The annual International Awards for Software Excellence were given on the 8th of June 2010 on an official ceremony in Bilbao.
The ESI International Awards for Software Excellence have four different categories, depending on the type of organization and the successfully implemented initiatives. These categories were: International, European, SMEs and Cluster Approach Project.
38 organizations from around 11 countries participated: Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Bulgaria, Chile, Colombia, Egypt, Mexico, Moldova, Portugal and Spain.
Musala Soft (Bulgaria) was among the finalists in the category SMEs, where the winner is PSL (Colombia). CEED, Competitiveness Enhancement and Enterprise Development project, (Moldova) was among the finalists in the category Cluster Approach Project. In this category the winner is CITS (Brazil).
The ceremony was chaired by the Vice minister of Innovation and Technology Mr. Juan Ignacio Goicolea.
The following criteria were taken into account during the selection process:
Technological innovation applied, Software Process Improvement standards and methods used, Industrialization techniques, Quantification, Social impact, Business impact, Organizational impact and Multiplier effect of the initiative.
Special mention has the Cluster Approach Project Category, focused on improving competitiveness through Software Excellence. The organizations, which stood out in this category were:
- Competitiveness Enhancement and Enterprise Development project, CEED, Moldova, (funded by USAID) that seeks to enhance the competitiveness of Moldovan enterprises from three industries, one of them the information technology industry;
- CITS, Brazil, whose project aims to keep Curitiban software companies at the forefront of the technology and processes market;
- CAMARA DE COMERCIO DE BOGOTA, Colombia, working on the improvement of the competitiveness of the Software sector in Bogota and Cundinamarca through adoption and assessment of the IT Mark model.