We want your help in deciding the winners of five awards representing some of the most prestigious prizes in our 14th annual Computing Awards for Excellence.

We are looking to recognise the best IT suppliers in the country, as well as the top recruitment consultancy.

And the people with the most relevant experience to determine the winners are you as our readers – the IT experts that come into contact with these organisations on a daily basis.

We would like you to vote on each of the following categories, with the winners to be announced at the awards ceremony on 25 October at the Battersea Park Events Arena in London.

Voting is easy – simply visit our awards web site at www.computing.co.uk/awards and click on the ‘Vote Now’ button. The details of the shortlisted entries are shown below – we look forward to receiving your votes.

Business Hardware Supplier of the Year

* Clearswift offers a complete email security system in a box, which can be implemented in just 30 minutes. Customers include Robinson Construction, which claims a 97 per cent reduction in spam, and Venn Group, which has saved nearly £8,000 per year.

* Google Enterprise’s products for the corporate market offer the familiar search ability of the web site for a company’s own information base, across servers, applications, databases and document management systems. Users include Camden Borough Council, which uses Google’s products for its web site and intranet.

* LifeSize Communications offers high-definition (HD) videoconferencing technology through a network of suppliers in more than 20 countries. One customer is using the system to t each schoolchildren how their bodies work through interactive television broadcasts, while some legal organisations are using the HD quality for video depositions to courtrooms.

* McData, storage area networking switch supplier, offers high-performance devices that help customers manage the growing storage infrastructure of their company. DIY retailer B& Q worked with McData to provide secure partitioning in an environment that allows a dynamic on-demand allocation of resources by application.

* Mirapoint offers secure messaging products with high reliability. Birkbeck University in London uses the firm’s systems to provide calendars, scheduling and email to 9,000 staff and students, while marketing services group Aegis uses Mirapoint messaging for 12,000 staff in 60 countries.

* Netezza provides data warehouse applications for large organisations such as Amazon.com, CenterParcs, Debenhams and Carphone Warehouse. Using the supplier’s products, mobile network provider Orange reduced the number of cabinets in its data centre from 26 to nine, which also reduced floor space. The self-contained products were also deployed at Carphone Warehouse in just two weeks from the date of ordering.

* ONStor provides network attached storage (Nas) gateways that help IT managers to consolidate their storage requirements. The products work with most brands of disk to help maintain investments in legacy systems, with some customers reporting costs savings of more than 60 per cent compared with using conventional Nas systems.

Business Software Supplier of the Year

* CA, formerly Computer Associates, provides a broad range of software products to help IT departments better manage their IT infrastructure. Tesco uses CA’s software to support operations in the UK, Europe and South-East Asia with a common set of tools. And Wakefield Health Informatics Services uses CA products to reduce costs and ease storage complexity in an environment supporting 4,000 users.

* Intuit produces financial management software for small businesses, with more than three million people using its products worldwide. Customers vouch for the ease of use of the system, an essential consideration for small organisations with little experience of accounting or payroll software.

* JBoss offers open-source middleware products such as application servers, development tools and portals, providing a challenge to the established providers of proprietary software. The supplier’s products are free to license, and it makes money through providing support for some of the leading standards-based open-source products on the market.

* Salesforce.com is a pioneer of online, pay-as-you-go enterprise applications, providing hosted customer relationship management software charged on a per-user, per-month basis. The supplier has more than 400,000 subscribers to its online products, from 22,700 firms worldwide, including Nokia, ITN, Merrill Lynch and Orange.

* Skybox Security provides security risk management systems to some of the world’s largest companies, such as Coca Cola, GlaxoSmithKline, Barclays, AstraZeneca and Egg. The products cut risk by modelling security threats and analysing the business impact of potential incursions.

* Texthelp Systems specialises in technology to assist in designing software for people with difficulty reading and writing. The products are used by education institutions to support students, and help in web site accessibility. Antrim Borough Council uses Texthelp software for its web site to help those with poor reading ability or where English is not their first language.

* VMware has pioneered the concept of virtualisation for industry standard, x86-based servers. Its products bring huge cost savings and operational benefits. Manufacturer Alstom virtualised its infrastructure using VMware and consolidated its servers by a ratio of 16:1, cutting costs by 40 per cent. And Prudential set up systems for 850 staff in India with a complete set of call-centre applications in under six months.

IT Services Supplier of the Year

* Aconex provides an online information management service to the construction industry, allowing major building projects to store all project information centrally for better communication and collaboration. The redevelopment of Victoria Square in Belfast used Aconex to support 2,000 workers from 70 contractors, generating 60,000 documents and 165,000 emails.

* Lan 2 Lan specialises in networking, communications and mobile computing, helping customers to deliver business applications to remote workers on handheld devices. Financial services group Prudential uses the supplier’s products and services to send vital data to staff via their BlackBerry handhelds.

* LinuxIT Europe provides training, consultancy and support for users of the open-source Linux operating system. The organisation works with the United Nations to provide low-cost Linux certification to developing countries in South-East Asia. The supplier also works closely with leading vendors of open-source products.

* MessageLabs provides integrated messaging and internet security services to more than 14,000 customers in 80 countries. The company’s managed security services are used by organisations such as Pilkington, Filofax and LG Philips. Pilkington estimates savings of £1m per year as a result of working with the supplier.

* PC World Business provides advice and support to small companies through a network of 150 business centres, with 1,000 technology advisers, 350 field engineers and a 500-strong IT helpdesk team. The supplier also works with a number of larger organisations such as Surrey County Council, which recently completed a 5,000 user IT upgrade.

* Vanco is a pioneer of the virtual network operator model, providing multi-country network services to organisations such as Ford, British Airways, Lloyds TSB and Virgin. The supplier manages all the network suppliers in different countries, providing a single point of contact and contract for customers.

Networking and Communications Supplier of the Year

* Affiniti provides networking and telecoms services to customers including Egg, Carphone Warehouse and Experian, and this year won its first PFI contract, with University Hospital Birmingham, worth £20m over 12 years. Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen hospital worked with Affiniti to install a wireless network supporting voice-activated badges for staff.

* Aruba Networks, wireless network specialist, has won a number of large contracts in the past year, including BAA for work on Heathrow Terminal 5, University College London Hospital (UCLH), Unipart and Hampshire County Council. At Terminal 5, the Aruba network will provide internet access for 30 million passengers a year, while UCLH implemented mobile access to patient records 7,000 users in eight hospitals.

* BT Radianz links financial services firms and content providers worldwide into a single secure network for networking and data sharing. The service claims to be the largest financial extranet in the world. In the past year, the network has expanded to a further 40 countries, and launched services for algorithmic trading applications.

* iPass offers customers secure mobile connectivity services, including access to the world’s largest global roaming network of 57,500 WiFi hotspots in 160 countries. Reuters deployed iPass for 8,000 users, cutting remote log-in time, and halving connectivity costs.

* ntl:Telewest Business is the UK’s second-largest fixed-line telecoms provider. West Midlands Police uses the firm’s national Ethernet service and has improved bandwidth and response speed for 72 sites. The supplier also launched a service to provide remote workers with IP multimedia connectivity.

* Research in Motion is the maker of the BlackBerry email device. West Yorkshire Police introduced BlackBerry devices to give 2,400 officers secure access to the Police National Computer, cutting £8.8m through saving 145 hours per front-line officer per year.

* Silver Peak provides network acceleration appliances to improve application performance across comms infrastructures. It launched in Europe in December last year, and users so far include Experian and Autonomy.

Recruitment Consultancy of the Year

* Abraxas provides permanent, contract and international services, and a service for graduates. Customers include Charteris, Regent Gas and AOL. Last year it grew its 2005 revenue by 14 per cent, with profits up 62 per cent last year.

* Advanced Resource Managers provides IT, engineering and high-tech recruitment services from its base in Hampshire. Staff numbers have grown from 30 in 2002 to 73 today. The firm gained Investor in People certification during the last year, and celebrates its tenth anniversary in 2006.

* Elan grew revenue by £100m in 2005, to £542m. Operating across 14 countries, the firm specialises in health, public services and defence. Customers include Reuters, Qinetiq, the NHS and Thales, with the latter claiming savings of £2m per year for the past three years.

* Huxley Associates offers permanent and contract services for a range of industries, and invests heavily in developing its own IT systems to help meet customer needs. Clients include Buckinghamshire County Council, Unichem and Detica.

* Modis grew its UK revenue by 20 per cent in 2005, and has continued to increase sales each quarter this year. Customers include Sabre Holdings and British Airways, the latter working with Modis to set up a managed IT service desk operation in Newcastle to support BA staff worldwide.

* MSB International works with 250 public sector organisations and more than 100 of the FTSE250 companies in fields such as healthcare, finance, manufacturing and retail. Customers include Siemens, Honda and Unisys.

To place your vote, visit www.computing.co.uk/awards.