Make The Channel Great Again
By Christine Kern, contributing writer
Business Solutions’ Best Channel Vendors survey is now open — let your voice be heard.
Business Solutions Magazine's annual Best Channel Vendors survey is now open. The survey — which closes October 17 — is designed to provide insights into the vendor space and we’ll be publishing the results in our January 2017 issue.
The survey asks you to rate vendor partners on a scale of zero (worst) to five (best) in seven categories, and provides a list of guiding questions to ensure consistency in how VARs interpret each category. Categories include Service/Support; Channel Friendly; Channel Program; Product Features; Product Reliability; Product Innovation; and Adequate VAR Margins. Besides the numerical rankings, participants have the opportunity to name their best and worst vendors as well as share details or anecdotes about them.
You can check out last year's results and methodology, which found in part the business continuity/backup and disaster recovery (BDR) category remains one of the largest and most competitive fields. Four of 69 vendors scored well enough to be named Best Channel Vendors, with three being repeat winners. Scores in the BDR category were consistently higher than those in most other categories, demonstrating BDR vendors were making great strides striving for excellence.
The 2016 results saw only two Labeling vendors rate high enough to be called Best Channel Vendors, both repeat winners with consistent year-over-year scoring. In General Computing and Networking, HP, Intel, Lenovo, Citrix, and IBM led the pack. Meanwhile, six vendors made the cut in the Network Security & POS Hardware category last year, a mix of repeat and new winners, while there were three winners in the POS software category. Rounding out last year’s categories, two vendors were named Best Channel Vendors in PSA & RMM, while RapidFire Tools and QuoteWerks made the cut in our newest category, Managed Services Tools which is designed to cover vendors and products that did not fit into the other category.
For the ninth consecutive year, we’ll rely on guidance provided by Penn State University to ensure the survey’s statistical accuracy. From the beginning, Penn State supported our choice of a Web-based survey as opposed to a phone-solicitation survey to record significant data from our most active resellers. The technology categories were then determined by the Business Solutions Magazine’s editorial staff.
To participate in this year’s survey, and be entered into a drawing for one of three $100 Visa gift cards, please click here.