Business-Class:Sprint

Sprint’s top score in the Business-Class Communications services category demonstrates that superior price/performance and service quality and reliability make it easier for partners to overlook the memory of a sometimes sloppy channel program.

Though Sprint was edged out by Verizon by just a hair on the important criterion of reducing/eliminating channel conflict, and beat Verizon by only 1.1 points in responsiveness to solution provider feedback on channel programs, Sprint came up roses on 12 other criteria in the 2005 CRN Channel Champions Survey.

With an overall score of 72.5, Sprint beat Verizon and AT&T, which came in at 69.5 and 65.6 respectively. The satisfaction ratings were a mirror image of last year’s survey, when the win, place and show order was AT&T, Verizon and Sprint.

Sprint’s arsenal of services and its strength in wireline, wireless and local exchange service meet the needs of VARs and drove Sprint’s decisive victory on technical criteria, solution providers said. Sprint did particularly well in the area of service quality and reliability, where it came in 5.8 points ahead of Verizon and AT&T, and in price/performance, where it beat runner-up Verizon by 3.9 points.

In channel-program areas, Sprint’s strengths included consistency of channel programs, upselling opportunities and total ROI for customers. It faltered only in the area of managing channel conflict.

Improvements made to Sprint’s channel practices brought some VARs back to the negotiating table with Sprint after leaving the carrier. “AT&T used to be No. 1 in the industry as far as channel, but they pushed their channel away,” said a Georgia-based VAR currently in re-negotiations with Sprint. “Sprint is now a great company. They seem to have changed over the last year and a half.”

Sprint’s willingness to engage with VARs and competitive local exchange carriers in the development of new technology was also cause for high marks, said Angus Dougherty, president of wireless provider and consultancy AirCover Network Solutions, Thornton, Colo.

Len Lauer, president and COO of Sprint, said Sprint’s current merger with Nextel will make things even better for its business customers as the combined carriers roll out a “nationwide 3G network.”