VYRE clients Lowe and Partners Worldwide and the Association of Accounting Technicians (AAT) have just been announced as finalists in the Information Age Effective IT Awards ^TM. The award organizers received over 400 entries, and the calibre of entrants has been particularly high this year.

Lowe and Partners are finalists in two categories, Most Effective Use of Information and Most Effective use of IT in Professional Services, for their Lowe Go Intranet portal.

Lowe is a global advertising agency that has over 80 agencies in 54 different countries. In the late 90's and early part of this decade Lowe went through an aggressive merger and acquisition phase and this expansion presented a number of challenges to the network with respect to knowledge and information sharing and effective group communication.

The creation of a collaborative knowledge management portal has helped to address these issues. The portal, branded "Lowe Go", provides a virtual ‘desktop' for Lowe users and supplies fast access to the information, people and business tools needed to add substantial business value.

The Association of Accounting Technicians is a finalist in the category of Most Effective use of IT in Charitable Organisations.

The AAT have deployed VYRE Unify to manage a wide range of content and assets, automate paper based business processes, improve communication and publish content to multiple sites. The implementation of VYRE Unify has seen the AAT web change from a brochure website to e-business.

The Information Age Effective IT Awards^TM celebrate IT strategies that demonstrate how technology provides indisputable business value. The 2006 winners represent a broad range of industries and organisations of all sizes, from major UK corporates and government departments, to smaller owner-managed companies. Projects are judged by senior IT executives all of whom have vast experience in corporate IT. They are entirely independent. The winners will be announced at the Effective IT 2007 Awards & Summer Spectacular^TM.

Awards Categories and finalists:

Most Effective Use of IT in a Charitable Organisation

Company: Association of Accounting Technicians
Project: Business Transformation
Technology partner: Vyre

Company: Comic Relief
Project: Donor Revenue Maximising
Technology partner: QAS

Company: UNICEF UK
Project: Web Analytics
Technology partner: SCL Analytics

Most Effective Use of IT in Construction

Company: Edmund Nuttall
Project: E-Pen & Paper
Technology partner: Destiny Wireless

Company: Hertel UK
Project: CRM & Risk
Technology partner: IFS

Company: Pettifer Group
Project: E-Safe 100
Technology partner: Knowledge Online

Most Effective Use of IT in Financial Services

Company: Credit Suisse
Project: Enterprise Grid
Technology partner: Data Synapse

Company: ING Direct
Project: Mortgage Launch Project
Technology partner: CapGemini UK

Company: Standard Life
Project: Wrap Platform
Technology partner: FNZ

Most Effective Use of IT in Manufacturing & Logistics

Company: Foster's
Project: Virtualisation
Technology partner: EqualLogic

Company: Mitsubishi Electric
Project: BI & CPM
Technology partner: Board M.I.T

Company: Tennant Company
Project: Field Service
Technology partner: Dexterra

Most Effective Use of IT in Professional Services

Company: Lowe & Partners Worldwide
Project: KM Portal
Technology partner: Vyre

Company: MSB International
Project: Performance Review

Company: Serco
Project: eRecruitment System
Technology partner: The Internet Corporation

Most Effective Use of IT in Public Services

Company: Glasgow City Council
Project: Procurement Transformation
Technology partner: CapGemini

Company: Liverpool Women's NHS Foundation Trust
Project: Data Management
Technology partner: EMC

Company: Northumbria 101
Project: Single Number Services
Technology partner: Sopra Group

Most Effective Use of IT in Retail

Company: CarpetRight
Project: Programme Genesis
Technology partner: K3 Business Technology

Company: East of England Co-operative Society
Project: Voice Warehouse
Technology partner: AquiTec

Company: SpecSavers
Project: Socrates 7

Most Effective Use of IT in Utilities, Energy & Telecoms

Company: BT
Project: Resolve
Technology partner: Corizon

Company: Channel 4
Project: 4oD
Technology partner: Verisign

Company: Skanska McNicholas
Project: Site Mobility System

Most Effective Enterprise-Wide Infrastructure

Company: BNP Paribas
Project: Trading Grid
Technology partner: Platform Computing

Company: Coba Plastics
Project: ERP
Technology partner: IFS

Company: Liverpool Women's NHS Foundation Trust
Project: Data Management
Technology partner: EMC

Most Effective IT Services Partnership

Company: DSG International
Project: e-invoicing
Technology partner: OB10

Company: Glasgow City Council
Project: Procurement Transformation
Technology partner: CapGemini

Company: ING Direct
Project: Mortgage Launch Project
Technology partner: CapGemini

Most Effective Use of Communications Technologies

Company: Dundee City Council
Project: Mobile Transformation Project
Technology partner: T-Mobile

Company: John Radcliffe Hospital
Project: Wireless Blood Tracking
Technology partner: BT

Company: Nottingham NHS Health Informatics
Project: Mobile Clinician & Health Therapy
Technology partner: Dell

Most Effective Use of Information

Company: Barclays Bank
Project: Local Business Toolkit

Company: Lowe & Partners Worldwide
Project: KM Portal
Technology partner: Vyre

Company: Scientific & Chemical Supplies
Project: Sage 1000
Technology partner: Sage

Most Effective Use of IT to Manage IT

Company: City of Edinburgh
Project: New HQ
Technology partner: BT

Company: Credit Suisse
Project: Enterprise Grid
Technology partner: DataSynapse

Company: ICI Group
Project: MPLS Network
Technology partner: NetQoS

Most Effective Use of Software

Company: BT
Project: Resolve
Technology partner: Corizon

Company: G's Marketing
Project: Linkfresh Label Check
Technology partner: Anglia Business Solutions

Company: Pettifer Group
Project: E-Safe 100
Technology partner: Knowledge Online