Making The Grade

On the surface, the 2006 VARBusiness Annual Report Card (ARC) is a measure of solution-provider satisfaction with their vendors. On closer inspection, it's a reflection of the commitment that leading channel-centric vendors have to ensuring the success of their resellers. Solution-provider satisfaction in the ARC climbed for the second year straight, rising to 70 points out of 100, compared to 67 the year before. Until last year, overall satisfaction ratings had declined for three consecutive years, reflecting sagging VAR confidence in vendors' innovation, support and partnership.

Scores in those areas are crawling up from the low point they hit in 2003. For instance, Product Innovation scores were flat from 2004 to 2005. Support and Partnership scores rose only 1 point each from 2005 to 2006.

A big factor in the rising scores is solution-provider loyalty. This year, VARBusiness expanded the loyalty assessment based on analytics developed by marketing firm Bain & Co. Rather than asking simply how loyal solution providers are to their vendor partners, we questioned whether a solution provider would recommend a vendor's product to a friend or peer, or to a customer, and whether the vendor deserves their loyalty.

Loyalty became the deciding factor in some of the 19 technology categories assessed in the ARC. On two occasions, the top-ranked vendors actually earned average scores in Product Innovation, Support and Partnership but were pulled out of the fire by high Loyalty marks. That was the case for Cisco and IBM.

The ARC produced some revealing trends in terms of how well vendors are supporting their channel partners, the technical innovations they're bringing to market, the quality and breadth of their support systems and how all of those factors are affecting the loyalty of their partners.

NEXT: Loyalty not a given.