Color Laser Printers

By Jennifer Lawinski, CRN
April 14, 2006 3:00 PM ET

Once again, market-leading and perennial Channel Champion Hewlett-Packard took the top spot in the network color laser printers category, although its margin of victory shrank from last year's survey.

While last year HP held an 8.3-point lead over second-place Xerox, this year HP's overall satisfaction rating of 77 was a mere half-point ahead of Xerox's 76.5. Coming in further behind were Samsung (70), Oki Data (69.2) and Lexmark (68.8).

Even more surprising was that Palo Alto, Calif.-based HP came up second in channel program satisfaction, earning 69.4 points to Xerox's 70 points. Xerox took strong leads in the areas of margins, consistency of channel programs over time, and reducing channel conflict.

HP, however, was still the leader in technical satisfaction, beating Xerox by 7.1 points in the area of serviceability and 2.8 points in management features.

Bob Cloutier, general manager of HP partner ProTech Computer Systems, Denver, said HP's network color laser printers are of higher quality and more business-ready than some of the competition, and he likes the high availability of compatible products. "The nice thing about HP is that everyone that writes software writes it for HP first because HP is the one that owns the printer market," he said.

HP's close race with Xerox in channel program satisfaction may be attributable to enhancements made by Xerox rather than a decrease in support from HP. HP still held the edge in ROI, vendor support, visibility, and service revenue opportunities.

"We do deal with other manufacturers, and based on what we've seen so far, [HP has] one of the premier programs," said Marge Mortenson, business development program manager at HP partner Laser Life, Marietta, Ga.

Mortenson said she is pleased with the overall level of support she and her customers receive from HP. "When we have questions or when they're rolling out new products, there is always plenty of support to help you get yourself up to speed, Mortenson said.

Cloutier also said free training and seminars on products were big pluses in the HP column. "I personally feel that HP is committed to the channel," he said.

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