ARMONK, N.Y., March 1, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced the winner of its Beacon Laureate Award, which recognizes a Business Partner which has consistently demonstrated exemplary achievement in a single Beacon Award category. IBM Business Partner Fritz & Macziol was selected for the award for its outstanding achievements in the category of technical excellence.

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"Since 2005, Fritz & Macziol have successfully participated within the IBM Beacon Awards with particularly high achievement in the area of technical excellence," said Mark Hennessy, general manager, IBM Global Business Partners. "It is my pleasure to award Fritz & Macziol with the highest honor a Business Partner can receive at IBM.  We are very appreciative of the resources they continually dedicate to providing outstanding technical and cross-brand knowledge across all IBM brands which is invaluable to enhancing the client experience."

As a winner of the IBM Beacon Award for technical excellence the past three years, Fritz & Macziol has continued to compete at the highest level - showcasing their skills and expertise to help deliver innovative solutions for its clients. As an early adapter of IBM technologies and solutions, Fritz & Macziol has won 15 Beacon Awards in the past eight years in categories covering hardware, software, and services. Their commitments to ensuring their employees develop deep product skills and technical expertise of IBM technology translates to consistent business growth and high levels of client satisfaction.

''As one of the first customers on board, we benefitted from the vast IBM know-how of Fritz & Macziol, so we were always at the forefront when it came to meeting new requirements through optimal IT implementation. For 25 years, we have been technologically up-to-date and it has helped lead to our continued success,'' says Gerhard Kaminski, CIO at Schwenk Zement KG, a leading German manufacturer of cement and specialty materials.

"We always focused on outstanding technical excellence which fits perfectly to our cross-brand know-how. The Beacon Laureate Award is, for us, a recognition of our achievement in the disciplines of quality and performance during our now more than 25 year-long successful and trustful partnership with IBM," says Heribert Fritz, CEO of the Fritz & Macziol group.

The Beacon Laureate Award and 30 additional Beacon Award winners were announced at the IBM PartnerWorld Leadership Conference 2013 in Las Vegas, Nevada. More than 2,000 Business Partners and IBM executives from around the world attended the conference.

Christine Paulus 
IBM External Relations 
+49 89 4504 1396

Lizette Kodama
IBM External Relations
646-675-0750

SOURCE IBM