2008 CRN Channel Champions: Systems

IBM Corp. aced the midrange servers category in the 2008 CRN Channel Champions Survey, winning all three satisfaction areas to post an overall score of 77.2, more than 4 points ahead of second-place Hewlett-Packard Corp. (72.8) and more than 6 points ahead of third-place Sun Microsystems, Inc., with 71.1 points.

IBM, Armonk, N.Y., won every single criterion by which the vendors were measured in each of three areas: technical, program and support, and financial.

In the technical area, IBM earned scores that were more than 5 full points ahead of its closest competitor, HP, Palo Alto, Calif., in two criterion, product quality and reliability and management and configuration features.

Big wins for IBM in the program and support criteria were post-sales support, efforts to manage channel conflict and relevance of channel program.

IBM's win in the financial area was led by strong showings in ROI of vendor relationship and product margins, spifs and rebates.

"Their servers are rock solid and the scalability is good," said Pete Elliot, director of marketing at Key Information Systems, a Woodland Hills, Calif.-based IBM solution provider. "I think they've done a good job in keeping pace with the market."

Mike Martin, brand director of sales at Logicalis, a Green Bay, Wis.-based IBM solution provider agreed. "There are no scalability issues," he said. "I think their power servers are probably the most scalable in the world."

Jack Bornhoft, an IBM Power System and System X Brand manager at Boca Raton, Fla.-based Champion Solutions Group Inc., said that overall, IBM has the best products. "In terms of technology and the amount of research and development that go into what they deliver, it's far and above what the competitors offer when it comes to customer value and savings," he said. "Their technology allows us to grow other parts of our business such as support services and maintenance programs."

"For configuration at a customer level, IBM's technology offers multiple ways to take advantage of technology to meet whatever needs your service level agreements call for," Bornhoft added.

-- Michele Masterson