HP comes top in reseller support table
Number one in three categories of analyst research
Dell remains a lurking threat to the channel in the small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) space, 3Com is the best SME networking vendor and Hewlett Packard (HP) is the top supporter of resellers' business, according to the latest research from Canalys.
The survey aimed to identify which vendors had supported value-add resellers' (VARs) businesses best over the past year, and focused on 146 resellers in various categories.
In the networking channel, 3Com beat Cisco by one point with 38 per cent of the vote, followed in turn by HP, Netgear and Avaya. 3Com was also named as having a good SME programme.
Denny Meijer, technical director at Cisco reseller Scalable Networks, said Cisco is facing increasingly tough competition. "We're finding a lot of competition on Cisco sales from catalogue firms," he said.
"Margins are falling on network hardware and people are beginning to accept volume selling. Smaller vendors spend less on direct marketing, which means more margin for the channel."
It was HP, however, that clinched the overall top spot for reseller support, coming top in three categories: desktop/notebook, printers and storage. A comparison with earlier surveys by Canalys showed increasing acceptance of the company's merger with Compaq.
It wasn't all good news for the vendor, though, as 13 per cent of respondents said they feared its new terms and conditions would result in widespread channel bankruptcies.
"HP's showing reflects the fact that HP and Compaq both had large channels. Just about every reseller has bought from one, the other or both," said Rachel Power, analyst at Canalys.
Mark Davenport, sales director at HP reseller Starwand, said he had noticed HP's levels of service improve, but that there were still problems.
"We sell everything that HP produces across seven departments, and that has meant dealing with seven people who don't necessarily want to talk to each other. Our experience is that it can be quite a disjointed organisation," said Davenport.
"We have just been given an account manager who covers everything at HP. Now we deal with one person and he has been excellent."
Direct vendor Dell also did well, with its SME marketing rated above all others apart from HP. 3Com came third, a long way above any of its networking rivals. The survey did point out, however, that Dell has started to move towards cheap networking products.
"Dell's success in the networking market depends entirely on how much effort it puts into it," said Power. "It's diversifying into non-core businesses at the moment."
Davenport admitted that Dell's marketing to end users through mainstream media was impressive, but said HP's move in that direction was a concern.
"With adverts in newspapers, HP is pushing a margin expectation to customers," he said. "HP is selling at about eight points of margin and the customers expect us to do the same."