An outsourcing games specialist has been short-listed for a prestigious new award.

Babel Media, based in Hove Business Centre in Fonthill Road, has been nominated as the best outsourcing company in Develop magazine's Industry Excellence Awards.

The awards have been initiated to reward the talent, innovation and imagination behind games technology.

The nomination comes after a successful year for the company, which saw revenues grow 120 per cent.

Babel has long been an advocate of business process outsourcing (BPO), or the delegation of its business to external providers, as an essential model for the games industry.

The company's attitude to extending a brand means publishers often regard it as an extension of their in-house departments.

Babel managing director Algy Williams said: "Being nominated for this award is great news and vindicates the durability of Babel's business plan. Revenues last year grew 120 per cent and we are all looking forward to another prosperous year. Being recognised by our peers will certainly help that progression."

Earlier this year, Babel announced it was opening a mobile games testing facility in New Delhi, India.

The facility is run by an experienced team of project managers, lead testers and specialists seconded from Babel's Hove office. Babel India has 20 Indian testers as well as a four-person management team from the UK.

In May it was announced wireless entertainment publisher iFone had commissioned the company to provide testing on its entire catalogue of mobile games.

Babel's job is to test the localisation of all iFone's games into French, Italian, German, Spanish and Chinese.

The company was also recently appointed by Vodafone as the first accredited mobile games testing house for Vodafone live! and has tested more than 200 games for the service.

The inaugural awards ceremony will be held at the Royal Garden Hotel in Kensington on August 27.

Wednesday August 6, 2003