The View From XChange

At this week's XChange '04 in Chicago, VARBusiness Annual Report Card (ARC) winners will get the chance to bask in the limelight, having achieved high levels of partner satisfaction. That's what the competition is about, but all vendors that participate -- win, lose or draw -- take away a deep understanding of what drives partner satisfaction.

Our survey is based on feedback we receive from solution providers who tell us how they measure success with their existing vendor partners internally. We break it down into three main areas: the quality of the product, the level of support delivered and the vendor's partnership practices. Within those three areas, we ask solution providers to rate each vendor on issues including the level of pre-sales support they receive, how well channel conflict is managed and the level of technical innovation surrounding the vendor's product line.

This year's winners will be revealed Tuesday night. But there's plenty to take away even if you're not among those companies honored. So how can you, a solution provider, use the VARBusiness ARC to help better manage your vendor relationships?

Several thousand integrators have a chance to go through this rating exercise, and you can as well. Construct a template based on the Annual Report Card survey and circulate it among your key sales, service and technical employees. Start with your top five vendors and create a survey for each one. Assess the company's performance in the following 15 criteria:

Product quality/reliability
Richness of features/functionality
Technical innovation
Compatibility and ease of integration
Presales support
Postsales support
Technical support quality
Marketing support
Partner portal
Sales partnering
Solution provider program
Communications
Channel conflict
Revenue/profit potential
Ease of doing business

Grade each vendor on a scale of one to nine and ask each individual taking the survey to grade the vendor on its own merits. Avoid the temptation to compare one vendor to another -- you want to derive a score based on how the vendor executes against your firm's expectations.

After you tally the results, compare how your organization rates your vendor partners against the ARC scores.

Even if you choose not to use the VARBusiness ARC survey, develop some kind of biannual or annual review of your vendor partnerships that goes beyond pure sales or profitability assessments. The results may surprise you and help you find ways to maximize a partnership not living up to its potential.