On 4 March 2010, at the CeBIT Trade Fair in Hanover, the German association of medium sized companies known as "Initiative Mittelstand" presented its IT 2010 Innovation Award. In the NORD/LB Forum, in front of an audience of several hundred guests invited from the world of politics, business and the ITC industry, awards were presented to the best IT innovations of the year designed for medium-sized businesses. Around 2000 firms competed for these much sought-after awards. Among the winners, with its "Next generation ERP" VlexPlus was VLEXsolutions, a VLEXgroup company.