Logica announces winner in search for UK’s most innovative small and medium sized companies

March 16 2009 - Logica, the leading IT and business services company, today announced Cognisco as the 2009 UK winner of the country stage of its Global Innovation Venture Partner Program (GIVP). The award commends Small and Medium Sized enterprises (SME) for outstanding innovative IT solutions which deliver actual business benefits to organizations. The program attracted more than 40 applicants across the UK.

Following a competitive selection process, Cognisco was selected and will now be working with Logica to develop a joint go-to-market strategy. It will also have the opportunity to engage with some of Logica’s most important customers. Cognisco provides knowledge development solutions that measure employees’ knowledge and competence in conjunction with confidence, enabling employers to optimize their workforce and ensure that every employee is in a position to excel.

The other UK shortlisted companies were:
• AMEE produces ‘the world’s energy meter’, which provides a platform to measure the carbon footprint of everything on earth
• Erudine is a company dedicated to providing the tools that captures system behavior and builds new or replacement systems retaining human knowledge to prevent future legacy
• Imaginitik is the leading provider of collaborative innovation and idea management technology and services, providing unique enterprise software, processes and insights to tap into the brainpower of hundreds and thousands of people
• Verisim develops fully functional simulations of enterprise systems which are fundamental to the successful delivery of a change management project within large organizations

The GIVP program is being run across eight major countries – UK, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, France, Netherlands, Portugal and India. The overall GIVP 2009 winner for the program will be announced on March 17, 2009 in London, post a comprehensive evaluation by a Logica senior management panel of all country winner solutions.

Scott Sharp, director at Cognisco said: “We are honored to be recognized as the UK GIVP winner and have already found it a great way to introduce ourselves to all different parts of Logica. We were challenged by Logica sales, marketing, technical and commercial management, but were able to clearly showcase the underlying business value and ROI that customers and partners achieve with our knowledge development solutions. Cognisco prides itself as being at the forefront of innovation in its field and we are looking forward to demonstrating that to the selection panel in London.”

Steve Tyler, UK delivery and technical director at Logica and chairman of the UK panel said: “We are pleased to announce Cognisco as the UK winner. Cognisco gave a great presentation, exhibiting good cultural synergy and a partnership led approach, which is very important as we will be working closely together. Cognisco’s solution provides Logica with an innovative addition to its existing solution and service portfolios, by allowing us to understand in great detail the human element associated with processes and systems prior to the design or outsourcing phases of our projects. Through the addition of this data, we firmly believe that the combined strengths of Logica’s business transformation expertise and Cognisco’s unique knowledge development solutions, will allow us to provide an even better value added service, to help solve our customers’ real business pains.

“The panel were very impressed with the volume and more importantly the outstanding quality of this year’s applicants and I would personally like to thank them all for their contributions and great ideas. The high quality of applicants is testament to the fact innovation is flourishing in the UK and given the current economic climate, it is now more important than ever that we encourage small and medium sized companies to keep innovation on their business agenda.

“This initiative is not just about supporting business innovation; it is about supporting the governance of innovation. Often innovation is seen as the only ultimate aim for IT businesses, but innovation only works if it is brought to market in the right way and made to work for our clients. Our aim is to bring new solutions to market and recognize the essential role that these companies play in driving real business and IT innovation for clients.”

The GIVP program aims to bring new technology and business solutions to market and to recognize the essential role that these companies play in driving real IT innovation and customer satisfaction to clients. Winners of the initiative are effectively getting access to an established global resource, providing go-to-market support and opportunities to engage with client organizations where appropriate.

About Logica
Logica is a leading IT and business services company, employing 40,000 people. It provides business consulting, systems integration, and IT and business process outsourcing services. Logica works closely with its customers to release their potential - enabling change that increases their efficiency, accelerates growth and manages risk. It applies its deep industry knowledge, technical excellence and global delivery expertise to help its customers build leadership positions in their markets. Logica is listed on both the London Stock Exchange and Euronext (Amsterdam) (LSE: LOG; Euronext: LOG). More information is available at www.logica.com.

About Cognisco
Cognisco is a global leader in measuring employee knowledge and confidence, working with companies in more than 150 countries and in 70 different languages. Headquartered in the U.K. with an office in New York City, its unique online knowledge development solutions enable customers, including some of the world’s biggest brands, to accurately assess and measure levels of individual understanding and confidence. By combining human capital consultancy, online appraisal and learning, Cognisco provides its customers with critical data which enables companies to reduce risk and cost, while increasing operational performance and ROI. Cognisco believes in enabling individuals to reach their true potential by constantly placing them in a position to excel so that employers can continuously improve business performance.

For further information please contact:
Logica
Nadia Boodram, Logica, nadia.boodram@logica.com 07921 932 363
Angelina Hunt, Trimedia, Angelina.hunt@trimediuk.com 020 7025 7595

Cognisco
Cheryl Gale, March Communications, cheryl@marchpr.com 001 617 960 9839
Juliana Allen, March Communicatons, julianaa@marchpr.com 001 617 960 9880

This release was published on openPR.