Solution Providers Identify Leading Vendors for Public-Sector Business in 1st Annual GovernmentVAR Satisfaction Study

Solution-provider readers of GovernmentVAR, a supplement of CMP Media's VARBusiness magazine, have identified hardware and software vendors that provide the highest levels of satisfaction as they seek IT business opportunities in the public sector markets of federal, state, local and education. Results of the premiere Vendor Satisfaction Survey are published today in the Oct. 31 issue and on the Web at www.governmentvarmag.com.

The GovernmentVAR survey targeted five main categories important to any vendor program: profit potential, pricing strategies, sales or marketing support, technical support and ease of doing business. IBM Software was lauded by respondents for satisfaction in four of the five areas.

  By category, the oft-named vendors are:

   Sales or Marketing Support
    IBM Software
    McAfee
    Cisco Systems
   Technical Support
    Cisco Systems
    IBM Software
    Symantec

  Pricing Strategies
    ViewSonic
    Oracle
    Symantec
  Ease of Doing Business
    ViewSonic
    Dell
    IBM Software
  Profit Potential
    ViewSonic
    IBM Software
    McAfee

"While different government-market solution providers and integrators use different criteria in evaluating vendor-partner programs, they all want across-the-board standards," says Lawrence M. Walsh, editor of VARBusiness and GovernmentVAR. "Our Vendor Satisfaction survey will be conducted on an annual basis to provide an ongoing benchmark of how vendors are working to meet partners' needs."

Methodology

To rate satisfaction among government-focused IT providers with their vendor-partner programs, GovernmentVAR conducted a Web-based survey which was developed by the editorial and research staff and conducted during the summer of 2005. Answers Research, a Solana Beach, Calif.-based business-intelligence and market-research firm participated in data-processing and analysis. A total of 275 randomly selected GovernmentVAR subscribers participated, including IT managers who sell or recommend government IT solutions.

About GovernmentVAR

GovernmentVAR -- a focused editorial initiative of CMP Media's VARBusiness, the biweekly magazine that covers the business of technology integration -- informs, educates and enlightens solution providers and integrators about IT product and service opportunities in the federal, state, local and education branches of the government sector. GovernmentVAR is published 10 times yearly (increasing to 12 issues in 2006) for the more than 64,000 VARBusiness subscribers who sell into vertical government markets.

About CMP Media

CMP Media (www.cmp.com) is the leading integrated media solutions company providing "broad and deep" access to the entire technology spectrum -- the builders, sellers and buyers of technology worldwide. The company's comprehensive database of technology decision makers enables marketers to reach targeted audiences throughout the purchase process with publications, web offerings, face-to-face events, consulting and other marketing services that deliver actionable results.

   Contact:  Jeanne Fico
             CMP Media Channel Group
             (516) 562-7766

             Jason Chupick
             Plesser Holland Associates
             (212) 420-8383, ext. 108

SOURCE: CMP Media LLC

CONTACT: Jeanne Fico, CMP Media Channel Group, +1-516-562-7766; Jason
Chupick, Plesser Holland Associates, +1-212-420-8383, ext. 108

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

Company News On-Call: http://www.prnewswire.com/comp/141733.html