Stone Shortlisted for ICT Company of the Year
06 December 2011
Technology solutions provider, Stone,
has been officially shortlisted as one of the final six ICT
companies in the 2012 BETT Awards category of 'ICT Company of the
year - over £3m turnover'.
The 14th annual BETT Awards ceremony will take place on the
evening of Wednesday 11 January 2012 at the Hilton Hotel, London
following the opening day of the BETT Show 2012 at the London
Olympia at 10:00am.
The BETT Awards are considered to be the most prestigious in the
education sector, recognising ICT educational suppliers for their
depth of knowledge and understanding of the sector to meet the
needs and demands of education system.
With accumulated revenues of £630m over the 20 years, Stone has
custom built, configured and shipped over 800,000 Stone-branded PCs
into the UK public sector and education market. Furthermore, a
recent move to a 100,000 sq. ft. premises, home to a dedicated
Environment Agency-approved Authorised Treatment Centre for
recycling IT hardware, is testament to Stone's ongoing commitment
to a "cradle to grave" approach - in which Stone manages the entire
lifecycle of its hardware, sending 0% to landfill.
James Bird, CEO of Stone Group, comments, "It is a real honour
and pleasure to be considered for the award of ICT Company of the
year. 2011 has been a challenging year for a business that is
entirely focused on supplying the public sector and education
market, and being shortlisted is a tribute to everyone at Stone who
has worked relentlessly to conquer those challenges."
Commenting on those challenges, Bird continues, "In recent
months, we have witnessed times of austerity, cuts to public
spending and the natural disaster in Thailand that resulted in
large amounts of stock being flooded and subsequently destroyed.
Thanks to our well-established relationships with clients and
partners developed over the last twenty years, we have had been
able to continue to deliver to our customers in the UK public
sector and education market."
Debbie French, event director at Emap comments, "There are a
huge number of educational suppliers that offer our sector
unprecedented products and services to ensure that learning is
continually advancing. The specific nature of each individual
child's learning requirements means that judging the products and
services entered into the BETT Awards is possibly the most
challenging of any award programme. However this year both the
suppliers and judges have demonstrated their level of excellence in
education - it has been an exciting year."
Ray Barker, director of BESA and head of judging adds, "Every
year the quality of product and services into education appears to
improve. It is a tough economic time, and although the education
sector hasn't been affected as much as many, schools are looking
more closely at the products and services they buy to ensure they
are getting the best value. The BETT Awards finalists are certainly
companies that schools can safely consider to be of the best
available."
