CRN Honors the Top Vendors at The Twelfth Annual Channel Champions Awards

CMP Media's CRN, the newsweekly for builders of technology, today announced the twelfth annual Channel Champions winners, who will be honored at an awards ceremony tonight during the CMP XChange Solution Provider conference.

The Channel Champions survey is the industry's largest and broadest-based Solution Provider market study. The 2003 survey was the most competitive and comprehensive ever conducted. Between November 2002 and January 2003, nearly 2,350 Solution Providers rated 103 vendors in 20 different product categories, providing a total of 9,400 individual vendor ratings.

The Solution Providers were chosen at random from CRN's subscriber list and pre-qualified to ensure they actually worked in the category, were familiar with the products, and had a significant business relationship with the vendor(s) being rated. CRN specified that Solution Providers rate only those vendors with whom they had either a strategic or a major partner type of business relationship when possible. The relationships were categorized in three ways: key strategic partner, major partner or minor partner.

Vendors rated in each category were chosen on the basis of market share data provided by major research firms. When market share data was not available, vendors were chosen by CRN senior editorial staff recommendations.

Solution Providers were asked to rate the relative importance of the individual evaluation criteria. To derive the overall score for each vendor, the raw satisfaction scores were weighted according to the relative importance of the evaluation criteria.

The Channel Champions study was designed to measure overall Solution Provider perceptions of vendor products and services. The result is a premier resource used by solution providers throughout the industry to evaluate vendors and their programs.

CRN revised the channel evaluation criteria this year to provide more detail about those aspects of vendor programs most critical to Solution providers. Several new categories were added, including VPNs, portals, storage management software and IP telephony. The survey rated vendors in 20 key product and service categories.

  The 2003 Channel Champions winners:

   Software:
     * Portals -- IBM
     * Server Software Infrastructure -- Sun Microsystems
     * Application Integration Tools -- IBM
     * Databases -- Oracle
     * Storage Management Software -- IBM

   Security
     * Anti-virus Software -- Symantec
     * VPNs -- Cisco
     * Firewalls -- Symantec
     * Intrusion Detection -- Cisco, Symantec (tie)

   Networking
     * Networking Hardware -- Cisco
     * Network Management Software -- Hewlett Packard/Compaq
     * IP Telephony -- Cisco
     * Data Services - AT&T
     * Wireless LANs -- Cisco

   Hardware
     * Notebooks -- IBM
     * UPS -- American Power Conversion
     * Flat Panel Displays -- NEC
     * Network Color Laser Printers -- Hewlett Packard
     * Network Storage -- Dell
     * Servers -- IBM

"Congratulations to all 2003 Channel Champions who represent the leading companies, products, and services that Solution Providers will recommend to their customers," said Lisa MacKenzie, publisher, CRN. "With more than 20 years of success behind us, CRN continues to be the most trusted source for the Solution Provider marketplace. We are pleased that through the Channel Champions awards program, we can provide our readers with the information they need to make smart technology purchasing decisions."

"The methodology for the Channel Champions survey was revised to focus on the best practices of large and small Solution Providers," said Michael Vizard, editor in chief of CRN. "This year's results give both vendors and Solution Providers more understanding about what makes a vendor a friend to the channel and more importantly, a valued business partner."

The twelfth annual Channel Champions awards were generously supported by: AT&T, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, Oracle, Sun Microsystems and Symantec.

About CRN

CRN is the nation's leading trade newsweekly that provides timely industry news and analysis for solution providers, integrators and e-businesses building technology solutions. It is the most trusted source of news for 117,500 channel professionals. A media leader in the high-tech industry, CRN provides the most comprehensive suite of online resources: http://www.crn.com/, the site where industry news breaks first; CRN Direct, a daily newsletter that brings personalized news to solution providers' desktops; and CRN Broadcast News, a daily news broadcast covering the solution provider channel and the industry.

About CMP Media LLC

CMP Media LLC (http://www.cmp.com/) is a leading integrated media company providing essential information and marketing services to the entire technology spectrum -- the builders, sellers and users of technology worldwide. Capitalizing on its editorial strength, CMP is uniquely positioned to offer marketers comprehensive, integrated media solutions tailored to meet their individual needs. Its diverse products and services include newspapers, magazines, Internet products, research, direct marketing services, education and training, trade shows and conferences, and custom publishing.

   Contact:
   Ramona Castaldo
   CRN
   516.562.7219
   rcastald@cmp.com

SOURCE: CMP Media LLC; CRN

CONTACT: Ramona Castaldo of CRN, +1-516-562-7219, rcastald@cmp.com

Web site: http://www.cmp.com/
http://www.crn.com/

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