HP's overall Channel Champions rating in the multifunction printer category was 71.3, compared with Lexmark's tally of 65.7. Ricoh, Xerox and Canon followed. What made HP stand out with partners in the multifunction printer space?
Notably, the quality of its products. HP led in product quality and reliability, coming in at 104.5 compared with Canon's 95.8 second-place score. Lexmark was fourth in this area but had a stronger showing than Ricoh, Xerox and Canon when it came to financial criteria.
Some customers have been using the same HP printer for eight to 10 years, which helps the company's reputation in multifunction devices, said Bob Landman, general manager of Compuwave, a Ventura, Calif.-based solution provider.
"These things just go on forever. Of course, it doesn't make me happy because I want to sell new ones. In all fairness, HP makes a great printer. They're always ahead of the game," Landman said. "We sell a lot of brands of printers and definitely HP is our No. 1 brand. Their multifunction printers are excellent. We just bought one ourselves."
HP was the top scorer in the financial categories, and it also was ahead in channel program support and satisfaction with 72.2 points, leading the pack in every criterion including pre- and post-sales support, technical education resources and efforts to manage channel conflict.
"Working with HP is head and shoulders above working with any other OEM in the marketplace," said Jim Fall, vice president of strategic planning at HP solution provider Cannon IV, Indianapolis.
"That's got a lot of value to us," Fall added. "Certainly HP has their problems like anybody else, but what we see is a concerted effort by HP to continuously improve the programs, the products and how they work with the reseller channel."
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