Cbeyond Inc., a managed services provider and a leader in Voice over IP (VoIP), announced that it has won the Medical Association of Atlanta's Cooper Award for outstanding customer support. This award signifies the strength of Cbeyond's understanding and support for businesses in the medical profession, a strategically significant market for the company.

The Medical Association of Atlanta (MAA), an advocate for physician issues as well as a valuable resource for education, socializing, community service, referrals and legislative support, presents the Cooper Award to Atlanta-based companies in several categories, including Most Volunteer-Oriented, Most Politically Active, and Best Performance in a Supporting Role by a Corporation, which it presented to Cbeyond this year.

For the past two years, the MAA has presented awards to Atlanta-based companies that demonstrate a strong commitment to strengthening Atlanta's medical industry. The annual award's name is based on the current MAA president. This year, the award was named the "Cooper Award" after current MAA president, Lawrence E. Cooper, M.D.

Janet DelVescovo, the Medical Association of Atlanta's director of development, said Cbeyond won the Cooper Award based on Cbeyond's outstanding support to the MAA and its member physicians.

"We have had a long relationship with Cbeyond. They have been very supportive of our efforts and have worked with a lot of our physicians to help them improve their communications systems," DelVescovo said. "They do a lot of things that other companies in their industry don't do--when you call them, they return your call; when they make a commitment, they keep it. Cbeyond has been a great partner on several different levels."

The Cooper Award is the most recent in a string of awards for Cbeyond. The company believes it is gaining recognition in its industry because Cbeyond has built its entire network and operations to serve small businesses exclusively, which differentiates Cbeyond from other voice and data companies. Independent analyst firm Stratecast Partners ranked Cbeyond highest among 13 integrated access service providers. Pulver.com, another industry observer, named Cbeyond one of the "100 Companies to Watch." And Catalyst Magazine named Cbeyond "Catalyst of the Year."