A number of local IT firms and individuals were honoured Thursday night by the Society of Canadian Office Automation Professionals.

SCOAP, an affiliate of the Ottawa Centre for Research and Innovation, is a not-for-profit association with a mandate to promote the nation's capital as a hotbed for IT excellence.

At the 17th installment of the annual event, awards were presented to local companies and individuals for their contributions to the community through the creation or use of information technology.

Award winners were selected by a panel composed of senior IT managers and consultants from both the private and public sectors.

CATEGORY ONE

Three companies were recognized under Category 1 for Best Locally Developed Information Technology Product or Service.

The award recognizes state-of-the-art products or services that have significant impact on organizations and the workplace.

E-mail management specialist Educom TS Inc. was recognized for its exchange archive solution. The software application helps clients save and store corporate e-mail as required under law.

Parliant Corp. also placed in Category 1 for its Tell A Phone product, a combined software and intelligent hardware device. Targetted at households and small or home offices, Tell A Phone allows uses to receive and place calls through their computer will simple voice commands.

The final recipient under Category 1 was Pronexus Inc. for its VBVoice 5.0 product used to develop speech-enabled applications for call centres.

CATEGORY 2

Both awards granted under Category 2 went to Databeacon Inc.

The category, Best IT Initiative Resulting in Positive Social or Community Advancement, focuses on the use of information and technology to improve the quality of life in the community.

The first award was handed out for Databeacon's Storydata.com Web portal. Using Databeacon's Web reporting and data analysis technology, the portal allows users to pull together information and documents from all over the Web that relate to a specific topic.

The second award related to a membership management system using Databeacon software that was created for Scouts Canada. The new system replaced an outdated client-server and pulled together 27 different regional databases.

CATEGORY 3

Category 3 recognized individuals for their contributions to Ottawa's IT community.

SCOAP fellowships were conferred upon Michael Turner, assistant deputy minister of the telecommunications and informatics program branch at Public Works and Government Services Canada; Ron Zambonini, CEO of Cognos, Canada's largest and most successful software firm; and Catherine Smith-Evanik for her work in information and document management.

CATEGORY 4

Category 4 pertains to SCOAP's President's Awards. OCRI was honoured for its 16 years of community leadership. John Riddle, chief information officer of Health Canada, and Robert Plaseski, executive director of Health Canada, were recognized for their management of the Office Infrastructure Renewal project at Public Works and Government Services Canada.