ARC Methodology

The 15th Annual Report Card survey was conducted by VARBusiness and Bernett Research, an independent computer industry research company in Boston. Vendors in the ARC were chosen at the beginning of the year, based on market share and sales through solution providers. VARBusiness notified those companies by letter and asked them to submit a list of their solution-provider partners to be surveyed. The number of partners required was scaled to the size of the vendor's program, with a minimum requirement of 250 names and a maximum requirement of 1,000 names.

From July through September, 228,154 phone calls were made, yielding some 4,600 finished surveys, with an average of 59 responses per vendor. All respondents had been authorized by their vendors for at least six months. Solution providers rated the importance of 11 criteria in products/pricing, support and partnership, and then rated their satisfaction with their vendors for each of those criteria. Overall scores were weighted to reflect the importance of each criterion.

The methodology was devised using recommendations from vendors, reader advisory board members, analysts and staff.