State of Technology Methodology

The first stage of the project called for VARBusiness, in partnership with The Wayman Group, to design an insightful questionnaire formatted for online interviewing. On Sept. 24, 2003, e-mail invitations were sent to a diverse panel of resellers in CMP Media's Technology Solutions Group (CMP is VARBusiness' parent company). With more than 10,000 North American-based members, the recruitment panel houses a complete range of company sizes and specializations to ensure a representative sample of the solution provider community. Respondents included managers intimately involved in reselling, recommending for purchase and/or influencing the purchase of IT products and services.

The invitation included a link to the Web survey. By Oct. 1, 2003, 500 usable surveys were collected. The Wayman Group collected all responses and reported the survey results. The margin of error, based on 500 respondents, is calculated to be no greater than plus/minus 4.5%, a sufficient sample to ensure that the results reflect a true picture of the general opinions of the business and techology integrator universe.