ANIS Gala 2020 @ the sixth edition, the winners of IT industry awarded last night: AB4 Systems, Adobe, Bitdefender, Softbinator Technologies, Deepstash, Endava, Qubiz, TypingDNA și Zitec

ANIS, the Employers’ Association of the Software and Services Industry, organized on February 12, the sixth edition of the ANIS Gala, an event in which the most important companies and projects were awarded during the past year. At this edition, 74 projects were registered by over 50 companies.

“For over 20 years, ANIS has represented the interests of companies in the Romanian tech industry, together with which we have managed to outline an area that today has become a force of the national economy. We continue to rely on education and innovation as strategic pillars of our development as a nation and support initiatives that contribute to the digitization of Romania. We are proud to award the champions this year, but especially to congratulate all the technology companies for their activities in 2019 and wish them much success in the future,” said Gabriela Mechea, ANIS Executive Director.

THE WINNERS of ANIS Gala, 2020’s edition

• THE COMPANY OF THE YEAR – Zitec, an important name in the IT & Digital Marketing market in Romania, specialized in developing business solutions, services and personalized technological products. In 2019, Zitec has implemented two national digital transformation projects: Regista – an online software for online document management, used in 400 mayors of 40 counties in Romania and Digital Workshop – a national digital transformation education program, developed in partnered with Google and dedicated to 7,000 small and medium-sized business owners across the country.

The finalists in this category were Adobe and DocProcess, and Company of the Year applications came from 2Checkout, AB4 Systems, DB Global Technology, Druid, Endava, Huawei, Telekom, Tremend and TypingDNA.

• START-UP OF THE YEAR – Deepstash, a self-improvement application that allows users to save their notes from a variety of online sources and fields: time management, communication, leadership. Deepstash has developed a self-organizing mode where users can create their own custom libraries of ideas that they can access at any time.

The finalists in this category were Planable, Medicai and TypingDNA, and applications for the Startup of the Year also came from Bookvitals, Druid, HappyRecruiter, Medicai, InnerTrends, KinderPedia, Machinations, MorphL, Plant an App, Sypher and Tokinomo.

• Bitdefender won the award for Educational Program of the Year for constant support of the Internship for Good program. Implemented since 2005 by the Association “Students and IT&C Professionals”, the program aims to place the students of the faculties with IT profile in internships, conducted during the summer. In 2019, 420 internship programs were offered, with 2650 students participating.

The finalists of this category were Crystal System and the Orange Foundation, and applications for the Educational Program of the year came from the eMag Foundation, DB Global Technology, E-Civis, Essensys, GDG Craiova, How to Web, Kaspersky, Soc Gen, Uniapply, Upper School and Telekom.

• The Software Product of the Year Award goes to the TypingDNA team, a cybersecurity company that has developed its own artificial intelligence algorithms and technologies to authenticate users based on how they type. The innovative factor of TypingDNA is given by the high accuracy rate of about 99.9%, and the developed technology works on mobile and desktop devices and can be integrated into any available software platform. Another significant differentiator is the low number of steps required for authentication, in only two steps ensuring high accuracy.

The finalists in this category were Bento and Druid, and applications for the Software of the Year came from AB4 Systems, Adobe, Allevo, BITHAT, Connections Consult, MetroSystems, OveIT, Softlead, Spearhead, Sypher, Waters and Zitec.

• The Pollinate platform, made by the company Endava, won the award for software outsourcing solution of the year. As a partner of the British company Pollinate, the Endava team has developed, in just 12 months, a digital solution of state-of-the-art banking services, which allows banks to make their services more efficient, and to facilitate to their traders the best user experiences, in – a very ambitious time frame. The platform is non-invasive and can be integrated into any banking system, worldwide.

The finalists in this category were Softelligence and Zitec, and applications for the Software Outsourcing Project of the year came from AB4 Systems, Computaris and Essensys.

• Qubiz is the winner of the R&D Project of the Year award. The company, a provider of software development services and end-to-end consulting, convinced the jury through a software program based on Artificial Intelligence developed for a global media service provider that automatically identifies and eliminates advertising breaks from recorded TV shows, so they can then be uploaded faster online.

The finalists in this category were Adobe Cross and Druid, and applications for the R&D Project of the year also came from Medicai.

• CSR PROJECT OF THE YEAR – Adobe Systems Romania, a company for which sustainability and social impact are an essential part of the organizational culture. In 2019, Adobe donated over $ 61,000 to various causes, over 400 employees of the company volunteered, helping 30 NGOs in Romania. Also, last year, over $ 200,000 was donated from the Adobe Employee Community Fund to 10 local projects.

The finalists in this category were Yonders and Waters, and applications for the CSR Project of the year came from Arxia, DB Global Technology and Zitec.

• CLIENT OF THE YEAR – UNICEF Romania, for which AB4 Systems has developed the first real-time monitoring and evaluation system, called Aurora, which allows social workers to identify vulnerable children and to offer them a minimum package of social services to improve their situation. The Aurora program has already been launched in 400 communities in Romania, with the plan to extend it to all 2800 communities in need.

The finalists in this category were AB4 Systems and Zitec.

ANIS member of the year was designated Softbinator Technologies (formerly known as Cornerstone Technologies). The company was noted for its active support in the association’s projects in 2019 – the ANIS Bursaries program, the realization of the Software & IT Services study in Romania – and made available to the association web programming resources.

The members of the jury that nominated the winners of the sixth edition of the ANIS Gala are: Teodor Blidăruș – ANIS President, Ionuț Bonoiu – Chief editor of Forbes Romania, Mirela Gavra – The Diplomat founder, Radu Motoc – Executive Vice President, Techsoup Association Pambuccian – Member of the Romanian Parliament, Răzvan Rughiniș – Producer of the Faculty of Automation and Computers at the Polytechnic University of Bucharest and Co-Founder of Innovation Labs and Dragoș Stanca – Founder of UPGRADE 100.

The awards of Excellence of the IT Industry and the ANIS 2020 Gala were supported by the strategic partners: bpv Grigorescu Stefanescu, Colliers International Romania, Up Romania, but also the publications and organizations: Bursa, Cariere, Codecamp, FabLab Iași, Future Banking, How to Web, HR Manager, PIN Magazine, Softlead, Tech Hub, Today Software Magazine.