The wait is over. The results of the much-awaited DQ Channels Satisfaction Survey are finally out. The surprises were unlimited with people who made it last time, slipping from their ranks this year. IBM was the Channel Champion this year, while HP slipped to second position winning the Silver award. It was house of glory for IBM who walked away with Gold award in almost all categories. IBM dominated the whole channel satisfaction survey, while the other awardees were HP, Seagate and HCL.

The results were completely different from those announced last year. IBM, which did not find any place last year (while Lenovo was there), won awards in almost all the categories this time. Lenovo, Cisco and APC were completely washed out in the award categories. HP managed
to gain four Silver medals, while HCL bagged three. But, HCL was the only company to displace IBM in one of the categories-Best Relationship Management. Seagate won a Silver medal under Best Product Quality.

HP was runner-up in three places (excluding the channel champion category), Best Brand Image, Best Marketing Support and Best Online Support. HCL stood in Best After-Sales Support and Best Commercial Terms. IBM won Gold everywhere, except for Best Relationship Management where it bagged the Silver award.

The Survey
Commissioned in 2001, DQ Channels-IDC Channel Satisfaction Survey has entered its seventh year. The main objective of carrying out the survey is to find which vendor is the favorite among channels and for what reasons. The survey has both macro and micro objectives. Macro objectives include-to identify the top technology vendors that channel partners are most satisfied with and to find out the channels choice for best brands in the market, across various product categories covering hardware, software and services. The micro objectives are-to identify attributes that the channel community reckons as the most important factor for satisfaction and to determine the channel satisfaction across key criteria with concerning vendor. The survey results would definitely help vendors to know where they stand in the market and focus on the pain areas to improve their service and position in the market. IDC conducts this survey, supported by a thorough scientific approach, for the accuracy of results and final outcome. IDC brings to the fore its strength and expertise in the survey, with meticulous planning of the whole exercise.

Channels Satisfaction Measurement
IDC used the IT-Reseller Satisfaction Measurement Model to arrive at the deliverables proposed. The model lends more accuracy to the results of satisfaction measurement by factoring in the importance that respondents attach to each criterion used for evaluation. Since most channel surveys require maintaining brand quotas in order to ensure thorough coverage of the population, there could be possibilities of bias in sampling.

Channel Choice Awards for Different Product Categories
For each product within a category, 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 strong reason from a list of five 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.

Sampling and Cities Covered
The survey was carried out in 18 key cities across the country, with a given sample size. This year, the survey base was increased to 861 from last years 807. Raipur, Guwahati and Nagpur are the new cities added into the list, while Goa, Jammu and Ludhiana were removed. Sample size for each city almost remained the same like last year. The total sample had a right mix of distributors, retailers, corporate resellers, system integrators/value-added resellers and traditional resellers in it.

Channel Satisfaction Survey was done for a wide range of products covering various leading brands in the market. Though, many popular brands figured in the list, only the top 13 brands were considered for further evaluation, based on the points they scored. The 13 brands include IBM, HP, HCL, Lenovo, Seagate, LG, Samsung, D-Link, Acer, TVS-E, Epson, Intel and Canon.

The overall satisfaction  level (industry average) stood at 76 percent, on a sample base of 860 respondents. Only four companies out of the 13 considered for evaluation under various attributes scored above the industry average of 76 percent. IBM, HP, HCL and Lenovo individual scores stood at 80.4 percent, 78.3 percent,  77.7 percent and 76.6 percent respectively.

Similarly, in the individual attributes such as product quality, after-sales support, brand image, marketing support, commercial terms, relationship management and online support, only four to seven companies scored higher than the industry average, in their respective sections.

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