2012 Channel Champs: Overall Winners

Channel Champions: The Cream Of The Crop

Once a year, solution providers get to grade their product vendors, using a variety of criteria. It's time when we get to hear what you really think on everything having to do with support satisfaction, technical satisfaction and financial factors in our annual CRN Channel Champions survey.

This year, solution providers rated 115 IT vendors across 27 categories. That's 13 more vendors and two more categories than last year. (Welcome, tablets and CRM Software.)

Following are the companies channel partners say are the best of the best.

Backup and Recovery Software

Overall Winner: Symantec/Veritas
2012 Score: 73.4
2011 Rank: 4

Symantec/Veritas came on strong in Backup and Recovery Software, moving up from fourth place and showing improvement in every subcategory: technical, support and financial. Solution providers gave the company its highest margin of victory in scalability, where it beat second-place Microsoft by nearly 4 points.

Business Intelligence

Overall Winner: Microsoft
2012 Score: 76.6
2011 Rank: 1

Microsoft edged SAP by less than one point to capture first place in the Business Intelligence category. The vendor did particularly well in the financial factors subcategory, where it swept all the criteria.

Client Security Software

Overall Winner: Symantec
2012 Score: 74.6
2011 Rank: 1

Symantec was the clear winner in the Client Security Software category, winning 11 of 13 criteria, ceding evaluation and demo equipment policies, and competitive pricing to Trend Micro. Although Symantec won each of the three subcategories, it beat second-place Kaspersky Lab by just one point.

Cloud Applications

Overall Winner: Microsoft
2012 Score: 75.7
2011 Rank: 1

Microsoft edged out second-place finisher VMware by nearly one point to claim the Channel Champions crown in Cloud Applications. Microsoft captured nine of 15 criteria, tying with VMware in configurability or customization tools. Its widest margin of victory was in general availability of technical training.

Collaboration Software

Overall Winner: Microsoft
2012 Score: 75.6
2011 Rank: 1

Microsoft won nearly every criteria in the Collaboration Software category, losing only in product margins, SPIFs and rebates to second-place IBM. Otherwise, the software giant was the clear winner in this category, with the widest margins of victory in scalability (11.1) and configurability or customization tools (11).

CRM Software

Overall Winner: Microsoft
2012 Score: 74.7
2011 Rank: NA

Microsoft eked out a win over Oracle by half a percentage point. Its largest margin of victory was in usability and ease of use. However, it did not fare as well in the product margins, SPIFs and rebates criteria, losing to third-place SAP. Microsoft has earned the distinction of winning the CRM Software category in its debut year.

Data & Information Management

Overall Winner: Microsoft
2012 Score: 72.6
2011 Rank: 1

Microsoft won all but three of the 14 criteria in the Data and Information Management category. It fell short in multivendor support and support of standards, product margins, SPIFs and rebates, and services attached. Its widest margin of victory was in general availability of technical training.

Data Center & Power Protection

Overall Winner: APC
2012 Score: 73.1
2011 Rank: 1

This marks the 19th consecutive annual win for APC, part of Schneider Electric. The vendor had a strong showing across all of the criteria in technical, support and financial factors this year in Data Center & Power Protection, sweeping all criteria in technical and financial. The only criterion it lost was evaluation and demo equipment policies, which was won by Emerson Network Power.

Enterprise Network Storage

Overall Winner: Dell
2012 Score: 76.5
2011 Rank: 3

Dell moved up two places this year in the Enterprise Network Storage category, which comprised nine competitors. Dell swept every criteria, and, overall, finished nearly four points ahead of second-place finisher Hitachi HDS. Dell's largest margin of victory over Hitachi was an eight-point spread in competitive pricing, a criterion in the financial factors rating. Oracle finished last.

Enterprise Networking Hardware

Overall Winner: Cisco
2012 Score: 71.1
2011 Rank: 1

Cisco nosed out Juniper for the Channel Champs crown in Enterprise Networking Hardware. Though it won each of the subcategories overall, Cisco did not sweep any of them. Solution providers rewarded the vendor with particularly high marks in product quality and reliability with a 92.4.

Flat Panel Displays

Overall Winner: ViewSonic
2012 Score: 74.0
2011 Rank: 2

ViewSonic moved up a notch from 2011, besting last year's No. 1 pick, Samsung. ViewSonic won the support and financial factors subcategories, but lost technical satisfaction to Samsung. Survey respondents praised ViewSonic's price for performance (value for the money) and competitive pricing.

Middleware

Overall Winner: Microsoft
2012 Score: 77.0
2011 Rank: 2

Microsoft wrested the crown from last year's winner, IBM, winning the overall support and financial factors subcategories, but losing technical satisfaction to IBM. Microsoft beat IBM by a wide margin on competitive pricing, but IBM fought back as hard in multivendor support and support of standards.

Midrange Servers

Overall Winner: IBM
2012 Score: 77.6
2011 Rank: 1

IBM won the Midrange Servers category's technical satisfaction and support subcategories, but lost financial factors to runner-up HP. IBM fared particularly well in the technical satisfaction criteria of product quality and reliability; scalability; and price for performance.

Multifunction Printers

Overall Winner: HP
2012 Score: 74.2
2011 Rank: 2

HP slid easily into the No. 1 slot, bumping last year's winner, Xerox, into a third-place tied with Epson. Second-place Lexmark took three criteria from HP, winning evaluation and demo equipment policies, education and enablement, and services attached. Still, HP won each of the three subcategories overall, receiving high praise in output speed and quality, and product quality and reliability. Samsung finished in last place, sixth, overall.

Network Security Appliances

Overall Winner: Cisco
2012 Score: 71.0
2011 Rank: 1

Cisco was a repeat winner in the Network Security Appliances category, after claiming victory in the same category in the 2011 survey as well. However, it won only one subcategory, support satisfaction. SonicWall's big win in price for performance earned it the technical satisfaction title, while Juniper's performance in product margins, SPIFs and rebates, and services attached got it the financial factors win.

Network Security Software

Overall Winner: Kaspersky Lab
2012 Score: 75.8
2011 Rank: NA

Kaspersky won all three subcategories in the Network Security Software category, but lost some criteria to Trend Micro and McAfee. It was Kaspersky's first year in the survey; its greatest margin of victory was in the criterion price for performance in the technical satisfaction rating.

Notebooks/Mobile Computers

Overall Winner: HP
2012 Score: 75.3
2011 Rank: 2

HP took the top prize in the Notebooks/Mobile Computers category, besting its rivals in all three subcategories and in 11 of 14 criteria in technical, support and financial factors subcategories. HP lost postsales support by a hair to second-place Dell, and education and enablement by an even smaller fraction to third-place Lenovo.

Processors

Overall Winner: Intel
2012 Score: 81.3
2011 Rank: 1

Intel beat challengers AMD and Nvidia in the Processors category, winning every subcategory. However, AMD won the criteria for price for performance and competitive pricing. Intel had the distinction of earning the highest score in the entire Channel Champs survey in product quality and reliability with a 109.3.

SATA Hard Drives

Overall Winner: Seagate
2012 Score: 74.7
2011 Rank: 1

Seagate's evaluation and demo equipment policies, and product margins, SPIFs and rebates helped propel the hardware giant to victory in the SATA Hard Drives category. Seagate won all but one of the 13 technical, support and financial criteria, losing product quality and reliability to Western Digital.

Server & Desktop Virtualization

Overall Winner: VMware
2012 Score: 78.1
2011 Rank: 1

VMware won two of the three subcategories overall -- technical and support satisfaction. Citrix, however, swept the financial factors subcategory. VMware's strongest performances were in product quality and reliability, and management and configuration tools, both technical criteria.

SMB Network Storage

Overall Winner: Dell
2012 Score: 72.8
2011 Rank: NA

In its debut appearance, Dell narrowly squeezed out HP from first place in SMB Network Storage, taking the Channel Champ crown. Dell won the technical and support satisfaction subcategories, but lost to HP in financial factors. NetGear, in fourth and last place, managed to squeak out a win in three criteria: evaluation and demo equipment policies, competitive pricing, and product margins, SPIFs and rebates.

SMB Networking Hardware

Overall Winner: Cisco
2012 Score: 79.1
2011 Rank: 1

Cisco won 11 of the 14 criteria, with a large margin of victory in scalability and postsales support. HP Networking beat the Channel Champ by a slim margin in price for performance, and product margins, SPIFs and rebates; D-Link earned a more convincing win in competitive pricing.

Tablets

Overall Winner: Lenovo
2012 Score: 76.1
2011 Rank: NA

In the hot, new Tablet category, Lenovo took top honors, winning 12 out of 14 criteria. However, it lost the weight criterion in technical satisfaction to second-place Samsung, and the competitive pricing criterion to third-place Acer. Lenovo performed particularly well against its four competitors in evaluation and demo equipment policies.

Unified Communications

Overall Winner: Cisco
2012 Score: 80.0
2011 Rank: 1

Cisco swept all 14 criteria in the Unified Communications category, squashing its competition. Its biggest win was in postsales support, where it beat second-place Microsoft by 13 points.

Videoconferencing

Overall Winner: Cisco
2012 Score: 73.7
2011 Rank: 1

In this two-company race, Cisco pulled ahead of Microsoft in each of the three subcategories. However, Microsoft took the evaluation and demo equipment policies criterion, as it did in 2011. Further, the Redmond giant bested Cisco in two other criteria: competitive pricing and services attached, earning Microsoft the financial factors subcategory win.

Volume Servers

Overall Winner: HP
2012 Score: 75.5
2011 Rank: 1

HP handily won the Volume Servers category, earning top overall scores for each of the three subcategories. Solution providers were particularly pleased with its product quality and reliability, for which it earned a 100.5.

Workgroup Color Printers

Overall Winner: Xerox
2012 Score: 74.9
2011 Rank: 2

Xerox and HP flip-flopped ranks this year, with Xerox taking the top spot in all three subcategories and HP taking the second slot. In general, the scores within each criteria were close between the two vendors, but Xerox made great strides against the competition in product margins, SPIFs and rebates, and product quality and reliability.

More Channel Champions Coverage

2012 Channel Champions:
CRN's 2012 Channel Champions
Financial Factors
Support Satisfaction
Technical Satisfaction