Wireless LAN Hardware: Cisco
Cisco is also making investments in its channel efforts, adding more field support through four wireless-specialized channel account managers who help partners close WLAN deals, he said. “They can help them solve complex sales issues,” Thurber said. “They’re really there to help the partner succeed.”
Cisco Systems dominated the WLAN category of the 2005 CRN Channel Champions survey, garnering top honors in 13 of 14 criteria and earning especially high marks for the security and reliability of its products.
Solution providers awarded the San Jose, Calif.-based vendor the Channel Champion title with an overall satisfaction rating of 79.2, a substantial 7.2 points ahead of 3Com, which captured second with 72.
Rounding out the field were Netgear (71.7), Cisco’s Linksys division (71.5), D-Link (69.4) and Proxim (67).
Cisco’s strongest showing by far came on the technical front for security of its WLAN products, besting 3Com, its closest competitor, by 10.4 points on that criterion. It also won product reliability, interoperability and management features areas by wide margins.
The vendor’s Wireless LAN Solution Engine—a centralized management console for wireless deployments—is a key part of Cisco’s security story, said Robert Keblusek, senior vice president of business development at Sentinel Technologies, a solution provider in Downers Grove, Ill.
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“It allows us to track rogue access, check the coverage area, autocorrect. Basically it gives the customer a complete view into the WLAN,” Keblusek said.
On channel issues, Cisco earned its widest margin of victory for vendor support over the life cycle of a project, besting second-place 3Com by 8 points. It scored nearly as well in two other areas—upselling opportunities and technical education—which it won by 7.9-point margins.
The one area where Cisco lagged the competition was on the technical criterion of price/performance, where it took second place to Linksys.
Alex Thurber, director of security and wireless for worldwide channels at Cisco, concedes that there is a perception among customers that Cisco’s gear costs more, but he contends customers get what they pay for.
“The investment to make [product reliability and security] happen doesn’t come cheaply,” Thurber said.