Red Herring announced that Axiom Systems, the leading provider of telecommunication software for the design and delivery of broadband and IP services, has been short-listed as one of the Finalists for its annual “Red Herring 100 Europe” list. More than 700 privately held technology companies were evaluated for this year’s edition of the prestigious award, giving evidence to the invigorated innovative and entrepreneurial strength of the technology ecosystem.

“We can see the resurgence of the tech sector reflected in the quantity and variety of excellent companies that we had to choose from in putting our list together,” said Joel Dreyfuss, Editor-in-Chief of Red Herring. “It was difficult to choose the Finalists and we are very happy with the stellar quality of the companies on this short-list.”

Axiom Systems’ AXIOSS® Suite provides Service Provider customers with sophisticated solutions for new services, including IPTV, VoIP, IP VPN and Triple Play, while incorporating modules for Order Management, Service Inventory, Service Activation and a Designer Tool. Developed within British Telecom, the AXIOSS Suite is the only pre-integrated, componentized product on the worldwide market and provides a foundation for service creation.

“Being selected as a Red Herring 100 finalist is a great honor,” said Gareth Senior, CEO of Axiom Systems. “Axiom Systems has been at the cutting-edge of the OSS sector since the company was founded and this award is testament to that leadership. This nomination also follows a highly successful 2005, when the company increased revenues by 66% and won a number of high-profile customers including global deals with Cable & Wireless and Wanadoo.”

The “Red Herring 100 Europe” award is an important part of Red Herring’s tradition of recognizing new and innovative technology firms and their entrepreneurial founders. Axiom Systems and the other nominees were rigidly evaluated on both quantitative and qualitative criteria such as financial performance, technology innovation, quality of management, execution of strategy, and integration into their ecosystem. This unique assessment of potential complemented by a review of the actual track record and standing of a company allows Red Herring to see past the “buzz” and make the list an invaluable instrument for discovering and advocating the greatest business opportunities in the industry.

As part of this tradition to honor innovation and entrepreneurship in the business of technology, Red Herring will again host “Venture Market Europe,” a two day invitation-only summit for the CEOs and founders of the Red Herring 100 Winners and Finalists in Paris, France. The summit’s C-level attendees will convene under the theme “Old World, New Hope: 100 Reasons to Believe in Europe’s Innovative Edge.” to discuss major trends and opportunities and to forge partnerships, alliances, investments, and M&A activities. Further information regarding the event and how to register is available at http://www.herringevents.com/rhvme06.