The award was announced at a gala dinner held on 10 June, during the 21st Service Desk Institute Annual Conference which took place at The Grand Hotel, Brighton.

Howard Kendall, Founding Director & Chairman of the SDI said, "The SDI is pleased to present this award to Hornbill Systems. The judges selected Hornbill because they expressed a vision in the way they interact with customers that was particularly compelling, showing a clear focus on simplifying what is essentially a convoluted process, to the greater benefit of the customer. They have successfully taken the concept of ‘people serving people’ to a mature level, applying their Human Touch strategy to provide sophisticated technology and great service, enabling their customers to significantly improve their line of business."

Gerry Sweeney, CEO of Hornbill Systems commented, "We are delighted to receive this award from the SDI, the highest accolade for a supplier within our industry. We instigated the Customer First programme in 2005 during Hornbill’s 10th Anniversary year to ensure that as a company we truly put our money where our mouth is. After a lot of hard work it is great to see Hornbill having such a positive impact on our customers’ businesses."

Customers that provided comments supporting Hornbill to win the award include, Flagship Training, Chubb Insurance, Towergate Partnership and Maxima, law firms Taylor Wessing and Halliwells, London Metropolitan University, London Borough of Waltham Forest, Kerry Foods, Progressive Building Society, Natural History Museum, Bernard Matthews, Lex Vehicle Leasing, Merlin Entertainments and many more.