HP On top Again

The winners of the sixth Channel Satisfaction Survey were largely the same
vendors who had walked away with the trophies the previous year as well. In a
sense of deja vu, this year too, the channel voted for quality as the most
important attribute for being satisfied with vendors

In a year which was abound by shocks more than surprises due to the global
economy slowdown, many well-established institutions started shutting down their
shops. Also not too many changes were visible in the expectations and
experiences of the Indian channel community, and this fraternity seemed to be
more or less satisfied with the efforts of the key vendors to ensure smooth
business.

This is evident from the fact that the companies which topped in the Channel
Satis­faction Survey this time were largely the same who were featured as
winners last year as well.

Channel Satisfaction Survey was started by DQ Channels six years ago, with
the objective of finding out who are the vendors that partners are most
comfor­table doing business with, based on their business practices and who do
they perceive are the leaders in various product categories. Satisfaction for a
vendor can be termed as the vendor's performance on a list of important
parameters, where both performance and impor­tance are perceived by the
partners.

At a time when vendors are trying their hardest to gather their partners
closer to them in a bid to weather the slowdown, it becomes very critical for
them to know just how satisfied are partners with their business policies and
practices, making this survey all the more crucial while planning their business
strategies.

Objective/Methodology

The other objective of the survey is to identify attributes that the channel
community reckons as the most important determi­nants of satisfaction. To
determine this, IDC India used the IT-Reseller Satisfaction Measurement Model to
under­stand the importance that respondents attach to each criterion used for
evaluation. These criteria were product quality, brand image, after sales
support, marketing support, commercial terms, relationship management and online
support.

A total of 700 channel partners were polled for the survey across 19 cities,
of which 33 percent each were from West and South, followed by 23 percent in the
North and the remainder were from the East. The respondent profile included
sub-distributors, retailers, corporate resellers, traditional dealers, solution
providers and value-added resellers.

When it came to identifying the leading vendors across different categories,
respondents were asked to name the vendor, who in their opinion is the best.
Further, the respondents were asked to substantiate their opinion by choosing
one strongest reason from a list of five generic reasons. Given the broad
spectrum of products and services covered under the survey, the choice of
reasons was kept generic deliberately so as not to make them product-specific.

ATTRIBUTES THAT MATTER

Quality Comes First

The sixth Channel Satisfaction Survey clearly indicates that the most
important criterion for a partner to be satisfied with his vendor is the
'Product Quality' of that brand, which is the same result that came forth in
last year's survey as well. This year, the key attributes that the partners
voted for in descending order of importance are Product Quality, Brand Image,
Relationship Management, After Sales Support, Marketing Support, Commercial
Terms and Online Support.

While last year's survey showed that emphasis on 'Brand Image' was higher as
compared to 'After Sales Support', this year partners were more inclined towards
better 'Relationship Management' vis-a-vis 'After Sales Support'. While 87.65
percent respondents termed Relationship Management as a critical area of their
satisfaction with vendors last year, this time around that figure has gone up to
92.93 percent, which shows that vendors who manage their relationships better
with their partners will have better buy in from them.

As the world goes digital, partners are also expecting better online support
from their principals and 86.69 percent voted that this can help them become
more comfortable doing business with vendors. Surprisingly, the satisfaction
that partners have with 'Commercial Terms' offered by vendors has taken a dip
with 87.68 percent mentioning that as a critical area while transacting business
with vendors this year, as compared 88.97 percent of the respondents polled last
year.

The micro attributes that the channel feel are important to their
satisfaction index with vendors, in descending order are technology leadership
of the product, brand loyalty, strong brand positioning by the vendor, diversity
of the product range present with the vendor, price vs performance ratio, user
friendliness of the product, and finally product pricing. So all you vendors out
there, trying to play the price game, pay attention to what the channel say.

Product Quality

The Product Quality of a vendor was chosen as the macro attribute for
gauging the partner's satisfaction level with vendor and its sub parameters were
diversity of the product range, the price performance ratio besides taking into
account the product's technology leadership and user friendliness.

The channel's satisfaction with the Product Quality offered by vendors
hovered at 85.3 percent in 2008, which was marginally higher than 84.4 percent
that was posted in the survey last year. Like the year before, this time too HP
India scored over competition largely because of the diversity of its product
range and its price performance ratio. D-Link India and Lenovo registered 88.08
and 87 percent, respectively, followed by Intel at 86.58 percent and HCL at
85.94 percent.

For all these vendors, their well spread product portfolio was the reason
partners posted their satisfaction, spread on a bandwidth of 37 percent to 39
percent of the overall satisfaction scores for product quality. The lowest
points were for their technology leadership, in the range of 10 percent to 11
percent for all these five vendors, as a sub-parameter for their product quality
total score.

After Sales Support

To understand the happiness with After Sales Support, partners rated vendors
based on the widespread presence of the vendor's service centers, turnaround
time and ability to offer repairs and replacements and the availability and
competence of account manager and helpdesk services. Besides this, a new
criterion was added in this year's survey, which was about the stock
availability for replacement at the vendor's service centers.

Needless to say, this is also one of the most critical areas which can make
or break a channel-vendor alliance. The average satisfaction level was at 62.6
percent, and surprisingly HP managed to top this to post 66.1 percent success
with the channel when it came to offering quality after sales support. Its
nearest competitor D-Link India stood at 64.5 percent followed by Samsung
Electronics at 64.1 percent, which was closely chased by Lenovo at 64 percent.

On an overall score, partners registered the lowest satisfaction for
turnaround time in after sales support, and availability and competence of
account managers and helpdesk services at eight percent, each.

Brand Image

Understanding the value that a brand carries means understanding the
respectability and favorable image that the vendor has in a specific target
market. Besides this, the other two micro attributes that comprise gauging Brand
Image in this survey, included the prestige the channel partner feels being
associated with that brand as well as the efforts the vendor undertakes to
position the brand strongly. This year, another attribute was added to get
better results-that of loyalty that the partner has for a particular brand.

Partners put a lot of onus on the prestige of being associated to a brand,
giving almost 41 percent to this attribute, followed by their brand loyalty,
which factored 25 percent to their perception of the brand image of a vendor.

Overall, partners were happy with the branding activities undertaken by
vendors and this reflected in their rating of 84.5 percent satisfaction levels.
Interestingly, the top five vendors in this macro attribute posted over the
average satisfaction percentages in this aspect.

Marketing Support

There are several components that make up a successful marketing support
initiative of any vendor. These include allocation of funds for marketing,
availability of point of sale material, vendor's spend on advertising as well as
innovative market development programs.

In recent times, however, partners also look at the vendor's flexibility in
organizing localized promotions as well as the manpower they have at their
disposal to ensure its success. These factors made up the micro attributes for
gauging the satisfaction partners had with the marketing support offered by
vendors.

And the survey results are indicative that vendors are not up to beat with
the expectations that partners have when it comes to drawing up marketing plans,
which reflects in the average satisfaction level of 54.7 percent. Once more, the
five vendors managed to rise above this average with HP India in the forefront
at 57.25 percent. Lenovo India and Intel India were close at 56.36 and 56.23
percent, followed by IBM and LG Electronics at 55.5 and 55 percent,
respectively.

Vendors Of Choice

Commercial Terms

Traditionally, while putting their finger on how vendors fare when it comes
to commercial terms, partners keep in mind the product pricing, profit margin
they can earn on it, transparency in commercial terms and policies defined by
the vendor as well as back-end incentives and its quick settlement.

This time around, DQ Channels also added other attributes like promptness
with which vendors communicate schemes and incentive programs to their partners.
For most partners, the pricing of the product was most important commercial
aspect under this macro attribute followed by transparency in communication of
the terms and policies.

On an average, most partners were 67 percent satisfied with the marketing
support they received from their principal companies. This is one category where
D-Link India surged ahead of competition to have an above industry satisfaction
level of 69.26 percent, followed by Lenovo India at 68.74 percent. HP India and
Intel India shared the same levels of 68.3 percent, while IBM India stood at
67.94 percent.

Relationship Management

It is clear that vendors need to really buck up on their relationship
management policies if they want to keep their partners better satisfied. This
attribute had the lowest satisfaction ranking average at 45.4 percent, which
shows that it has nosedived from the previous year's average of 70.7 percent.

Till last year, while deducing the relationship management driven by a
vendor, the survey took into account micro attributes like reward systems,
training and certification programs for partners, consistency and effectiveness
of communication with partners. This year, it also factored how well the vendor
is able to manage disruption in the relationship management due to change in its
personnel and whether it has dedicated people for managing channel alliances.
Another significant attribute added was consistency in honoring commitments made
by vendors' personnel to partners.

Samsung was ahead of competition in this aspect with partners registering
47.4 percent satisfaction with its relationship management, while HP India and
D-Link India found themselves at 47.34 and 47.26 percent respectively. Intel
India and IBM India stood at 46.69 percent and 46.17 percent, respectively.

Online Support

Last year, the channel voiced their satisfaction on the online support
offered by vendors going by the richness of online resources offered, overall
effectiveness of this mode of support, especially the turnaround time. This
year, they were also asked to rate vendors on the basis of presence of an online
partner portal and its effectiveness as well as presence or absence of an
interactive site for resolving queries.

A lot more partners were happier with the online initiatives of vendors a
year ago, posting satisfaction levels of 71.4 percent in 2007, as compared to an
average of 59.1 percent this year. This is strange, given that most vendors have
been trying to align their online support strategies to beat the challenges of
time and geography in reaching out to the channel. HP again managed to regain
its ground by posting 61.15 percent success with the channel in this aspect,
while Lenovo, Dell and Samsung found partners posting satisfaction rates of
60.77, 60.53 and 60.43 percent.

In this segment, partners gave very little onus on the richness of online
resources offered. What they wanted more from vendors was a more effective
online support system and the existence of a well balanced partner portal.

HP India seemed to have its fingers firmly on the pulse of the channel
community as determined by the results of the Channel Satisfaction Survey,
commissioned by DQ Channels and conducted by IDC India. Of the 16 product
categories, HP India was the top brand in six of them.

During the survey, respondents were asked to name a vendor, who in their
opinion is the best in each of the 16 product categories. Further, the
respondents were asked to substantiate their opinion by choosing one strongest
reason from a list of five generic reasons. Given the broad spectrum of products
and services covered under the survey, the choice of reasons was kept generic
deliberately so as not to make them product-specific.

Here's a look at who were the leaders in the different product categories.

Desktops

A desktop was defined as a personal computer in a form intended for regular
use at a single location, as opposed to a mobile laptop or portable computer.
Desktop computers come in a variety of styles ranging from large vertical tower
cases to small form factor models that can be tucked behind an LCD monitor.

This year too, HP was the winner in this category, followed by Lenovo at
second spot. Of the 455 respondents who voted for the best vendors in desktops,
323 voted in favor of HP. It garnered 60 percent of these votes for its product
quality, 47 percent for its brand image and 26 percent for its after sales
service.

34 respondents voted for Lenovo, while 30 voted for Dell. Amongst these
respondents, Lenovo bagged 43 percent votes for its product quality, 23 percent
for its brand image and 15 percent for its after sales service. Dell's product
quality got it the highest votes amongst partners who voted for it, at 41
percent, followed by its brand image at 39 percent.

Notebooks

In this category too, HP India was in the lead, while Dell India managed to
edge its way into the second position, ousting Lenovo, which occupied this spot
the last year. Of the 480 respondents in this category, 305 respondents voted
for HP and gave it 64 percent satisfaction marks for its product quality,
followed by 39 percent for its after sales support and another 37 percent for
its brand image.

Dell got 71 respondents opting for it, of which 41 percent were for its
product quality, 25 percent for its brand image and another 11 percent for its
after sales service. Lenovo's product quality found 63 percent satisfaction of
its 47 voters, followed by 24 percent for its after sales service and 22 percent
for its brand image.

X86 Servers

HP
India managed to gain on last year's winner-IBM India, to become the leader in
the x86 server product category. 288 partners gave their feedback on who was the
best vendor in this category of which 161 voted for HP, with the majority voting
for its product quality registering a satisfaction of 58 percent, brand image at
41 percent and after sales service at 33 percent.

IBM moved to second position this year, getting 104 responses, with 38
percent partners registering their satisfaction for its product quality, 22
percent for its brand image and 19 percent for its after sales support.

Inkjet Printers

The
order of the winners remained unchanged in this product category. Like last
year, HP India was at the fore front followed by Canon India and Epson India.
492 partners chose the leading vendors for inkjet printers, of which 451 went
for HP and 26 for Canon.

All three brands had good satisfaction scores when it came to product quality
with HP scoring 40 percent, while Canon and Epson scored 38 percent each. But
their after sales support needed to be spruced. Instead in this category, the
one attribute that was important was 'Most demanded product' where HP, Canon and
Epson scored 16, 23 and 20 percent, respectively.

Laser Printers

No
surprises in this category as well. Like the year before, HP India again emerged
as the leader, while Canon came second. Of the 474 partners polled, 408 opted
for HP, with them showing 43 percent satisfaction with its product quality, 31
percent for its brand image, 17 percent for its after sales support and 16
percent for its being a much demanded product. Canon got 37 votes, and these
respondents posted 37 percent satisfaction levels for its product quality, 19
percent for its brand image and value for money, each.

Monitors

Samsung continued to hold its own in this category as the leader and LG held
on to its second position as well. 358 partners gave their feedback in this
product category of which 177 voted for Samsung and 148 for LG. Samsung got the
maximum satisfaction votes for its product quality and brand image at 45 and 40
percent, respectively.

Motherboards

Intel
continued its stronghold in this product category this year as well, followed by
Asus, just like last year. 381 partners responded to chose the leading vendors
in this category with a whopping 323 opting for Intel.

Majority of them were satisfied the brand's product quality giving 42 percent
satisfaction scores, 19 percent for its brand image, 16 percent for its end
customer demand. But Asus posted a higher after sales satisfaction quotient of
22 percent, comparatively, though it scored lower than Intel in product quality
at 24 percent and brand image at 15 percent.

Processors

In
this battle of two, Intel again won first place with 378 of 391 respondents
voting for it, while AMD came second place. Intel's product quality kept 46
percent partners satisfied, while 25 percent were happy with its brand image and
15 percent were happy with its after sales support. Another 14 percent were
satisfied with it being a product demanded by end customers.

While 40 percent partners were satisfied with AMD's product quality and 15
percent were happy for its brand image and value for money, only seven percent
were satisfied about it being a most demanded product.

Hard Disk Drives

Seagate
retained its position as the leader in the hard disk drive category, followed by
Samsung-the same as last year. 329 partners responded for this category's
survey, of which 261 opted for Seagate, which found its partners happy about its
product quality (31 percent) and its demand amongst customers (19 percent).
Samsung's partners were more satisfied with its brand image and posted 21
percent satisfaction figures as well as its after sales support (27 percent).

Tape Drives

In
the secondary storage category, HP stayed on top again, while Sony was a close
second. 89 of the 147 partners polled voted in HP's favor, giving it very high
marks for its product quality (76 percent) and brand image (44 percent), placing
it above Sony whose scores in this aspects were 29 and five percent. Sony also
needs to work on its after sales strategies to get better satisfaction scores
from partners.

Wired Networking

While D-Link India continued to govern this space, Cisco managed to reclaim
its position by ousting Netgear from the number two position this year. Of the
404 partners responding to questions about this category, 295 opted for D-Link,
which reflected 51 percent satisfaction for its product quality, 23 percent for
its brand image, 19 percent for its after sales and 13 percent for being in
demand. Though its satisfaction scores were lower than D-Link in these aspects,
Cisco scored higher (19 percent) for offering value for money to partners.

Wireless Networking

D-Link India held its own in this category as well, though Netgear lost its
second position to Cisco this year. Of the 392 respondents for this category,
288 opted for D-Link, which scored satis­faction levels of 46 percent for its
product quality, 23 percent for its brand image, 16 percent for its after sales
support and 12 percent for its demand amongst customers. Cisco scored 47 percent
for its product quality, 23 percent for being the most demanded product and 19
percent for its brand image.

Structured Cabling

D-Link
India was the winner in this category this year, while Tyco Electronics moved to
second place from its erstwhile top spot. D-Link got the channel's fancy for its
product quality (50 percent), brand image (16 percent), and demand amongst
customers (12 percent), while the same scores for Tyco were 48, 7 and 22
percent. 214 partners responded to this category, of which 187 voted for D-Link.

UPS

This is one category where the winners were the same as last year. APC India
held the top slot, followed by Microtek as a distant second. 293 partners
responded in this category of which an overwhelming 217 opted for APC. Of this,
42 percent were satisfied with its product quality, 17 percent with its brand
image, 14 percent with its demand amongst customers and 13 percent for its after
sales support. In the case of Microtek, respondents were 38 percent satisfied
with its product quality, 19 percent happy with its after sales support and gave
16 percent satisfaction votes for its brand image and demand amongst customers.

Security Software

Quick Heal, which was at number two last year in this category, stole a
march over Symantec to emerge the leader in this category. 277 partners
responded on this category of which 96 voted for Quick Heal, with their
satisfaction levels being 30 percent for the product's demand amongst end
customers, 21 percent for its after sales support and 29 percent for its product
quality.

73 partners opted for Kaspersky, which got 34 percent satisfaction from partners
for its product quality, 22 percent for its demand amongst customers and 21
percent for its value for money proposition.

Enterprise Application Software

While Microsoft still retained its first slot in this category, Oracle had
to step down and make way for IBM in the second position. The enterprise
application software category encompassed applications around enterprise
resource management, customer relationship management, supply chain management,
relational database management system and business intelli­gence. While
Microsoft scored 52 percent satisfaction levels from 31 respondents for its
product quality, IBM scored a whopping 100 percent in the same attribute.

Vinita Bhatia

vinitavs@cybermedia.co.in