Cutter Group has scooped Fujitsu’s prestigious Global SELECT Innovation Award, presented in Munich on the 16^th of November.

Cutter was recognized for putting Fujitsu’s vision of a Human Centric Intelligent Society into action with the innovative digital transformation of four Oxford Partnership schools in Saudi Arabia – which now deliver unprecedented educational opportunities for young women.

A check for USD 10,000, to be used for joint marketing and sales development programs, was presented to Cutter at the SELECT Innovation Award ceremony during the Fujitsu Forum Munich. The partner is also invited to attend Fujitsu Forum Tokyo in May 2017 to meet global industry experts and gain first-hand insight into Fujitsu’s latest solutions, products and services.

Dave Hazard, Head of Sales Operations and Channel, at Fujitsu EMEIA, comments: “European business decision makers consider digital disruption to be the biggest technology challenge they face today. When undertaking their own digital transformation it is absolutely crucial that enterprises have the right technology partners in place to help shape their approach to digital and to enable them to thrive in a digitally disrupted world. In this context, it is more important than ever that we support our valued partners, to guide businesses in every industry through their individual digitalization journeys. Today, we recognize outstanding companies who truly embody this spirit.”

Chosen from a shortlist of three impressive implementations, last year’s inaugural awards’ EMEIA Best Newcomer and awards finalist, UK-based SELECT Expert Cutter Group scooped the 2016 Fujitsu SELECT Innovation Award, thanks to the work the company has undertaken with the Oxford Partnership, a visionary organization that is using technology to improve the lives of young women in Saudi Arabia through education. Despite the challenge of installing and maintaining IT equipment in remote rural communities, Cutter implemented a complete digital transformation of the partnership’s four colleges including deploying a virtualized server infrastructure, with both local and centralized storage, and the creation of a secure private cloud to connect the four college sites. The new college IT infrastructure allows students to gain valuable technology skills, and delivers unprecedented educational opportunities for young women in Saudi Arabia by empowering them to transform their lives through learning.

Magdalena Riley, Chief Operating Officer at the Oxford Partnership, added: “Our mission is to deliver high quality vocational education to enable Saudi women to take active roles in the workplaces across the Saudi economy’s private and public sectors. We turned to Cutter Group and Fujitsu to get the very best in engineering and virtualization support as we needed a solid partner to deliver, install and maintain a stable and scalable infrastructure in the most remote areas of the Kingdom. I see the difference education makes to our students’ lives every day and I’m delighted to see how technology now supports us in delivering our vision.”