Locally developed solutions recognised at the MCA eBusiness Awards

The 7th edition of the MCA eBusiness Awards was held last week at the Mediterranean Conference Centre in Valletta. These awards have consistently showcased some of the best solutions developed by locally-based ICT organisations which, amongst other attributes combine creativity, information technology, as well as business or social innovation.

The eBusiness Awards have provided a platform for increased visibility to all participants and an excellent means to credit the efforts and unique talents demonstrated by all those involved in the rollout of such innovative business initiatives.

This year 24 solutions from eight different categories made it to the final.

In his address, Parliamentary Secretary Silvio Schembri highlighted the significance of these awards and emphasized their contribution in encouraging the growth of eBusiness in Malta as one of the key drivers of the Maltese economy. “This gives me the affirmation that our strive to steer our economy into a modern digital era is on the right track and is already producing results,” he said.

This year the eBusiness Awards received a prestigious public acknowledgement from an Internet pioneer, Google’s Chief Internet Evangelist, Dr Vint Cerf, who is widely known as one of the fathers of the Internet. Dr Cerf delighted the audience with a recorded message wherein he congratulated the winners and recognised the relevance of these Awards.

The following is a recap of the winners on the night:

Vodafone Malta Foundation and Paulo Freire Institute with their App ‘Iċ-Ċavetta’, developed by BB Associates Ltd (Maltaserv), won the Best App category. This app is a Maltese literacy toolkit targeted at adults and youths facing social exclusion and employment challenges.

Mi-C3 won the award for the best B2B application with their ‘Affectli’ platform. Affectli is a revolutionary IoT contextual collaboration platform that supports the entire operational environment of organisations, people and things, including how these relate to those outside, and around the core: business; customers; vendors; suppliers; regulators and stakeholders.

Fablab Valletta received the award for Best eCommerce site (B2C) with their ‘FabValletta’ website developed by Growth Gurus. This website enables people to learn, invent and innovate in a collaborative and global network.

The Best eGovernment initiative went to Mater Dei Hospital for their CPASms developed by Cursor Ltd. CPASms is an electronic messaging system, which sends out reminders about outpatients’ appointments via SMS.

Luxemburg Airport achieved the Best Use of Technology in Business Transformation Award, with their product developed by ICON. This allows travellers arriving and departing from Lux-Airport to plan their trips better, decide on the best choice in transportation to get to the airport and make the most of their time while at the airport.

The Best ICT Academic Project with an eBusiness Theme was won by Francesca Gauci, a University of Malta student, with her dissertation; ‘The Effect of Local News on the Maltese Stock Market: An Empirical Evaluation using Machine Learning,’ submitted to the Faculty of Economics, Management and Accountancy.

Altaro won the award for Best Tech Start-up. Altaro VM Backup is a hassle-free virtual machine backup software solution for Hyper-V and VMware.

And, finally, The Best Social Media Campaign (50% people’s choice) went to LovinMalta for their audacious and highly successful April Fools' campaign.