Flat-Panel Displays: ViewSonic

Solution providers tapped ViewSonic as their Channel Champion in the displays category for the fifth time in seven years, giving top marks to the vendor largely for its support of the channel.

ViewSonic swept all eight of the channel-related criteria in the 2005 CRN Channel Champions Survey, coming in a particularly strong 3.6 points ahead of runner-up Samsung on the criterion of vendor support over the life cycle of a project.

“They are very good in terms of reaching out to the partner level to ask, ‘What do we have to do out there to be successful?’ ” said Chris Drynan, director of business development and marketing at En Pointe Technologies, El Segundo, Calif., a member of ViewSonic’s channel advisory council.

The contest for champion of the flat-panel displays category was hardly cut and dried, though. ViewSonic’s overall composite rating of 76.7 was followed closely by Samsung (75.3), NEC-Mitsubishi (74.1), Sony (73.2), LG Electronics (71.2), BenQ (69.4), KDS (67.5) and CTX (66.6).

In technical areas, ViewSonic came up very strong on the most heavily weighted criterion of the survey—product reliability—where its 97.8 rating was 2.3 points higher than its next closest rival.

“We have a low returns rate. The quality is excellent,” said Nicole Desmarais, business development manager at Amherst Technologies, a Merrimack, N.H.-based solution provider.

ViewSonic’s product line ranges from the VE series for small offices to its VP lineup—in sizes from 17 inches to 23 inches—for power professional users. The company also has a VG line for corporate graphics solutions and a VX line for the enterprise.

ViewSonic was not as consistent on technical criteria as it was on channel criteria. While Sony took first place in ergonomics, Samsung pushed past ViewSonic in the areas of price and warranties. Still, ViewSonic was first in reliability, image quality and image adjustments and the overall technical leader.

Drynan said ViewSonic is listening to its advisory council. “I could tell they are actually taking the information we’ve spent time with them on and are actually working on it,” he said.