The award caps a fast year for the tick9 which has grown from seven staff to 20 since spring 2025
Left to right: Sheldon Cummings, CEO, Cin7; Stephen Fewster, Founder and Director, tick9; Neil Wells, Sales Manager, tick9, at the Cin7 Summit awards banquet in Denver, Colorado.(Image: tick9)
An East Yorkshire business systems consultancy has been recognised on the international stage after winning a high profile award in the US.
Tick9 won the Breakthrough Partner Award at the 2026 Cin7 Partner & Customer Awards in Denver, Colorado – a trophy which founders say tops a phenomenal year, having grown from seven staff to 20 since in just over a year. The firm’s platform partner iplicit was also left celebrating, after being named ISV Partner of the Year at the same ceremony.
Based in Kirk Ella, Hull, tick9 is a business systems consultancy which implements operations systems for UK mid-market businesses. Founder and director Stephen Fewster spoke twice at the renowned summit, before being presented with the gong at the awards banquet.
A total of 15 awards were handed out on the night, devised to honour the top-performing brands, agencies, and tech collaborators shaping the future.
The award scooped by tick9 recognises the partner judged to have made the fastest, most significant impact on software firm Cin7’s network in the shortest time. Cin7 CEO Sheldon Cummings presented the trophy to Stephen and sales manager Neil Wells, who travelled from Hull to accept it.
He said: “Going from seven people to 20 in a year is not comfortable, but it is the reason we can now deliver at the pace clients expect. Winning this, from a base in Hull, against partners many times our size, is a good marker of that.”
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Paula Cooper, head of channel at iplicit, said: “tick9 has grown faster than we expected when we signed them as a partner, and they have done it by investing in consultants rather than salespeople. That shows in the delivery.
“Breakthrough Partner is exactly the right award for what they have done this year. I have been building Cin7’s partner network since we expanded into the US in 2020, and tick9 is one of the clearest examples I have seen of a partner getting that balance right in their first year with us.”
Michelle Calkins, Global VP of Partnerships and Alliances, Cin7, added: “I shared a stage with Steve at the Summit, and it was easy to see why tick9 has done so well.”
The win follows tick9’s role as headline sponsor of the iplicit London Roadshow in May 2026, where Mr Fewster appeared on a panel titled “Fresh Tech for Fresh Produce: How Wholegood Rebuilt Their ERP Stack in Record Time”.
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