HP registers comfortable victory
 Commercial PCs consist of desktops and notebooks positioned by vendors for the SMB and enterprise segment. HP outscored peers by a fair margin followed by Lenovo, Dell and Acer in the rankings.
HP’s overall channel engagement—and the fact that it is the only vendor to offer a complete range of products including servers, storage, networking, clients, printers—helped the company build a stronger case with the customers, opined respondents.
HP’s several new vertical-focused initiatives during 2008 have been well appreciated by respondents as it helped them create new markets and develop new customers.
Lenovo continues to do well on the IBM legacy, however what went against the vendor is the lack of a wider portfolio to create a stronger tie-in with customers seeking complete solutions. Many Lenovo partners said that often projects they win are IBM-led where Lenovo PCs are sold as a part of the IBM solution. Lenovo’s recent entry into the server market hasn’t impressed most respondents.
Dell launched its tier-2 partner program in the first half of 2008 and in a short period of time has managed to ramp up channel operations. A large number of respondents who voted for Dell, however said that the vendor’s present channel policies and programs aren’t good enough to consider long-term partnership. Respondents selling Vostro range even shared, that for small customer requirements, buying online is cheaper than buying from the distributor.
Acer continues to do well in the government, education and all price-sensitive customer segments where the requirement is a box. Lack of a wider portfolio required for solution selling is a severe handicap for the vendor.
Price-performance
HP was rated to have the best price-performance followed by Lenovo, Dell and Acer. HP and Lenovo both enjoy higher price-performance perception compared to Dell and Acer, as respondents said that both are perceived to have better product and manageability features than their peers.
Marketing & branding
HP continues to enjoy a brand pull that is the envy of its competitors. The company was rated to have a strong lead generation and MDF systems. The company’s special marketing initiatives for verticals were appreciated by its partners.
While Lenovo is not as aggressive as HP in marketing and advertising, it provides MDF to partners for market and business development.
Resellers polled said that while Dell enjoys a good customer pull it lacks channel marketing and lead generation. It doesn’t provide MDFs either.
Service & support
Dell scored better than HP primarily because of the severe spares shortage and the ensuing warranty lapses by HP during the last four months. However prior to spares shortage, respondents said HP’s warranty support was at par with Dell and much better than Lenovo and Acer.
Dell’s onsite warranty has been appreciated and respondents said that it has helped raise the quality of post-sales support.
In the second half of the year, both Lenovo and Acer took steps to improve their warranty support infrastructure.
Channel relationship
HP, which suffered from channel conflict in 2007 due to lack of transparency and fairness in customer accounts management and deal registration, did well in 2008 to top in this criterion. Its channel engagement strategies including account management policies, quality and friendliness of its channel team, lead generation system, and vertical-focused market development improved considerably helping the vendor gain back the confidence of channels.
Lenovo was ranked second followed by Acer and Dell. Its biggest constraint is that it lacks a comprehensive enterprise portfolio and its partners have to rely on IBM for servers, storage and software.
Many government and education VARs partnered with Acer because the vendor was seen to be the most accommodating in offering the lowest prices. This resulted in substantial wins for Acer. Respondents said that although the vendor has a good server portfolio it is not leveraging it.
Though Dell’s core sales model is still direct, there are apprehensions about its commitment. Respondents polled felt that the vendor needs to show commitment and consistency, before it can be trusted for a long-term association. The company came up with named-accounts and deal registration framework in the second half of the year, however that has not worked effectively.
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