Channel Affinity Index: What Drives Loyalty?

The research clearly shows that large vendors won't see value in a one-size-fits-all channel program because solution providers often sell only a portion of their product portfolio and, in many cases, they have different needs for different products from the same vendor, Elbaum said.

For example, a solution provider might sell a vendor's servers or laptops, but not its storage or software offerings. If a vendor has a single channel program for all those partners, it may be hurting itself.

The study also found that VARs did not give vendors good grades in one area because they view them as a strong performer on a broad level. That allowed vendors with small market share to score well in a particular product category if a larger vendor isn't addressing customers' concerns in that specific area. Consider the case of Super Micro Computer Inc. in San Jose, Calif.

IPED found that the vendor, which focuses on custom systems, finished seventh in market share among x86 server vendors in terms of closing deals in the first half of the year, but Super Micro finished first in the Affinity Index Score in that area.

"Super Micro has been very supportive of the channel," said Amax's Huang. "They always release the latest and greatest in time with a lot of choices, and they've been doing a good job supporting the channel in both pre- and postsales."

Thus far, Super Micro hasn't capitalized on its strong showing by closing more deals with VARs, but the potential is there, Elbaum said. Solution providers planned to close only 0.4 percent of the value of all x86 server deals in the second half of the year with Super Micro, after having closed 0.5 percent of the value of all deals in the first half. That indicates that the company could be underserving solution providers, Elbaum said.

Meanwhile, it appears that Hewlett-Packard Co. is forging ahead as a market leader with server-selling solution providers. VARs plan to close x86 server deals with HP 37.5 percent of the time in the second half of 2008, compared with 34.8 percent of actual closed deals in the first half of the year. HP finished a close second behind Super Micro in the Affinity Index for x86 servers.

In the Unix server market, HP showed even greater market-share gains. VARs planned to close 45.8 percent of all server proposals with HP in the second half of the year. In the first six months of 2008, HP closed 35.8 percent of Unix server proposals. Not so coincidentally, HP's Channel Affinity Index score in Unix/Linux Servers (626) was dramatically higher than the closest competitor, IBM (467).

"HP's Unix servers are definitely a solid offering," Geier said. "They've worked very well with the channel there. It's easier to get access to all the things we need."

In external storage products, HP was only the sixth vendor in terms of planned deal-closing market share in the second half of the year, at 5.8 percent of all proposals. But that number was up from 3.6 percent of actual deals closed in the first half. HP finished first in the Channel Affinity Index with a 470 score in External Storage, edging out Sun Microsystems Inc. (443), Seagate Technology (430) and EMC (422), among others.

HP had the greatest overall showing, scoring the highest Affinity Index marks in six categories: Unix/Linux Servers, Laptops (508), Network Attached Storage (571), Storage Virtualization (528), Portals/Content Management (565) and External Storage. HP also finished second in x86 Servers, Desktops, Network Color Laser Printers, Monitors/ Displays and Networking Infrastructure. The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company was mentioned in 14 of 19 categories. Citrix's 729 score in Collaboration Software was the highest Affinity Index score in any category.

Microsoft appears in eight categories, including a first-place Affinity Index showing in Operating Systems (519), where solution providers apparently have overcome some of their Vista concerns. Among the 15 criteria scored in the Operating Systems category, VARs gave the most weight, 11 percent of the total score, to end customer brand preference. Given Microsoft's Index score, it appears VARs and end users still value Microsoft's OS more than the Linux offerings from Red Hat (384) and Suse Linux (368).

"It boils down to, especially on the desktop, what else are they going to use?" said Jay Tipton, vice president of Technology Specialists, a Fort Wayne, Ind.-based solution provider. "Anyone that says Linux is taking over the desktop is just fooling themselves unless they get a Microsoft emulator. And Microsoft would buy that up before it becomes too big anyway."

When it comes to virtualization software, Microsoft still rules, but VMware is gaining ground fast while also garnering the best Affinity Index Score in that category. Microsoft had the highest market share in first-half deals closed (42.9 percent) and in second-half deals planned to close (38.5 percent), but VMware was closing the gap (22.7 percent and 27.2 percent, respectively). VMware's Affinity Index score of 566 edged Citrix (529) and Microsoft (526) in a category where VARs chose the services attach rate (10 percent) as the most important criteria.

As the results show, channel relationships are very organic. And neither vendors nor VARs can afford to sit still, letting the market dictate when and how they should react. VARs say the 2008 Affinity Index provides a tool for both to take charge.