I'm not going into a rerun of the rules. If you're interested, feel free to read them here on the original post published Monday. But I promised a list of the consulting firms, systems integrators, and the solutions based organizations who are on the list too - and there are several more than last year who qualify as candidates. I had a bit of trouble with some of the solutions groups who qualify possibly as software vendors but I ultimately included them here since they are known for that. A few of these companies are software solutions partners for particular solutions.
They differ a little in the criteria since their services mix and partnerships with vendors and other companies have more bearing on how they qualify for the finals and winners than the vendors do. Its their technology mix rather than their product portfolio that I take into account.
What I haven't included is analyst or research firms though I do include consulting firms who do research. I also am not including very very small independent firms here since I am one of those. However, the ones that I do include are firms I've been watching for the good part of this year for one reason or another and who do exceptionally good work and who I think will be growing in the next 12-24 months. Some small, some huge.
In any case, same rules hold here. The ones that I'll repeat are:
Okay, let's do this.
In no particular order
Remember, same rules apply as yesterday. Click above to find out what in hell I mean,