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IT service provider Version 1 has been awarded a prestigious accolade by Microsoft for its work with National Highways to improve safety across motorways and major A roads in England. 

Dublin-founded Version 1 was named the global winner in the Modernising Applications 2023 Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards, beating off stiff competition from an international field. 

The awards recognise Microsoft partners which have developed and delivered outstanding Microsoft-based applications, services, and devices during the past year. Awards were classified in various categories, with those honoured chosen from a set of more than 4,200 submitted nominations across 100 countries worldwide. 

Version 1 was recognised for providing outstanding solutions and services in Modernising Applications for its innovative transformation of a critical application for National Highways’ National Incident Liaison Officers (NILO). The NILO team is responsible for providing an enhanced real time traffic information service that targets the travel media and other key stakeholders like the haulage industry and professional drivers. The service provides rich narrative about unplanned incidents and contextualises the impact of incidents including information about delays and diversion routes. This allows National Highways customers who subscribe to the service to make informed decisions about their journeys.  

The solution has meant the NILO team has increased the speed at which information about major incidents is disseminated by 150%, incident report closure efficiency by 82% and incident report creation by 50%. It replaces a legacy system and is a key enabler of National Highways’ £27.4 billion investment in how the strategic road network is designed, built, operated, and used. 

The app significantly improves user productivity and incident handling through easier, faster logging, reporting, and information sharing. Crucially, for the 4 million vehicles travelling on major roads every day, this means easier and quicker journeys as well as strengthening National Highways’ commitment to create the safest roads in the world. It also helps National Highways deliver on its commitment to reduce the number of people killed or seriously injured on its roads by 50% by the end of 2025. 

The project was delivered using Version 1’s collection of quick-start delivery accelerators, known as Foundations. This capability uses prebuilt solutions which incorporate industry best practices and utilise best-of-breed open source and cloud-native technologies. Foundations enables a reduced time to market, reduced delivery risk, increased alignment to standards and improved security.

Tom O’Connor, Chief Executive Officer of Version 1, said:

“We are delighted to have been named as the global winner of the Modernising Applications 2023 Microsoft Partner of the Year Award. The award cements our reputation as a trusted partner of choice to major organisations in the transformation of critical digital infrastructure and we are pleased to have been recognised by Microsoft.

The National Highways project is a great example of the transformational projects that Version 1 can deliver which significantly improves efficiency and efficacy for our clients. We are particularly proud to have helped National Highways to make England’s roads safer and thank them for partnering with us.”

 

National Operations Team Leader for National Highways, Tim Priest said:

“We are always looking for new and innovative ways to improve how we communicate road conditions to people and help make our roads as safe as they can be.

The new app has significantly speeded up our incident reporting enabling us to help inform road users more quickly and get traffic moving again. Congratulations to Version 1 for winning this prestigious award which, from our experience, is thoroughly deserved.”

 

Nicole Dezen, Corporate Vice President of Global Partner Solutions at Microsoft, said:

“Congratulations to the winners and finalists of the 2023 Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards! The innovative new solutions and services that positively impact customers and enable digital transformation from this year’s winners demonstrate the best of what’s possible with the Microsoft Cloud.”

Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards are announced annually prior to the company’s global partner conference, Microsoft Inspire, which will take place on July 18-19 this year.

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About Version 1

Version 1 is a leading Enterprise Transformation Partner providing Digital, Data and Cloud solutions and Next-Generation Managed Services. Version 1 employs over 3,200 people globally, across the UK, Ireland, USA, Spain, and India.  

Version 1 is proud to count financial services organisations such as Aon, SpiderRock, AerCap, SMBC Aviation Capital and public sector bodies such as National Highways, HM Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS), The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, Security Industry Authority, Revenue Commissioners, and Education Authority as customers.  

About National Highways

National Highways is the government-owned company that operates, maintains, and improves England’s motorways and major A roads. Its road network totals around 4,300 miles. England’s major road network forms the economic backbone of the country, is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and is relied on by communities and businesses across the country. The organisation has approximately 5,000 employees in locations around the country. This includes a uniformed Traffic Officer Service who work in regional control centres and patrol key areas of the network.