Hard Facts: Channel Programs
The data shows, however, that the sharpest declines were confined to six of the 11 vendors CRN regularly tracks: HP-Compaq, Sun, IBM, Cisco, EMC and Lexmark. The loss for Toshiba was smaller, while for AMD, 3Com and Intel the overall level of satisfaction (defined as the percentage of solution providers satisfied with channel programs minus the percentage that are dissatisfied) was nearly unchanged in September. And ViewSonic actually recorded a slight increase in its satisfaction level, the only vendor among the 11 to do so last month.
The data also shows that among most vendors, the decline in overall satisfaction levels was due mostly to a big increase in the percentage of dissatisfied solution providers. HP, for example, saw the percentage of solution providers jump to 30 percent in September from 15 percent in August, the highest percentage recorded since CRN began its monthly surveys of channel satisfaction last December. For EMC, the percentage of dissatisfied solution providers also reached a high last month, jumping to 27 percent in September from 17 percent in August.