Solid Vendor Partnerships In 2004

Part of earning a reputation as a key IT influencer is the ability to build and maintain efficient communications with select vendors. You told us through our study that, essentially, you're satisfied with what vendors tell you -- and when. While it is the rare provider that said some vendors contacted them too frequently, only about one-third of respondents were dissatisfied with the infrequency of contact. Not surprisingly, smaller companies are slightly more forgiving of vendors that give them short lead times (less than four weeks) to introduce new products than are midsize and large firms (S/M/L: 30 percent/21 percent/20 percent). Large firms are more likely than small and midsize firms to require more than 12 weeks' lead time (S/M/L: 15 percent/ 20 percent/27 percent).

Perhaps smaller VARs are more forgiving of shorter lead times because they don't deal with as many vendors or product lines, and certainly not as many new ones. Our State of the Market study reveals that the smaller the VAR, the less likely it intends to do business with a new vendor in 2004. Conversely, our study found that in 2003, the largest firms were more likely to add vendor and product lines, with an average of two, three and five vendor lines added for small, midsize and large companies, respectively; three, five and seven product lines were added for the small, midsize and large firms. A similar trend is expected next year, with some 17 product lines on average expected to be added by large companies in 2004.

As channel partners embrace vendor relationships, more than two in five (41 percent) have added new vendor partners over the past 18 months, increasing the total number of vendors they partner with, according to VARBusiness' soon-to-be-released State of Technology research, for which VARBusiness retained The Wayman Group, an independent marketing research and consulting firm located in Cedarhurst, N.Y., to conduct its annual assessment of products, services and solutions for business clients in the technology marketplace. In addition, the most important elements that solution providers seek from their vendor partners are finding new customers and identifying new market opportunities; 65 percent of providers, respectively, cite these attributes as important needs to drive their business forward).

"We're finding ourselves partnering with a decent number of vendors to help build business and develop our ROI," Weisberg says.

Part 5: 2004 Technologies In Demand