Avanade Executives Mentor Digital Innovation Award Winners from JA Bulgaria
September 23, 2019
There are quite a few benefits to winning the Avanade Digital Innovation Award at the JA Europe Enterprise Challenge. One of them is the one-to-one mentoring and business coaching from Avanade executives awarded to the winning team!
Bulgarian start-up Bevine won this signature award in June 2019. The company uses artificial intelligence (AI), data and analytics, and the Internet of Things (IoT) to provide winemakers with up-to-the-moment information and data about their vineyards, such as humidity, moisture, and temperature, potentially saving them up to 90 percent on wine-production costs.
The five members of the Bevine team—Blagoi Anastasov, Kostadin Hamanov, Nikolay Sapundzhiev, Titko Titkov, and Ivan Mehandzhiev—are now receiving mentorship and business coaching from Avanade executives Jens Boegh-Nielsen, Executive, General Manager Nordic Region; Paul Bowen, COO, UK and I at Avanade Inc., Finances; Lee Ayling, Business Transformation Executive; Anthony Wickham, SVP, Global Digital Marketing Offering Lead at Avanade; and Annette Giardina, Executive, Business Applications Lead UK&I at Avanade. Bevine also received a €1,000 award from Avanade to help grow the business.
The annual JA Europe Enterprise Challenge brings together the best student business teams at the post-secondary level (ages 18 to 30) from around Europe to compete for Enterprise of the Year and five signature awards, including the Avanade Digital Innovation Award. The jury, comprised of Avanade representatives, selected Bevine for the award because they found it to be an excellent example of bringing digital innovation to a traditionally physical-world industry. The judges commended Bevine on its approach to sustainability, business ethics, and leadership and how combining that with true digital innovation provides real-time information to save wine makers costs on spraying, scouting, and wine production.
“The Avanade Digital Innovation Signature Award recognizes the young entrepreneurs who were best able to put their digital skills into practice to conceive an innovative business idea or concept. In addition to having an excellent business plan, the start-ups are judged on their ability to demonstrate the most creative use of digital innovations such as, mobility, collaboration tools, cloud-based technology, machine learning, artificial intelligent, Internet of Things (IoT) and blockchain, in their products or services.”
Late last week, the five Bevine team members traveled to London, UK, to visit the Avanade offices and sit down with not only their mentors but also other leaders from the company.