ARC Exposes Vendors in Need of Real Help

But the best part of the ARC is that it analyzes the overall health of the vendor/solution-provider relationship. VARs rate how vendors are performing in regard to the support they give, the quality of products they offer and the partnership programs they provide. There is no other study like it in the industry, and this year it turned out some big surprises. Be warned: The results are not pretty for all.

Let me start with BEA Systems, which competed in the Web and Internet applications category. Last year, the company captured the No. 2 ranking and, in past years, even invited VARBusiness to present the results to its top executives. BEA CEO Alfred Chuang considered winning the ARC a high priority, and tasked his top execs to further improve performance. Today, the company's channel program is in shambles after its top channel executive, Rauline Ochs, was forced out along with many of her top lieutenants. Simple fact: BEA's loyalty rating was not only the lowest in the category,it was worse than even Dell's. It will be interesting to see if Mercedes Ellison, the woman now responsible for BEA's channel, can convince solution providers that this is a company worth partnering with.

Now onto Sun, which was trounced by IBM's iSeries and pSeries. It was also bested by HP and, perhaps, that's what Sun should be most troubled by. Not that HP's midrange Unix-based systems are mediocre products, but for Sun to lag so far behind HP,in the throes of the Compaq acquisition and fighting off channel conflict at every corner,is embarrassing. We informally presented the ARC scores to Sun chairman Scott McNealy, who insisted the poor showing stems from the fact that Sun partners are less profitable this year than in years past. My response: Who isn't less profitable today?

Of all the companies in this year's ARC, Avaya turned in the most perplexing performance. The provider of voice and data networking gear had the highest loyalty rating in the entire ARC, but came in last in its category for product innovation, support and partnership. In particular, Avaya received the lowest score in the entire survey for the quality of its tech support. In other areas of the ARC you can, perhaps, change perception, but quality of tech support is not one of them. Avaya has got to fix that problem.

Oracle has some work to do, too, but under the direction of Jack Lee and his army of channel converts, the company has been on steadier ground lately. It competed in three categories, and had its best finish with a third-place showing in the Web and Internet applications category. It took an absolute beating for its app development and deployment tools and database software,the category that matters most to the company. Support and partnership were not Oracle's best hand, where poor scores in conflict and communication pulled it down.

Moving on, it was a difficult year to stand in judgment of HP, but its partners did, and results were mixed. In the network storage and enterprise operating platforms categories, the company excelled. But other results weren't as pleasing to HP channel managers Kevin Gilroy and Dan Vertrees. Channel conflict seemed the thorniest issue, particularly in the entry-level server category. In the network color printers category, HP scored the lowest in partnership, again hurt by partner conflict.

Last, but not least, is Microsoft, which competed in three categories but didn't post a strong showing in any. CEO Steve Ballmer blames the poor results on high expectations its VARs have of the company, and their dependency on Microsoft's goods for their livelihood. I can more easily digest that argument than McNealy's, but for a company that compensates managers for channel satisfaction, it should have had a better showing. In two of the three categories in which Microsoft competed,enterprise operating systems and database software,it had the highest loyalty rating, yet received the lowest product score in the database category, and Windows 2000 got slammed for product quality and reliability. Clearly, Allison Watson, Microsoft's new channel executive, has her work cut out for her.

Let me know what you think about this year's ARC results at [email protected].