VoIP/Voice Communications Category Profile

If you want to sell a Voice-over-IP phone system, bear in mind that the world belongs to Cisco Systems. For the second year since the VARBusiness Annual Report Card (ARC) survey started including the VoIP/Voice Communications category, Cisco has dominated the field with overwhelming partner satisfaction scores in Product Innovation, Support, Partnership and Loyalty. The vendor's overall score jumped 6 points over what it was in 2005, giving Cisco a 10-point margin over the category average and a lead of 8 points over the second-place competitor, Alcatel.

"They're easy to work with," says Elana Romero, a sales representative at VNet Professionals in Chula Vista, Calif. "Cisco is easy to call for support. They're just what we need."

Cisco's scores reflect the company's having spent this entire decade leveraging its data-networking legacy in the voice arena, particularly VoIP. The vendor now boasts the most comprehensive, integrated and sellable products in the space. Cisco partners say the company's reputation makes its products the Bentleys of the voice-networking world, and something customers are willing to pay for.

"For people who are looking for something that's not costly, we give them to another system," Romero says.

On the whole, partner satisfaction in the category rose 2 points, from 64 in 2005 to 66 this year. In Product Innovation, the average climbed 4 points to 73 this year. Partnership scores remained flat, but the Loyalty average jumped to 80 this year from 73 in 2005. (Some Loyalty scores have increased in 2006 as a result of enhancements to how loyalty was measured.)

Alcatel and Avaya were added this year to the category. Nortel, which rounded out the bottom of last year's field, withdrew from this year's survey because of changes in personnel, program and products.

For its first year in the VoIP/Voice Communications category, Alcatel posted some impressive numbers. It tied with 3Com in Product Innovation and was second only to Cisco in Support and Partnership. But the vendor rounded out the bottom of the category in Loyalty, where it was dragged down by low scores in two of the four criteria.

3Com did have some success in upsetting Cisco's dominance.

Although it finished third this year, 3Com's overall score in the category, a 62, remained flat year-over-year. In 2005, that score earned the vendor the No. 2 spot. 3Com did top Cisco, though, in compatibility & ease of integration, and in likelihood to recommend to a customer.

Avaya, however, earned one of the most schizophrenic set of ARC scores in recent memory. The vendor bested Cisco in some Loyalty criteria and tied with the leader in richness of features/functionality in Product Innovation. But despite topping Cisco in a few key areas, it posted a disappointing 62 in compatibility and ease of integration, which dragged it into last place overall in Product Innovation.

A series of very poor Support scores made the news even worse, and Avaya drove the nail into its own coffin with a horrendous showing in Partnership, including a dismal 38--the lowest aggregate ARC score--for its services engagement opportunities.

Whereas you might expect such low scores to crush Avaya's channel loyalty, the results say otherwise.

Although Avaya's partners contend that the company doesn't deserve their loyalty (they gave the company a 59 in that criterion), they still plan to remain a partner (91). And they would even recommend Avaya to a customer (85) or a peer/friend (88).