This is my favorite time of year. The spirit of the holiday season has a way of forcing people to focus on what matters most to them. For me, that includes my family and friends, good health … and spiked egg nog! And I love this time of year at Citrix because we kick off award season in preparation for Citrix Summit.

I have spent the last six weeks traveling from North Carolina to Sweden to New Zealand filming exciting stories for the Innovation Award for Partners program. The award honors partners whose innovative spirit inspires us all to rethink what’s possible for IT. This year’s finalists have created bold Citrix solutions that turned complex challenges into real business value for customers — and the people who rely on them to find better ways to work. Attend Summit to hear these visionary solutions and be inspired to grow and help your customers in new and exceptional ways.

Here’s a sneak peek at their stories:

DXC (Stockholm, Sweden) is a world-leading independent, end-to-end IT services company with nearly 6,000 private- and public-sector clients in 70 countries. Their customer Saab serves the global market with products, services, and solutions from military defense to civil security. Saab relies on Citrix Workspace suite — running under DXC’s MyWorkStyle offering — to deliver a centralized, flexible workspace that both unites and frees users, while keeping the business in sync real-time. This virtual workspace platform has been pivotal in enabling current and future business needs.

Inde Technology (Christchurch, New Zealand) is a cloud-first specialist provider of enterprise technology solutions that are strongly focused on meeting each client’s unique needs. Inde teamed up with Ravensdown, a farmer-owned nutrient management co-operative that is an integral part of the country’s food-creation system. Ravensdown strives to provide smarter farming for a better New Zealand. Working with Inde and leveraging Citrix solutions, Ravensdown has deployed a next-generation network and application-delivery infrastructure throughout their New Zealand stores.

XenTegra (Huntersville, North Carolina) is a leading provider of Citrix solutions across North America, delivering productive and secure endpoint-computing environments. Custom Molded Products (CMP) is one of the world’s leading suppliers of pool and spa products for spa designers, pool builders, and retail-store owners around the world. XenTegra, together with Citrix and Microsoft, helped CMP develop end-to-end secure virtual workspaces that empower them to expand into new global markets while offering the highest level of products and support in the industry.

Voting is now open at citrix.com/innovation, so be sure to watch all the videos we have posted there and cast your vote for your favorite story. The winner will be determined by popular vote and input from our judges’ panel of IT industry professionals. The finalists will be showcased at Citrix Summit, January 7-9, 2019, in Orlando, Florida.

Finally, I want to extend a special thank you to the teams from DXC, Inde, and XenTegra. They were all so welcoming and accommodating to me and our film crew, giving me another reason to be so grateful to do what I do for Citrix. At this time of year and always, I’m grateful for the Citrix Partner network and the inspiring customers they serve.