2008 CRN Channel Champions: Systems

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IBM, Armonk, N.Y., 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, Palo Alto, Calif., in two criterion, product quality and reliability and management and configuration features.

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Big wins for IBM in the program and support criteria were post-sales support, efforts to manage channel conflict and relevance of channel program.

IBM's win in the financial area was led by strong showings in ROI of vendor relationship and product margins, spifs and rebates.

"Their servers are rock solid and the scalability is good," said Pete Elliot, director of marketing at Key Information Systems, a Woodland Hills, Calif.-based IBM solution provider. "I think they've done a good job in keeping pace with the market."

Mike Martin, brand director of sales at Logicalis, a Green Bay, Wis.-based IBM solution provider agreed. "There are no scalability issues," he said. "I think their power servers are probably the most scalable in the world."

Jack Bornhoft, an IBM Power System and System X Brand manager at Boca Raton, Fla.-based Champion Solutions Group Inc., said that overall, IBM has the best products. "In terms of technology and the amount of research and development that go into what they deliver, it's far and above what the competitors offer when it comes to customer value and savings," he said. "Their technology allows us to grow other parts of our business such as support services and maintenance programs."

"For configuration at a customer level, IBM's technology offers multiple ways to take advantage of technology to meet whatever needs your service level agreements call for," Bornhoft added.

-- Michele Masterson

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With particularly strong scores in projected sales increase and services attach rate, Hewlett-Packard Co., Palo Alto, Calif., 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 Corp., Tokyo, 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 Corp.

In the services attach rate category, which has been a top priority for HP for several years, the computer giant finished with a 58.5 ranking compared with 56.5 for Toshiba and 56.1 for Panasonic, Japan.

Bob Venero, president and CEO of Future Tech Enterprise Inc., a Holbrook, N.Y.-based HP partner, said HP is his top-selling notebook ahead of Lenovo and Dell. "HP has done a phenomenal job of what I would call reinvigorating their notebooks to meet what, in my mind, the business community needs more than focusing toward the consumer space," Venero said. "Less bells and whistles, more functionality and better performance."

Venero said HP, which also scored tops in relevance of its channel program category, has the flat-out best channel program in the business at this point. "HP has the best and the most seasoned channel program because they have been at it the longest," he said. "Lenovo is new as Lenovo. They had different programs when it was IBM, and Dell is also new with its channel program."

He said there is more back-end infrastructure built around the HP channel program and more processes to ensure the programs actually are successful along with tighter rules and regulations. "Those things make the HP channel program more seasoned and effective," he said.

-- Steven Burke

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Hewlett-Packard Co. 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.

Palo Alto, Calif.-based HP took the technical criteria area by a stunning 6.9 points, sweeping every criterion and besting Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM by 10.6 points in configuration of upgrade options, 9 points in serviceability and 7.8 points in scalability.

HP also swept the the program and support criteria, where it led the field by 4 points, earning a 75.5 rating to IBM's 71.5, and dominating with a 5.8-point lead in presales support, a 5.1-point lead in post-sales support and a 4.1-point lead in efforts to manage channel conflict.

The financial criteria was the only area where IBM won any criterion. There, IBM took ROI of vendor relationship (72.9 to HP's 72.1) and product margins, spifs and rebates (70.4 to HP's 70.1) to keep HP from shutting out IBM across the board.

Still, HP's solid scores in services attach rate (68.1 to IBM's 63.9) and next year's projected sales increase (63.6 to IBM's 60.9) enabled the vendor to take the category by 1.5 points.

In speaking with resellers, a topic that was brought up again and again was IBM's efforts to manage channel conflict, a category that the company had a 66.7 score vs. HP's 70.8. The discussion about the channel's dissatisfaction in this area generated passionate responses from not just HP fans, but IBM partners as well.

John Riddle, president of Information Networking Company Inc., an Irvine, Calif.-based solution provider that works with both IBM and HP, said, "We're IBM-loyal and have worked with them for 20 years. I think HP and IBM are close in technical quality, but what differentiates HP from IBM is HP's marketing and programs to gain the mindshare of the smaller to midsize solution provider," he said.

"We get a lot of technology service with back-end support and post-sales support," Riddle said.

-- Michele Masterson

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Intel Corp. staged a solid win over rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Sunnyvale, Calif., 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.

Santa Clara, Calif.-based 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.

In the technical area, Intel had its best showing in the product quality and reliability criterion, with a score of 113.3, more than 8 full points ahead of AMD's 105.1. Intel also took the manageability and battery life and thermal management/performance criterion.

AMD's only win in the entire product category came in the price for performance criterion of the technical area. Here, AMD had a solid showing, besting Intel by 1.8 points with a 95.8 score to Intel's 94.0 score.

For Colfax International, a partner with both vendors, Intel's key channel strengths lay in its "best-in-class" support, said Michael Fay, vice president of sales for the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based system builder.

"We've been alongside Intel in a relationship that's very good. We've got a rep that visits at least once a week, if not more. We've got advance cross-ship on their server products. We have seed samples if needed to get urgent test results out," Fay said, adding that product quality and financials associated with Colfax's Intel partnership are "top notch."

Consistency has been a key factor for Intel in winning loyalty in the channel, said Steve Dallman, general manager of the Intel Reseller Channel Organization. "Over the last two years, Intel has focused on the execution of product development and delivering these products to market at dates we can commit to. Delivering time-to-market products to our channel partners is of utmost importance to Intel as they are instrumental in leading technology transitions such as quad-core and 45nm high-k technology," Dallman said.

And the channel chief added that Intel's commitment to the channel isn't letting up any time soon."The relationship with our partners remains rock solid," he said.

-- Damon Poeter