eOscar award for Crimsonwing solution.

For some years now, Malta has been striving to become one of Europe's most vibrant centres for international trade in goods and services. Foreign companies in the ICT, financial and other service sectors have been on the increase and today, Malta, although a small player, offers some very specific advantages: a central geographical position, easily accessible within short hours from major European cities and other countries, greater cultural alignment than many nearshore and most far shore locations, and an educated workforce known for its technical aptitude, adaptability, flexibility and fluency in English.

The early eMalta years saw a heavy investment by Government in its ICT infrastructure to transform Malta into an Information Society and Malta's potential as a developer and supplier of niche software driven by highly trained and technically competent IT staff with a strong work ethic make it the ideal location for the provision of these services.

Through a combination of dynamic economic, social, cultural, political and human resource factors, Malta is positioning itself to make it an increasingly attractive location for service-providers and companies considering outsourcing.

Coupled with this is the work of Malta Enterprise, which has done much in opening the door onto new markets and towards attracting new and lucrative foreign direct investment. For its part, Crimsonwing (www.crimsonwing.com) has given full support to ME resulting in a series of specialist and focused events throughout last year.

One important aspect that Crimsonwing sought to address was the promotion of Malta as a European near-shore outsourcing destination. This was first done in April when Crimson-wing's Holland office organised an IT outsourcing workshop to address Malta's unique offering. With the collaboration of Malta Enterprise and independent analysts and consultants, the event was structured as a series of presentations detailing the experiences that the large 'blue chip' companies have had setting up and subcontracting their operations to Malta. Since then, Crimsonwing has seen some interesting business through Dutch Axapta resellers as well as R&D projects for Smart Card solutions.

Along the same lines was the London-based seminar organised by the National Outsourcing Association to which Malta Enterprise was invited to promote Malta as a viable outsourcing destination. As an independent, non-profit organisation, the NOA acts as a trade organisation seeking to leverage effective business and process outsourcing by promoting best practice, service and innovation in the application and development of outsourcing.

David Walsh, Crimsonwing's CEO, delivered a presentation using Crimsonwing as a successful case study in the establishing and promoting of Malta as a near-shore destination.

In June, Crimsonwing attended OutsourceWorld London as part of a delegation formed by Malta Enterprise. Touted as Europe's premier outsourcing event, OutsourceWorld is a valuable learning and networking platform for the growing outsourcing sector, examining the principal issues concerning near-shore and off-shore outsourcing solutions and how they can be successfully implemented to enhance business profitability and optimise service levels. It was there that Crimsonwing met Fraser Eagle who were looking for a near-shore software development company capable of servicing their IT requirements.

September saw Crimsonwing's participation at Dubai's World Outsourcing Forum where Mr Walsh presented a unique case study on "Outsourcing: barrier or enabler in a major acquisition?" This illustrated what happened when Safeway, the UK's third largest food supermarket chain, who were already using an innovative IT outsourcing service based in Malta, were acquired by a more ambitious rival.

Although the rival, Morrisons had never previously outsourced offshore, Malta's near-shore proposition had made commercials more attractive. So much so, that the end of 2005 saw a renewal of the Morrisons contract covering both software development as well as application support services.

The tail end of 2005 saw Crimsonwing at a Dutch event, Outsourcing and IT Trends in the Netherlands, and also at the Offshore Customer Management International Conference in Prague where Crimsonwing's Malta's director James Bonello highlighted the benefits of Malta's nearshore offering.

October turned out to be an exciting month as Crimsonwing was awarded the UK Channel Network Awards prize for best B2B solution within the eCommerce category. Known as Immedia, the system is a sophisticated eProcurement solution that supports business processes of print-related services and products for Williams Lea - a leading business process outsourcing company. Immedia has been hugely successful delivering real and tangible benefits to the client and has been acknowledged within Williams Lea as one of their most successful IT projects.

Last year saw the kick off of Crimsonwing's Ethiopian project where funding has gone towards the building of a school in Sakko, a small village near the provincial capital of Dembidollo. Schoolchildren have benefited from an ongoing feeding programme now nearing the end of its first year. The four Indian sisters who are running the school and feeding programme are in regular contact with Crimson-wing, who soon hope to visit the completed project.

Last year also saw the growth and expansion of Crimsonwing's Axapta practice via projects deriving from Microsoft resellers and direct clients. By providing added flexibility via dedicated ring-fenced teams, Crimsonwing has allowed clients to safeguard the knowledge gained as well as promote project continuity. With two new clients on their books the Axapta teams have worked on several interesting projects ranging from the implementation of critical enhancements to the redesign of core functions. Future plans include further expansion of the teams by this June and a sustained effort towards obtaining Gold Certification by the end of this year.

Crimsonwing's financial year ended with a bang - the awarding last week of the eOscar by Intershop at CeBIT for a solution designed and built by Crimsonwing. What better way to see the year out?