Making The Grade

Who soared in 2004? IBM, which won eight of the 18 product categories we showcase in this year's study. That's one of the best batting averages we have ever seen in all the 19 years we have been measuring partner satisfaction.

This year, we polled some 4,500 solution providers who represent more than 40 vendors in the IT market. (For a complete rundown of our study's methodology, turn to page 32.) In addition to IBM's impressive performance, there were other noteworthy showings in our study, which analyzes partner satisfaction from four different angles: product innovation, support, partnership and loyalty.

As it did last year, Samsung not only won its category—display technology—and swept its rivals, but it also registered the single highest total score in the entire ARC study. Samsung's T.H. Kim, president of the vendor's information technology division that governs the printer and display group, tells VARBusiness that his company's decision three years ago to focus on the channel has paid off well in the past two years. One reason: the big money he has approved for partner education, branding and support activities.

"More work to do," he says, "but progress so far."

Another big winner in this year's ARC: Cisco, which won in networking infrastructure solutions, security management software (where it tied for first with CA) and business-class wireless LANs.

You can read all about the winners in the pages that follow—our in-depth breakdowns of each and every category, in particular. Also, check out our features, which drill down deeply into several aspects of the ARC study. Senior writer Carolyn A. April, for example, goes behind the numbers to reveal why IBM is winning over so many partners now. (Hint: In six out of eight categories in which it competed, it posted the highest scores for partner loyalty.)

Senior editor Cristina McEachern and senior writer Luc Hatlestad, meantime, take respective stabs at chronicling which vendors got things right on their report cards this year, and which ones went awry. Hatlestad's piece is a virtual undressing of some of the industry's rich and powerful, and serves as a harsh reminder of what can go wrong when even leading vendors turn their backs on their allies. It's a must-read for those struggling to settle on a vendor of choice in key areas as diverse as database management, entry-level servers and business-class communications services.

Though some vendors are amazingly consistent with the level of quality they provide in terms of product innovation, support and partnership, others vary in what they offer. That's why senior editor Alexander Wolfe, managing editor/strategy Steven Lang and guest contributor Alison Diana take pains to flesh out which vendors offer world-class quality in those respective disciplines (Lang's piece is one of our online exclusives). Our takeaway: Those with good products tend to also offer similar levels of quality when it comes to providing marketing and technical support, as well as providing best-in-class partner programs.

Lang also showcases our 2004 Lifetime Channel Achievement Award, which VARBusiness bestowed on Gary Grimes, Sun's outgoing U.S. head of channel programs and marketing. After 17 years at Sun, Grimes has announced his retirement. He'll be replaced by Greg Stroud. Also profiled: Allison Watson, vice president of worldwide partner sales and marketing at Microsoft. VARBusiness honors her as this year's Channel Executive of the Year. Read why she beat out other stalwarts, including Paul Mountford, Cisco's senior vice president of worldwide channels, for our top award this year in a thought-provoking piece penned by senior writer Rob Wright.

In addition to those features, we also offer a snapshot of what we like to call "Insights, Ironies And Intrigues of the Annual Report Card." In it, I offer a biting look at a sampling of the best and worst from this year's study.

Finally, go to www.varbusiness.com, where VARBusiness editorial director Robert DeMarzo and I highlight some of the pressing issues facing executives who run channel programs at some of the industry's most powerful companies today. The story was fashioned from an exclusive roundtable interview that DeMarzo and I hosted in conjunction with our partner, The Institute for Partner Development and Education (IPED). The roundtable discussion took place in late August and was attended by Watson, Citrix's Ross Brown, EMC's John Koury, BMC's Paige Erickson and CA's George Kafkarkou. In a wide-ranging conversation that followed our 2004 ARC awards banquet, the industry's top vendor partner executives revealed what is foremost on their minds as we head into 2005: leads, deal-registration programs and harnessing the power of partners in the field to go after the midmarket.

Out of all of this, we hope you come away with a better understanding of the state of partner satisfaction today. We know we have.