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They are the unsung heroes of the Channel Champion competition--vendors that while they did not earn cumulative scores high enough to walk away with a top Channel Champion award in their respective product segment--nevertheless distinguished themselves with top scores in all-important categories such as product margins, spifs and rebates to capture a spot on our cherished CRN Channel Champion Honor Roll.
Here is a look at 10 notable Channel Champion Honor Roll recipients. The full Honor Roll list features top scores across the entire study--minus, of course--the overall winners.
Tripp Lite
Category: Power Protection & Management
Tripp Lite bested perennial Channel Champion APC in the financial factors subcategory with wins in both the competitive pricing category with a score of 88.0 compared to APC's 86.5, and in the key product margins, spifs and rebates category with a score of 72.6 compared to APC's 68.7.
Look for Tripp Lite to continue to keep the heat on APC in 2010 with a robust new line of protection and cooling solutions.
Eaton
Category: Power Protection & Management
Eaton, which has skyrocketed onto the channel charts with a robust channel offering, also distinguished itself in the power protection and management category. In fact, there may be no other vendor in the competition that has come on as strong in the past several years, grabbing solution provider purchasing power in one of the most bitterly contested segments.
Eaton bested Channel Champion APC in the critical presales support category (75.8 to 75.7) and also the management and configuration category (80.5 to 80.4).
Eaton, which is making a host of channel program improvements, will be a challenger for the top award in 2011.
Symantec
Category: Storage Management Software
Symantec finished just behind overall winner EMC in product quality, competitive pricing and presales support. But there are few vendors that have made as many dramatic channel improvements as Symantec over the past year.
Symantec has upped the storage product ante with the release this year of Backup Exec 2010 and NetBackup 7, both of which provide robust deduplication capabilites. Not only that, Symantec recently released a road map for partners to take the lead on consulting services. That is sure to lead to big increases in services sales for Symantec partners. Watch out, EMC.
Samsung
Category: Flat-Panel Displays
There are few companies that have won as many channel awards as Samsung. Samsung has taken home top display honors in CRN Channel Champions 2008 and 2009 and has won the Annual Report Card for displays an amazing seven years in a row.
Although channel stalwart HP narrowly edged out Samsung for the top spot in this year's Channel Champion competition with HP scoring 74.6 to Samsung's 73.4, Samsung bested HP in the price/performance category (86.1 to 84.5), technical image quality (93.7 to 93.0) and tied HP for technical ergonomics. Look for Samsung to come roaring back to challenge HP.
D-Link
Category: SMB Network Storage
D-Link, which has made an aggressive channel push in the past year, bested overall SMB Network Storage Channel Champion HP in the SMB Network Storage competitive pricing satisfaction category (80.4 to 80.2). In addition, D-Link was the runner-up in all three subcategories (technical satisfaction, support satisfaction and financial factors). Another sign that D-Link is turning solution provider heads: The vendor scored well in expected sales growth, not surprising given the aggressive channel changes under D-Link North American President Nick Tidd.
