Bazaarvoice CTO Andy Maag Named 2010 AITP Information Technologist of the Year

AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Bazaarvoice, the market and technology leader in hosted social commerce applications that drive sales, today announced that Chief Technology Officer, Andy Maag, has been honored as the 2010 Association of Information Technology Professionals (AITP) Information Technologist of the Year. Maag, who was singled out by AITP’s Austin chapter for his technical leadership and innovation in developing a proven, scalable social commerce platform, was recognized at the 13^th Annual IT Executives of the Year Awards at InnoTech Austin on October 28. The Bazaarvoice platform currently serves more than 150 billion digital customer conversations for the world’s largest brands, including Best Buy, Blue Shield of California, Costco, Dell, Macy's, P&G, Panasonic, QVC, and USAA.

“Andy’s genius and hard work have been key drivers of our explosive growth and market momentum”

“Andy’s genius and hard work have been key drivers of our explosive growth and market momentum,” said Brett Hurt, founder and CEO of Bazaarvoice. “Andy and his team have created and evolved a technology framework that enables millions of customers to connect with brands around the world on websites, social networks, mobile devices, and search engines, supporting a dramatic shift in the way consumers shop and share. I am very pleased to congratulate Andy on this award and look forward to working together as we continue to create the backbone for the most measurable and impactful social marketing on the web.”

Since the initial launch of Bazaarvoice’s service in October 2005, Maag and his team have delivered 35 major software releases to an ever-growing client base on the same core platform with SaaS (Software as a Service) industry leading service uptime. To help encourage and facilitate this innovation, Maag launched the Engineering Science Fair competition, which allows members of the Bazaarvoice Engineering team to invent new product ideas and improvements to existing products as well. Maag’s work has extended beyond Bazaarvoice through a high-tech entrepreneurship seminar series at the University of Texas, in which he arranged a semester-long schedule of speakers consisting of Austin-based entrepreneurial technologists to encourage and enlighten students.

About the 2010 IT Executives of the Year Awards

Each year, the AITP-Austin Chapter recognizes IT leaders in the community with the IT Executives of the Year Awards Reception at InnoTech, the largest annual gathering of the region's IT executives, educators & vendors. This year’s event was held on Thursday, October 28, 2010 at the Austin Convention Center and featured educational seminars, special events like the eMarketing Summit and the Austin CIO Summit & IT Executive Awards, as well as hands-on demonstrations at the InnoTech Exhibits.

About Bazaarvoice

Bazaarvoice's Software as a Service (SaaS) social commerce solutions have served more than 150 billion pieces of customer-generated content on more than 950 brand web sites like Best Buy, Blue Shield of California, Costco, Dell, Macy's, P&G, Panasonic, QVC, and USAA in 36 countries. The company connects organizations to their influencers through a unique network that reaches hundreds of millions of consumers around the globe, enabling authentic customer-powered marketing. Through syndication, analytics, partnerships, and consulting, Bazaarvoice brings the voice of the customer to the center of their clients' business strategy, proving "social" can drive measured revenue growth and cost savings for manufacturing, retail, travel, and financial services companies. Headquartered in Austin, the company has offices in Amsterdam, Düsseldorf, London, Paris, Singapore, Stockholm, and Sydney. For more information and access to client success stories, visit www.bazaarvoice.com, read the blog at www.bazaarvoice.com/blog, and follow on Twitter at www.twitter.com/bazaarvoice.