Kansas City, MO (Aug. 23, 2017) — On Wednesday, Aug. 16, during the 2017 BTA National Conference held at the Mandarin Oriental in Las Vegas, Nevada, the officers of the Business Technology Association announced and presented BTA’s 2017 Channel’s Choice Awards. The five awards were presented during the event’s welcoming dinner.
Joe Contreras (second from left), vice president of product and solutions marketing at Toshiba America Business Solutions, accepts the 2017 Channel’s Choice Award for Primary Product Line on behalf of Toshiba from 2017-18 BTA President Dan Castaneda (far left), 2017-18 BTA Vice President Bob Evans (middle right) and 2017-18 BTA President-Elect John Eckstrom (far right) at the 2017 BTA National Conference awards ceremony, held Aug. 16 at the Mandarin Oriental in Las Vegas.
Earlier this year, BTA emailed a link to the online ballot to all of its dealer members and a number of dealers outside of its membership. The association also encouraged industry vendors to provide the ballot link to dealers. The ballot asked dealers to rate their primary- and secondary-line hardware vendors in key performance categories, as well as to rate vendors in the three additional award categories — third-party leasing, remanufactured cartridges provider and wholesale distributor. The balloting determined the Channel’s Choice award winners. BTA received 267 completed ballots.
The winners in the five award categories: Primary Product Line, Toshiba America Business Solutions (TABS), accepted by Joe Contreras, vice president of product and solutions marketing; Secondary Product Line, Muratec America Inc., accepted by Jim D’Emidio, president; Third-Party Leasing, GreatAmerica Financial Services, accepted by Jennie Fisher, senior vice president and general manager of the Office Equipment Group; and both Remanufactured Cartridges Provider and Wholesale Distributor, Polek & Polek, accepted by Chris Polek, CEO.
“On behalf of Toshiba, we would like to thank our dealers and the dealer community,” Contreras said as he accepted the Channel’s Choice Award for Primary Product Line. “I truly believe that it is all about the experience and I think that’s what helps set Toshiba apart in the industry. We are not the biggest, but we deliver the best experience and for those of you who have worked with us, I think you would agree. It’s all about relationships. We go above and beyond so, again, thank you for recognizing us.”
While the independent dealer has always been the focal point of the association, BTA annually recognizes those manufacturers and suppliers that are judged by dealers to be the most supportive, said 2017-18 BTA National President Dan Castaneda. “Since 1989, BTA has been recognizing vendors deemed to the most supportive of the dealer channel based on voting ballots cast by both BTA member and non-member dealers,” he said. “We congratulate Toshiba, Muratec, GreatAmerica and Polek & Polek for distinguishing themselves among their competitors as the winners of the 2017 BTA Channel’s Choice Awards.”
The Channel’s Choice balloting results were tabulated by Survey Advantage, based in Jamestown, Rhode Island. Listings of past years’ winners and summaries of the balloting results can be found here (a BTA member username and password is required to download the summary).
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About the Business Technology Association
Founded in 1926, the Business Technology Association serves office technology dealerships, resellers, manufacturers, distributors and service companies. Its core members — office technology dealerships — consult, sell and service hardware, software and supplies with the primary goal of helping businesses optimize business document and information workflows. Through the association’s various educational programs, information, research, legal services, publications and guidance, BTA member dealerships are positioned to be the premier source of the office technology used by businesses throughout the United States every day.
