2012 Channel Champs: Financial Factors

Financial Fitness: How Do Your Vendors Rate?

The financial factors subcategory in the CRN Channel Champions survey is where the vendors prove their mettle. More than 100 vendors in 27 categories are judged on their abilities to provide channel partners an environment that is conducive to selling products and implementing solutions. Those vendors scoring the highest are crowned champs. For financial factors, vendors are rated on competitive pricing; product margins, SPIFs and rebates; services attached; and increase in sales.

How do your vendors compare?

10. Financial Factors: AMD

Category: Processors (including graphic processors)
Financial Factors Rating: 74.5

AMD's best score in the financial factors subcategory in the Processors category was in competitive pricing with a 91.1. This was the only criterion in the financial subcategory in which it beat the product category champ, Intel, as it did in 2011.

9. Financial Factors: VMware

Category: Server & Desktop Virtualization
Financial Factors Rating: 74.7

In this anomaly, VMware's scores were high enough to be included in the Top 10 Financial Factors among all the product categories, and yet it did not win a single criterion within the financial factors subcategory of Server and Desktop Virtualization. VMware was the Overall Channel Champ for the product category, having won in the support and technical satisfaction subcategories.

8. Financial Factors: Lenovo

Category: Tablets
Financial Factors Rating: 75.0

Lenovo finished first in financial factors in the new Tablets category. It won three of four criteria: Product margins, SPIFs and rebates; services attached; and increase in sales. It lost competitive pricing to Acer. Lenovo's greatest margin of victory was in increase in sales.

7. Financial Factors: Microsoft

Category: Business Intelligence
Financial Factors Rating: 75.5

Microsoft narrowly beat SAP and IBM, which tied in this subcategory with a 73.5, in Business Intelligence. It swept all of the five criteria—with its greatest margin of victory coming in competitive pricing, where it beat last-place Oracle by 7 points.

6. Financial Factors: HP

Category: Midrange Servers (more than $25,000 in price)
Financial Factors Rating: 75.7

HP won two of the four financial factors criteria in Midrange Servers: competitive pricing, and product margins, SPIFs and rebates, although IBM was the Champ in this category. All of HP's scores in financial factors were superior to those it earned in 2011.

5. Financial Factors: Microsoft

Category: Middleware
Financial Factors Rating: 75.9

Microsoft won three of the four financial factors criteria in the Middleware category: competitive pricing, product margins, SPIFs and rebates, and services attached. It lost increase in sales to last-place Oracle. Its greatest margin of victory was in competitive pricing, where it aced Oracle by nearly 12 points with a score of 82.9.

4. Financial Factors: Citrix

Category: Server & Desktop Virtualization
Financial Factors Rating: 76.7

Citrix swept the four criteria in financial factors in the Server and Desktop Virtualization category, earning it the Financial Factors subcategory Channel Champ distinction. It toppled 2011 subcategory winner VMware, which won 2012 Overall Channel Champ in this category for its superior efforts in technical satisfaction and support.

3. Financial Factors: Intel

Category: Processors (including graphic processors)
Financial Factors Rating: 77.2

Intel won three of the four financial factors criteria in the Processors category, losing competitive pricing to AMD, as it had in 2011. Intel's largest margin of victory was in increase of sales, where it beat last-place Nvidia by almost 8 points.

2. Financial Factors: Dell

Category: Enterprise Network Storage (SAN or NAS)
Financial Factors Rating: 77.6

Dell won each of the four criteria in financial factors in Enterprise Network Storage; its highest score was in competitive pricing with an 86.7. The results were a stunning upset to NetApp, which had won this subcategory and was Overall Channel Champ in 2011. This year, NetApp placed fifth in a field of nine contenders.

10. Financial Factors: Cisco

Category: Unified Communications
Financial Factors rating: 77.7

Cisco handily won the financial factors subcategory in Unified Communications, sweeping all four criteria. Its greatest margin of victory was in services attached with a 79.2, where it beat second-place Microsoft by more than 9 points, and last-place Avaya by more than 15 points.

More Channel Champs Coverage

2012 Channel Champions:
CRN's 2012 Channel Champions
Overall Winners
Support Satisfaction
Technical Satisfaction