IBM Focuses On Partner Support

In the unforgiving economy of 2000 and 2001, customers rearranged their priorities, moving price and return-on-investment to the top of the list. Doing so forced vendors in the entry-level server space to adjust their approach to the channel.

Those changes were reflected in the topsy-turvy nature of the VARBusiness Annual Report Card (ARC) rankings in the entry-level server space. IBM, which languished in fourth place last year, shot into the top spot with an overall score of 73. Sun, which failed to even qualify for the category last year, vaulted to second with a score of 72. Compaq and Hewlett-Packard, which finished respectively first and second in 2000, slumped to a tie for third with a score of 71. And Dell, last year's sixth-place finisher, scored 70 and nudged up a notch without even having an organized channel program in this space.

HP's acquisition of Compaq promises to make the 2002 rankings equally dynamic. "We're a channel partner of both HP and Compaq, and in the long run this is only going to help us," says Tom Biggam, president of Total Corporate Services, a San Jose, Calif.-based systems integrator.

By its very nature, the market for entry-level servers--or "volume servers," as some image-conscious product managers prefer to say--revolves around cost. As a result, "you see the same commoditization that is taking place in the desktop and portable markets," says Lindy Lesprance, director of Technology Business Research, a market research firm in Hampton, N.H. On the basis of technology, "I think the vendors' products stack up very closely against each other," she says.

Part 2: Beyond a Box

Part 3: Focus On Form