SEATTLE, Dec. 11, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Tango Card (www.tangocard.com), a Seattle-based startup innovating with gift cards and rewards for enterprise customers, has been shortlisted in the 2012-2013 Cloud Awards Program in the Most Promising Start-up category.

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The Cloud Awards identify and celebrate excellence in the field of cloud computing, with categories including Best Cloud Infrastructure, Data Innovation of the Year, Developer of the Year, Most Promising Start-Up, Web Services Excellence and Best Software as a Service. The cloud computing awards program accepts entries from organizations of any size – from enterprises to start-ups – in the US and internationally.

David Leeds, founder and CEO of Tango Card, said, "The shortlist of the 2012-13 Cloud Awards program is a real honor when considering the wildly innovative cloud market we live in these days, and we're especially excited to represent Seattle as the only non-Bay Area contender. Bringing the right rewards to the cloud and mobile is strategic for our customers and if we can bring this Cloud Award to Seattle it'll be a big win for the Tango Card team. "

Cloud Awards organizer Larry Johnson said, "The standard of entries this year was truly incredible – and we're still scratching the surface of what the cloud is capable of. Efficiency, agility and an ability to leverage all of the positive attributes of cloud technologies are what set the organizations in this shortlist apart from any other."

Tango Card is moving the billions of dollars of rewards spend from these outdated channels into relevant areas of the cloud such as Salesforce (www.tangocard.com/salesforce) and Zendesk (www.tangocard.com/zendesk). Much like Hardware as a Service (eg cloud computing) and Software as a Service (SaaS), Tango Card offers RaaS™ – Rewards as a Service. When Tango Card upgrades, like adding a new redemption option or the ability to distribute digital goods in an innovative way, customers automatically benefit without further investment. In the near-term, RaaS is easier and more cost-effective for organizations, but even more importantly this shift enables visibility into a key cost area, supports purchasing compliance, and creates measurable marketing and sales ROI.

"We're just as focused on software integration as we are on rewards," said Leeds. "Back in the 1990s, gift card innovation was to make cards available through physical retail channels. Since then nothing unique has happened in gift card distribution. Tango Card is not just disrupting this area; we're creating new channels. We spend over 50% of internal resources on software development while traditional incumbents spend 90+% on sales and account management."

Nearly 200 organizations entered, with entries coming from across the globe and including Europe, the US and Middle East. Final winners will be announced on January 15, 2012.

About Tango Card. Tango Card makes gift cards and rewards strategic for enterprise customers. Tango Card's proprietary Tango Card product provides organizations with an entire gift card "catalog" and delivery infrastructure in a single card.  Tango Card's proprietary software applications integrate directly with large, relevant cloud and SaaS platforms so teams can give, track, and manage gift card spend directly from applications where they already spend a huge part of their day. Learn more at www.tangocard.com.

About the Cloud Awards. The Cloud Awards is a premier international cloud computing awards program which recognizes and honours industry leaders, innovators and organizational transformation in cloud computing. The awards are open to large, small, established and start-up organizations, to find and celebrate the pioneers that will shape the future of the industry as we move into 2013 and beyond. Categories range from the Software as a Service award to Most Promising Start-Up. Finalists were selected by a panel of international industry experts. For more information about the Cloud Awards please visit http://www.cloud-awards.com/.

Press contacts:
Kelly Scott
Tango Card, Inc.
general@tangocard.com
877.55.Tango (877.558.2646)

Larry Johnson
Cloud Awards
www.cloud-awards.com
larry@cloud-awards.com

SOURCE Tango Card