonathan Foxwell, account director at Care Telecom, states: “The quality and reliability of the Toshiba telephony products, and the flexibility of their mobility solutions have enabled true flexible working in line with Freed of London’s requirements. Toshiba and Care Telecom are delighted we have received such important recognition, and are very proud as we were up against advanced IT projects from some of the best providers in Europe!”

John Champan, editor of IT Europa, comments: “Care Telecom won the SMB Solution category at the European IT Excellence Awards 2008 against stiff competition from all over Europe because they showed in their entry that they fully understood the criticality of the communications needs of their client, Freed of London, and focused on delivering a first class solution. The judges were particularly impressed with the phased implementation, ensuring least disruption to existing operations whilst gaining the maximum competitive advantage from the completed solution.”

Run by leading European IT publisher and market intelligence organisation, IT Europa, the European IT Excellence Awards aim to recognise the crucial role that Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) and Solution Providers play in the delivery of real world solutions, and attracted entries from more than 30 countries.

In addition, The Freed of London project was a finalist in the SME Converged Category at the ‘Channel Network Awards 2007’, run by BPL Business Media.