Everything Channel Honors Leading Vendors at the Annual CRN Channel Champions Awards Ceremony

Study is Premier Resource to Evaluate Channel Vendors, Products and Services

PRNewswire
NEW ORLEANS
Mar 11, 2009

Last night at an awards ceremony during the XChange Solution Provider conference, Everything Channel honored the CRN Channel Champions award winners. The CRN Channel Champions study measures overall Solution Provider perceptions of vendor products and services. The result is a premier resource used by VARs and technology integrators throughout the industry to evaluate vendors and their programs.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20090311/NY81415LOGO )

The CRN Channel Champions survey is the largest and broadest-based technology integrator market study in the industry. CRN received more than 100 vendor ratings across 24 product and service categories. The survey was conducted between January 2009 and February 2009.

Solution Providers were chosen at random from CRN's subscriber list and were pre-qualified to ensure that they worked in the category, were familiar with the products and had a significant relationship with the vendor(s) being rated. Many respondents were qualified to rate more than one vendor. CRN specified that VARs and technology integrators rate only those vendors with whom they had either a strategic partner type of business relationship, when possible.

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

VARs and technology integrators 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 2009 CRN Channel Champions winners are as follows:



                         Technical      Support     Financial
                        Satisfaction  Satisfaction  Factors      Overall
                          Channel       Channel     Channel      Channel
  Categories              Champion      Champion    Champion     Champion
  ----------            ------------  ------------  ---------    --------
  Client Security
   Software (Firewall,
   Anti-Spam, Anti-
   Virus)               Symantec      Symantec      Symantec     Symantec
  Collaboration
   Software             IBM/Lotus     IBM/Lotus     Microsoft    IBM/Lotus
  Data & Information
   Management           IBM           Microsoft     Microsoft    Microsoft
  Enterprise
   Networking HW
   (includes wireless)  Cisco         Cisco         HP ProCurve  Cisco
  SMB External          Western                     Western      Western
   Storage               Digital      Hitachi GST    Digital      Digital
  Flat Panel Displays                 Tie: Samsung/
   19"-30"              Samsung        Viewsonic    Samsung      Samsung
  High Capacity Hard                                Western
   Drives (300GB+)      Seagate       Seagate        Digital     Seagate
  Middleware            IBM           Microsoft     Microsoft    Microsoft
  Midrange Servers
   (more than $25,000   Tie:
   in price)            HP/IBM        IBM           Dell         IBM
  Multifunction
   Printers             HP            Xerox         Lexmark      HP
  Network Security
   Appliances           Juniper       Juniper       Juniper      Juniper
  Network Security
   Software             Checkpoint    IBM           Checkpoint   Checkpoint
  Network Storage
   (Enterprise/Midrange
   SAN or NAS)          HP            HP            NetApp       HP
  Notebooks/Mobile
   Computers            Lenovo        Panasonic     Acer         Lenovo
  SMB (Small and
   Midsize) Wireless
   LANs                 Cisco         Cisco         SonicWALL    Cisco
  SMB (Small and
   Midsize) Business
   Software Suites      Oracle        Oracle        Oracle       Oracle
  SMB (Small and
   Midsize) Networking
   Hardware (excluding
   wireless LANs and
   Voice)               Cisco         Cisco         HP ProCurve  HP ProCurve
  SMB Volume Servers
   (less than $25,000
   in price)            HP            HP            HP           HP
  Storage Management
   Software/Data                                    Symantec/
   Protection Software  HP            IBM/Tivoli     Veritas     HP
  Systems and Network
   Management Software  IBM/Tivoli    Microsoft     Microsoft    HP
  Power Protection and
   Management           APC           Liebert       APC          APC
  Unified
   Communications/
   Voice-over-IP
   Technology           Cisco         Cisco         Cisco        Cisco
  Workgroup Color
   Printers             Xerox         Xerox         Xerox        Xerox
  Server/Application
   Virtualization       VMware        VMware        VMware       VMware

"The Channel Champions survey is an essential resource for the Channel community. Each year we survey Solution Providers to learn their satisfaction with the vendors they work closely with to deliver solutions to their customers. We commend these leading vendors -- they represent the 'best of the best'," said Robert C. DeMarzo, SVP/Editorial Director, Everything Channel.

The CRN Channel Champions awards are generously supported by Cisco and Toshiba.

For additional information on Channel Champions, visit www.channelweb.com. Channel Champions award winners and related study will be published in the April 27, 2009 print issue of CRN Magazine, which for 26 years has been the technology channel's paper of record, and the source for channel analysis and technology insight.

Everything Channel (www.everythingchannel.com, www.channelweb.com)

Everything Channel is the one-stop shop for accessing, enabling, managing and accelerating technology sales channels. From branding and recruiting to marketing and sales, Everything Channel offers technology marketers the unmatched breadth and depth of global brands and market intelligence combined with unparalleled audience loyalty and credibility serving all technology sales channels through an extensive database. Everything Channel provides innovative sales and marketing solutions to arm the sellers of technology with the resources they need to achieve measurable and significant results.

About United Business Media Limited (www.unitedbusinessmedia.com)

United Business Media Limited (UBM) is a global media and marketing services company that informs markets and brings the world's buyers and sellers together at events, online, in print, and with the information they need to do business successfully. UBM serves professional and commercial communities, from IT professionals to doctors, from journalists to jewelry dealers, from farmers to pharmacists around the world. UBM employs more than 6,500 people in more than 30 countries. UBM's businesses operating in the US include CMPMedica, Commonwealth Business Media, Everything Channel, PR Newswire, RISI, TechInsights, TechWeb and Think Services. UBM is listed on the London Stock Exchange (UBM.L) and has a market capitalization of $1.6 billion.

  Contact
  Maureen Park
  Everything Channel
  mpark@everythingchannel.com
  516.562.5942

First Call Analyst:
FCMN Contact: franzman@beyondwords.com

Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20090311/NY81415LOGO
PRN Photo Desk, photodesk@prnewswire.com

SOURCE: Everything Channel

CONTACT: Maureen Park of Everything Channel,
mpark@everythingchannel.com, +1-516-562-5942

Web Site: http://www.everythingchannel.com/