Attention to partners, high quality and great return on investment—those are what puts a vendor at the top of CRN’s Annual Report Card. For 26 years, CRN has polled IT solution providers for their take on various vendors’ capabilities. Vendors are rated within their product specialties, and criteria fall into three subcategories: product innovation, support and partnership. Throughout the years, quality has been a constant. This year, a number of superstar vendors earned quality scores over 100; the highest score of 108.8 was attained by Intel in the Processors category.
Those with stellar marks--including Intel, Ruckus Wireless and Sophos--reap high praise, but perhaps more important to vendors, earn the loyalty of their solution providers.
Click here for the full 2011 Annual Report Card results.
In the later winter/early spring, CRN requested that participating ARC vendors supply lists of the solution providers partners to participate in the survey. All 2011 ARC surveys, which were to be completed by solution provider partners, were conducted via the Internet between May and mid-July. Each solution provider was screened to verify that they have been reselling, recommending or supporting the vendor's product for at least six months. A minimum number of completed surveys was required in order for the vendor to remain a competitor. CRN rated 69 solution provider programs in 21 categories. The total number of completed surveys was 3,647.
