Leading software development company, Belina Payroll, walked away with the prize for the best stand at this year's ICT Africa Exhibition held in Harare last month.

The award, which was announced by ICT Minister, Nelson Chamisa, during the two day event is confirmation of Belina's commitment to maintaining high standards.

''It always makes you feel good to be praised by your ICT peers. We see this award as a reflection of the professional standard Belina always displays, not just in our products, but in everything we strive to be involved in,'' said Jeremy Hodgskin, Belina's founder and CEO.

Belina Payroll is Zimbabwe's leading provider of Payroll as well as Time Management software products.

''We are a 100% Zimbabwean product – fully developed and supported in Zimbabwe,'' Hodgskin said.

Belina Payroll's products centre primarily around Payroll software, Human Resources software and Biometric Time Control. The first of these products to be developed was the payroll, which was first released in 1993.

''We saw a need to provide a good payroll at a reasonable price - so we did. Over the years, we have continued to develop the product primarily using client feedback,'' he said. The commitment to product development has paid off: Belina Payroll has a comprehensive list of features over and above the minimum ones supplied by many of its competitors.

''There are a lot of payrolls out there and many of them have a lot of features. But you have to pay for these extras. Belina is different. Our extra features are part of the package you get and they are provided at no extra charge,'' Hodgskin said, adding that all of Belina's staff are trained in the use of the payroll.

While the payroll is the bed-rock of Belina's business, the Biometric Time Control products are increasingly requested for by the company's customers. This product, only released 18 months ago, has software written specifically for the Zimbabwean market.

''Largely, we introduced this product to compliment the payroll and bring further control to our clients for the cost of time – staff costs. We feel that being able to control over-time, short-time, leave and other absences is a real cost saving method for any organisation,'' Hodgskin said.