ARC 2011: Top 10 Vendors For Boosting Your Revenue

Partners That Can Boost The Bottom Line

Solution providers can unlock potential revenue by choosing partners that make the success of VARs a priority. Solution providers surveyed in CRN's Annual Report Card considered Revenue and Profit Potential one of the most important factors when rating their vendor partners.

Following are the 10 vendors with the best Revenue and Profit Potential, according to the solution provider respondents to the 2011 ARC.

No. 10: Juniper (Tie) - Enterprise Networking Infrastructure

Juniper scored a 93.3 in the Revenue and Profit Potential criterion in the Enterprise Networking Infrastructure product category. Juniper’s channel chiefs are working toward promoting its portfolio through the channel, including the wireless LAN products it acquired through Trapeze Networks late last year. Juniper's score in Revenue and Profit Potential remained consistent with its performance in 2010, when the vendor received a 93.5.

No. 10: Sophos (tie) - Client Security Software

Sophos, which came in first in the Client Security Software product category, also scored a 93.3 in the Revenue and Profit Potential criterion. The vendor experienced a significant increase from its score of 83.2 in 2010. Sophos is further expanding revenue potential by taking a more aggressive approach to the small- and midsize-business market. To that end, the vendor recently signed a deal with D&H Distributing.

No. 9: NetApp - Enterprise Network Storage

In ninth place, NetApp, with a score of 95.0, was recognized by solution providers for its strong efforts in helping VARs reach their full revenue and profit potential. Within this product category, NetApp placed second to EMC. NetApp's score in Revenue and Profit Potential improved from 91.5 in 2010.

No. 8: Ruckus Wireless - SMB Networking Hardware

With a score of 95.8, Ruckus slid into eighth place just ahead of NetApp. What a difference a year makes: In 2010, the company's score in this criterion was nearly19 points lower, coming in at 76.9.

No. 7: EMC - Enterprise Network Storage

EMC earned a 96.2 in Revenue and Profit Potential. That's virtually the same as the vendor scored in 2010. EMC's score beat competition from NetApp, Dell, Hitachi Data Systems, HP and IBM.

No 6: Kaspersky Lab - Client Security Software

Solution providers gave Kaspersky a 96.4 in Revenue and Profit Potential. The vendor beat category champ Sophos in this criterion, and came in sixth overall. Kaspersky's score was up considerably from 2010's 88.0.

No 5: NetApp - Backup & Recovery Software

NetApp received a 96.7 from solution providers surveyed in the ARC in satisfaction with Revenue and Profit Potential. It was one of two stellar scores for the software company; the vendor earned another 96.7 in Product Quality and Reliability. NetApp's Revenue and Profit Potential score remained unchanged from 2010.

No. 4: Fortinet - Network Security Appliances

Fortinet's 97.3 earned it fourth place in the Revenue and Profit Potential criterion. That score was almost 5 points higher than the product category champ, SonicWall. Last year, Fortinet's score in the criterion was 93.2.

No. 3: Kaspersky Lab - Network Security Software

Kaspersky had a clean sweep of all the criteria in the Network Security Software category. Solution providers gave Kaspersky a 98.1 for performance in Revenue and Profit Potential. The vendor was not included in the 2010 ARC.

No. 2: EMC - Backup & Recovery Software

EMC also swept its product category, earning a 98.4 in the Revenue and Profit Potential criterion. Within Backup & Recovery Software, EMC scored almost 20 points higher in Revenue and Profit Potential than IBM, which came in fourth in the product category. Its 2011 score was down from last year's 101.9.

No. 1: EMC - SMB Network Storage

In yet another sweep of a product category, EMC earned top honors, and pulled off a score of 100.4 in Revenue and Profit Potential.