2008 Channel Champions

ENTERPRISE BUSINESS SOFTWARE SUITES

It looks like all that money Oracle spent acquiring companies like PeopleSoft, J.D. Edwards and Siebel Systems is paying off. Oracle is the Channel Champions 2008 winner in the category of enterprise business software suites, edging out Microsoft and handily beating SAP AG.

Oracle's high technical criteria scores are what put the vendor over the top. Oracle's technical satisfaction rating was 83.2, a significant lead over Microsoft's 81.0 rating and a surprisingly wide advantage over SAP's 74.8 score. Oracle beat Microsoft and SAP in almost every technical criteria, including product quality and reliability, scalability, configurability and customization tools, and support for multivendor products and standards. Only in price for performance did Microsoft have a higher score -- and by a wide margin at that, 80.0 to Oracle's 74.7. [READ MORE]

SMB BUSINESS SOFTWARE SUITES

SMB software is a hotly contested sector of the market, and the razor-thin margin of victory in the SMB business software suites category is an accurate indication of just how competitive it has become.

Sage Software topped the category with an overall score of 72.5, barely edging out Oracle, which came in second with a score of 72.4. Microsoft placed third with a score of 71.8. Sage took the financial, and program and support criteria, and had key wins in the technical criteria, where it was bested by Oracle. [READ MORE]

DATA AND INFORMATION MANAGEMENT

IBM can thank the technical strengths of its DB2 database and other data management products for its first-place showing in the data and information management category. Solution providers gave IBM an overall satisfaction rating of 73.2, edging out Microsoft's 72.8 rating and finishing significantly ahead of competitors Oracle and MySQL.

Partners gave an 84.6 technical satisfaction rating to IBM's data and information products -- a full 2 points ahead of Microsoft and more than 4 and 5 points, respectively, ahead of Oracle and MySQL. [READ MORE]

COLLABORATION SOFTWARE

The skyrocketing popularity of Microsoft's Office SharePoint Server helped the software giant gallop to victory in the Collaboration Software category of this year's Channel Champs survey.

Microsoft outpaced its collaboration competition with an overall score of 72.8, followed by IBM/Lotus with 71.6 and Novell Networks with 68.6. Microsoft posted a solid win in technical criteria, posting an 83.5 to IBM/Lotus' 82 and Novell's 78.5.The Redmond, Wash.-based software giant's score of 66.8 tied it with IBM/Lotus in program and support criteria. Microsoft dominated the financial area, sweeping all criteria and earning a score of 64.2. [READ MORE]

MIDDLEWARE

IBM outflanked rivals Oracle and Microsoft to take the crown this year in the middleware category of the 2008 CRN Channel Champions Survey. IBM posted an overall score of 73.7 to Microsoft's 73.0 and Oracle's 72.1. The computer and services giant bested Oracle and Microsoft in both the technical area and program and support area, winning three of five criteria in the technical category and two of five in program and support.

In the technical area, IBM posted its best scores over its competitors in scalability and multivendor support and support of standards. Wins in technical training and relevance of channel programs led to its success in the program and support area. [READ MORE]

NETWORK SECURITY APPLIANCES

Cisco earned the top spot in the 2008 CRN Channel Champions Survey network security appliances category, getting high praises from VARs for both presales and post-sales support, but falling behind competing vendors when it comes to down to dollars.

Cisco scored highest in several technical criteria for its security appliances, including product quality and reliability, where it took the criterion, earning its widest margin, 6.2 points, over Juniper. Management and configuration features and scalability also earned Cisco the top spot. Those results gave the networking powerhouse an overall technical satisfaction rating of 88.1, compared to Juniper's 85.5. [READ MORE]

CLIENT SECURITY SOFTWARE

High marks for technical prowess gave Trend Micro what it needed to win the client security software category of this year's Channel Champions Survey. Trend Micro, Cupertino, Calif., posted an overall satisfaction score of 70.9 to beat five competitors, including No. 2 Websense, which earned an overall score of 69.8, and No. 3 McAfee Inc., Santa Clara, Calif., which earned a 68.5.

The antivirus giant beat out its competition in the technical area with its 1.7 point lead over closest competitor Symantec. The key to Trend Micro's win was its strong showing in the price for performance criterion and product quality and reliability. [READ MORE]

NETWORK SECURITY SOFTWARE

A stellar showing on all fronts won Trend Micro the crown in the network security software product category in the 2008 CRN Channel Champions Survey.

Trend Micro earned an overall satisfaction score of 75.1, soundly beating the other four competitors in the category. McAfee came in second with a 71.9 overall score, followed by No. 3 IBM/Tivoli Corp. with a 71.7. Trend Micro won four of the five criteria in the technical area, losing to McAfee in the important vulnerability/intrusion prevention and management criterion. [READ MORE]

ENTERPRISE NETWORKING HARDWARE

High marks in post-sales support, security and technical training helped propel Cisco Systems to the pole position over four competing vendors as the 2008 CRN Channel Champion for enterprise networking hardware, excluding wireless LANs and voice. The San Jose, Calif.-based vendor earned an overall satisfaction rating of 75.2. HP placed second in the category with 73.5 points, followed by 3Com in third with a rating of 71.3.

In the technical area, solution providers gave top marks to Cisco's switches and routers for security, scalability and interoperability, with an 89.7 satisfaction rating, narrowly eclipsing HP's 89.6 rating. Cisco posted its biggest win in that area with a 102.6 in product quality and reliability, far ahead of No. 2 HP's 99.7 score in that criterion. [READ MORE]

ENTERPRISE WLAN PRODUCTS

Cisco won a tight race in the Enterprise Wireless LAN category of the 2008 CRN Channel Champions survey, beating its rivals largely on the strength of the technical merits of its product portfolio and the financial benefits solution providers see from their partnerships with Cisco.

Cisco nabbed first place with an overall score of 74.8. Palo Alto, Calif.-based Hewlett-Packard's networking division, ProCurve Networking by HP, placed second with a score of 73.6, while 3Com, Marlborough, Mass., placed third with a score of 72.2. [READ MORE]

SYSTEM AND NETWORK MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE

A good product and excellent channel relationships won the day for Hewlett-Packard, Palo Alto, Calif., a Channel Champ in the systems and network management software category for the family of Business Service Management solutions that includes products formerly branded as OpenView, as well as HP Business Availability Center, HP Network Management Center, HP Operations Center and IT Service Management tools.

HP (78.6 overall rating) had its closest competition from Microsoft (76.4), a surprising second-place finisher with its relatively new SMS suite of network management tools. [READ MORE]

SMB NETWORKING HARDWARE

And the tables have turned. ProCurve Networking by HP took the top spot to become the winner in the 2008 CRN Channel Champions Survey in SMB networking hardware, knocking out last year's winner Cisco Systems by 1.9 points for its seat at the champions' table.

Palo Alto, Calif.-based HP ProCurve's overall satisfaction rating was 76.1, enough to beat out Cisco's 74.2. Other vendors weren't too far behind. Rounding out the top seven were Cisco's Linksys division with 70.4, 3Com Corp., 68.8, SonicWall, 67.7, NetGear, 66.8 and D-Link with 66.4.

It was ProCurve's program and support that pushed it over the top, earning the vendor a three-point victory in the area with 71.6 points over Cisco's 68.6. [READ MORE]

VoIP TECHNOLOGY

Cisco dominated the VoIP category of the 2008 CRN Channel Champions survey, sweeping the category with first-place finishes in all 15 criteria.

Cisco easily won the category with an overall score of 77.0, taking a commanding 7.2-point lead over its closest competitors. Nortel Networks and Avaya tied for second place with scores of 69.8, while 3Com placed fourth with a score of 68.5. [READ MORE]

SMB WLANS

Although SonicWall lost to Cisco in the technical area, the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based vendor took both the program and support, and the financial areas to become the SMB WLANs category winner in the 2008 CRN Channel Champions Survey.

SonicWall pulled down a 74.5 overall satisfaction score to second-place Cisco's 74.0.The field was rounded out by Linksys with 70.2, D-Link Corp., 68.5 and NetGear with 68.0.

The only criterion SonicWall won in the technical area was management and configuration features. But the vendor took three of five criteria in program and support and swept the financial area to solidify its lead in the category. [READ MORE]

MIDRANGE SERVERS

IBM aced the midrange server category in the 2008 CRN Channel Champions Survey, winning all three satisfaction areas to post an overall score of 77.2, more than 4 points ahead of second-place Hewlett-Packard Corp. (72.8) and more than 6 points ahead of third-place Sun Microsystems, with 71.1 points.

IBM won every single criterion by which the vendors were measured in each of three areas: technical, program and support, and financial. In the technical area, IBM earned scores that were more than 5 full points ahead of its closest competitor, HP in two criterion, product quality and reliability and management and configuration features. [READ MORE]

NOTEBOOKS AND MOBILE COMPUTERS

With particularly strong scores in projected sales increase and services attach rate, Hewlett-Packard won top Channel Champion honors in this year's notebooks and mobile computers category.

HP finished with an overall rating of 73.5, ahead of Toshiba's 73.1 rating and Panasonic's 70.8 rating. Sony finished fourth with a 70.3 rating followed by Lenovo with a 70.1 rating and Taiwan-based Acer Inc. with a 69.1 rating.

No one was even close to HP in the all-important projected sales increase category. HP finished with a 60.5 rating in next year's sales increase expectations compared with 57.3 for Lenovo Group Ltd., Beijing, and 57.1 for Tokyo-based Toshiba. [READ MORE]

SMB VOLUME SERVERS

Hewlett-Packard wowed resellers in the volume servers product category of this year's Channel Champions Survey, where the vendor trounced competitor IBM Corp. by a whopping 4.5 points, earning an 81.2 overall rating compared to IBM's 76.7.

HP took the technical criteria area by a stunning 6.9 points, sweeping every criterion and besting IBM by 10.6 points in configuration of upgrade options, 9 points in serviceability and 7.8 points in scalability. [READ MORE]

CLIENT AND SERVER PROCESSORS

Intel staged a solid win over rival Advanced Micro Devices in this year's Channel Champions client and server processors product category. Intel scored a 3.1-point win over AMD, earning a 74.9 satisfaction rating compared with AMD's 71.8.

Intel won all three areas where solution providers rated vendors, with a 92.2 rating in technical criteria to AMD's 88.7, a 67.6 in program and support criteria to AMD's 64.5 and a 66.7 in financial criteria compared with AMD's 63.9. Intel swept every criterion in the program and support area and the financial area. [READ MORE]

HIGH CAPACITY HARD DRIVES

In this year's CRN Channel Champions Survey, Seagate Technology ran away with the title in the high capacity hard drives category on a variety of factors -- showing that it takes having more than bigger or faster or cheaper drives to make believers out of channel partners.

Seagate was the top vendor across the board, getting the solution provider thumbs-up in technical criteria, program and support criteria and financial criteria. Seagate scored a 75.9 overall rating, solidly beating No. 2 Western Digital's 75.3 and far ahead of No. 3 Storage Technologies with a 70.6. [READ MORE]

NETWORK STORAGE (SAN OR NAS)

Solution providers crowned Hewlett-Packard the 2008 Channel Champion in the network storage category, which includes SAN and NAS, despite a strong showing by its top competitor, IBM. HP earned a 74.5 overall satisfaction rating in the category, a solid lead over No. 2 IBM's 73.1 and No. 3 Sun StorageTek's 70.8.

The key to HP's success was the vendor's overwhelming victory in the technical area, where HP swept the field, bolstered by a 6.2 lead over its closest competitor, IBM, in price for performance.

HP eked out a win in the program and support criteria, losing presales and postsales support and relevance of channel program to second-place IBM, which also bested HP in the financial area. [READ MORE]

STORAGE MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE

Solution providers gave Hewlett-Packard enough thumbs-up in terms of technical, program and support, and financial criteria to enable the vendor to continue its reign as storage management software Channel Champion.

However, the solution providers responding to the 2008 CRN Channel Champions Survey by no means let the Palo Alto, Calif.-based storage vendor walk away with the crown. Instead, they made it clear that vendors such as IBM, EMC, and Symantec were also strong contenders in many areas.

Yet HP still managed to come in with a full one point lead ahead of IBM and EMC in the category -- HP posted a 73.5 overall satisfaction score to the 72.5 that both IBM and EMC earned. Symantec came in third with a 72.2 score and CA trailed with 66.0. [READ MORE]

External Data Backup

Hewlett-Packard and IBM fought to a tie in the 2008 CRN Channel Champions Survey external data backup product category, with HP posting slim leads in the technical and program and support areas while IBM edged out HP in the financial area. Both earned an overall score of 73.7.

In the technical area, HP took two of the five criteria, but got beat solidly by IBM in the two other criteria to keep IBM in the game. HP took management and configuration features and interoperability, where it posted its largest lead of 2.5 points over IBM. But IBM fired back with a win in the all-important product quality and reliability criterion and an impressive 2.8 point win over HP in scalability. [READ MORE]

FLAT PANEL DISPLAYS

When it comes to flat-panel displays of 19- to 30- inches, solution providers say no one is better than Samsung. The Irvine, Calif.-based vendor rode a strong showing in technical criteria, and program and support criteria to win the category with a 72.5 overall satisfaction rating. Samsung's was a decisive showing over No. 2 Taiwanese Acer Inc., which earned a 70.3 and No. 3 ViewSonic Corp.,Walnut, Calif., which earned a 70.0.

Samsung won four of five technical criteria and three of five program and support categories to capture the overall win. It also finished first in two of the four financial criteria, but was edged out for that overall category by Acer. [READ MORE]

WORKGROUP COLOR PRINTERS

Xerox is this year's reigning Channel Champ in the workgroup color laser printer category. Norwalk, Conn.-based Xerox was the overall champ with a rating of 75.0, easily beating second-place finisher Ricoh's rating of 72.3.

Hewlett-Packard came in third, narrowly missing Ricoh Americas Corp., with a rating of 72.1 points. Xerox won the category even though it got beat in overall technical criteria by HP, Palo Alto, Calif., which upstaged Xerox by a full point in the area, led by a resounding win in product quality and reliability and solid scores in serviceability and management and configuration features. [READ MORE]

UPS AND DATA CENTER POWER MANAGEMENT PRODUCTS

American Power Conversion won the UPS Data Center Power Management category in the 2008 CRN Channel Champions Survey, thanks to a strong showing in the technical criteria and a solid performance in the financial criteria.

The West Kingston, R.I.-based vendor scored 75.6 overall to edge out Liebert, which scored 75.3. Powerware with a 70.6 and Tripp Lite with 69.8 rounded out the vendors considered. APC finished first in all five technical criteria, two of four financial criteria and one of five program and support criteria. [READ MORE]

MULTIFUNCTION PRINTERS

Xerox has unseated perennial front-runner Hewlett-Packard in this year's Channel Champions matchup in the multifunction printer arena.

Xerox leapt ahead of Lexmark from fourth place last year to first this year, and had an overall rating of 74.4 in the multifunction printers category, beating its competition in the technical criteria and the program and support criteria. [READ MORE]