SOPERA wins first prize at the Open Source Awards
Judges won over by business plan and future potential
Bonn, 30th January 2009. First place in the prestigious “Open Source Business Award 2009“ is going to Bonn-based SOA specialist SOPERA. The award is made by the Open Source Business Foundation (OSBF) and comes with a cash prize totalling € 75,000 – one of the most lucrative business plan competitions in Europe. The awards celebrate innovative open-source business ideas capable of revolutionising markets and setting new standards. The awards jury was made up of twelve judges – proven open-source experts and managers from the world of venture capital.
In the business plan submissions, key criteria the judges were looking for were scale of innovation, practicability, market potential and quality of management, and SOPERA’s business plan was a winner on all counts. The jury confirmed that SOPERA is very well positioned in a highly promising market, with its tried-and-tested open-source SOA suite SOPERA ASF as well as the product evolution in the respected Eclipse Community plus the innovative models SOPERA has to market the solution. Last but not least, SOPERA also scored highly with its experienced management team.
Harald Weimer, Chief Executive of SOPERA, is delighted at this success: “For us, first prize is proof-positive that with the SOPERA ASF SOA platform we’ve not just got a really attractive product – we’ve got all the right plans in place to bring this proposition to market”. SOPERA has ambitious plans for the next three years and is looking to benefit significantly from the growing SOA integration market and the booming open-source market. “Winning this award is a double boost really: it gets us noticed by customers and gives investors tangible evidence of SOPERA’s potential”.
16 open-source businesses from all over Europe took part in the Open Source Business Award 2009, with eleven making it to the final round. This year’s main sponsor is Microsoft, joined by S-REFIT AG, Nuremberg Savings Bank, TVM Capital, BayBG, Corporate Finance Partners and Wellington Partners. For the first-time in the three-year history of the awards, the prize is going to two equal winners, with SOPERA and joint first-place winner Oxid eSales each collecting a cash prize of € 32,500. Runner-up, Snowflake, was awarded a cash prize of € 10,000.
Press contact
SOPERA GmbH
Jörg Belger
Marketing Manager
Tel. +49 (0) 228 182 191-22
Fax +49 (0) 228 192 191 93
E-Mail: joerg.belger@sopera.de
SOPERA helps businesses implement service-led architectures (SOA). SOPERA is based on the SOA platform of SOA pioneer Deutsche Post. SOPERA incorporates over seven years’ experience of developing and running the platform in a demanding enterprise environment. SOPERA is a modular, open-source, standards-based SOA framework. It supports best-of-breed concepts and covers the entire SOA life-cycle. An independent Deutsche Post company, SOPERA GmbH offers implementation, consulting services and a full range of software maintenance support services.