Technology Top 100 Awards 2012

Honoured and Celebrated South Africa’s most Innovative Developers of Technology

The Vodacom Dome in Midrand was alive with the spirit of prestige on November 28, as this year’s Technology Top 100 Awards programme (TT100) honoured and celebrated South Africa’s business innovation excellence.

Launched in 1991 by the CEO of Da Vinci, Prof Roy Marcus, TT100 continues to foster a culture that nurtures the management of technology and innovation in South Africa today, 21 years later. TT100 has evolved into one of South Africa’s most credible business awards programmes, highlighting some truly inspirational South African organisations as role models for driving growth and advancement in our country.

Opening this auspicious evening, the Minister of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), the honourable Derek Hanekom, gave the keynote speech. As the main sponsor of the award since 1994, the DST has shared in many successes with the TT100 over the years.

“Programmes such as TT100 are valuable in fostering strong and sustainable partnerships between government and industry, and the relationships within the TT100 ecosystem are of vital importance to future science and technology policy and sustained job-creation initiatives,” says Hanekom.

Going forward, this strong partnership hopes to contribute to achieving the hope of the awards to stimulate the growth of black-owned technologically innovative organisations. It further hopes to promote the involvement of women and young people in the technology arena.

The sponsors of the Emerging TT100 Enterprises section of the evening, the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), also proudly partners with the TT100 to work towards job creation. It not only provides funding, but also gives the emerging TT100 innovators the support they need to ensure that a technology concept is transformed into a market-ready product.

“As the IDC, we are honoured to be associated with the TT100 Awards. Programme. Our combined efforts are already bearing fruit with the remarkable milestones achieved within the green industries and renewable sectors. Let’s continue to work towards a new enterprising generation of innovators.”

Leading up to this event and culminating in the announcement of the winners, all registered entrants first needed to go through a rigorous adjudication process. To make it through to the second round, they needed to complete a comprehensive questionnaire, after which they could present to a panel of at least three adjudicators. This year, more than 40 credible adjudicators – including independent and high-profile academics, government representatives, captains of industry and business professionals participated voluntarily in the adjudication process. The combination of expertise from such diverse industries and sectors keeps the process 100% transparent and consistent.

Entrants were then scored not only on the basis of technological sophistication, but on a set of much broader criteria. They were also scored on issues such as social and environmental responsibility, as well as national priorities such as black economic empowerment, job creation and skills development. But most importantly, these organisations were scored on how they have commercialised an innovative process for sustainable benefit for their stakeholders.

All qualifying entrants, finalists and winners will receive a dashboard in February 2013, following their score results in the various categories, including The Management of Technology, Innovation, People, Systems and Research, so that they can gain an overall perspective of how they fare in comparison to their peers.

Marcus, CEO of TT100, said “Looking at companies holistically, being a TT100 company is not about technology itself – but rather about the management of technology. It’s about how a company adopts and adapts, and it’s about their technology, which might not necessarily be their invention, but they’ve put it to use in an innovative way that has contributed to the significant growth of their business”.

These TT100 qualifiers, finalists and winners enjoyed the celebration of the strategic networking hospitality event that afforded them the opportunity of fostering private public relationships with both corporate and government guests, with a view to driving technology and innovation in our country.

The list of winners in the various categories, including the most prestigious award of the year:

The Minister’s Award for Overall Excellence
FNB (Large Enterprise Joint Award)
Van Reenen Steel (Pty) Ltd (Large Enterprise Joint Award)
Agility Global Health Solutions (Africa) (Medium Enterprise)

Department of Science and Technology Director-General’s Award for Overall Excellence
Computers 4 Kids cc (Emerging Enterprise)
Tutuka (Small Enterprise)

Award for Excellence in the Management of Technology
iWeathar (Emerging Enterprise)
Bettalights (Pty) Ltd (Small Enterprise)
EDH (South Africa) Pty Ltd (Medium Enterprise)
Bell Equipment Company SA (Pty) Ltd (Large Enterprise – Joint Award)
DotJWT (Large Enterprise – Joint Award)

Award for Excellence in the Management of Innovation
Realm Computers (Pty) Ltd (Emerging Enterprise – Joint Award)
Smoke Customer Care Solutions (Pty) Ltd (Emerging Enterprise – Joint Award)
Tutuka (Small Enterprise)
Dakot Milling Media (Pty) Ltd (Medium Enterprise)
FNB (Large Enterprise – Joint Award)
PFK Electronics (Pty) Ltd (Large Enterprise – Joint Award)

Award for Excellence in the Management of People
Computers 4 Kids cc (Emerging Enterprise)
X/procure Software SA (Pty) Ltd (Small Enterprise)
Agility Global Health Solutions (Africa) (Medium Enterprise)
Van Reenen Steel (Pty) Ltd (Large Enterprise)

Award for Excellence in the Management of Systems
FutureWorks! (Emerging Enterprise)
Global Supply Chain Services (Pty) Ltd (Small Enterprise – Joint Award)
Metrix Software Solutions (Pty) Ltd (Small Enterprise – Joint Award)
Agility Global Health Solutions (Africa) (Medium Enterprise)
Van Reenen Steel (Pty) Ltd (Large Enterprise)

Award for Excellence in the Management of Research
FutureWorks! (Emerging Enterprises)
CERadvance Engineering Ceramics (Pty) Ltd (Small Enterprise)
Altech Multimedia (Pty) Ltd (Medium Enterprises)
DebTech (Large Enterprise – Joint Award)
Mintek (Large Enterprise – Joint Award)

Award for Sustainable Performance
Accsys (Pty) Ltd
Altech Limited
Hazleton Pumps (Pty) Ltd
LucidView (Pty) Ltd
MechCal (Pty) Ltd
Spark ATM Systems (Pty) Ltd
Technetium (Pty) Ltd
Verirad (Pty) Ltd

Technology Top 100 Achiever Award
Aveng Water (Pty) Ltd
Forge Business Online (Pty) Ltd
Fraxion (Pty) Ltd
Infantrust Parenting Solutions (Pty) Ltd
iPulse Systems (Pty) Ltd

For a complete list of finalists and qualifiers in respective categories, and more information on TT100, please visit www.tt100.co.za