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In the second of a series of reports leading up to the Channel Awards 2004, CRN takes a look at last year's winners in the vendor categories

In 2003 the Channel Awards vendor categories were dominated by Hewlett-Packard (HP), but with a new set of categories and a different decision-making process in place, this year will be a much more open race.

Last year, HP won the Corporate and SME Vendor of the Year categories and scooped the Vendor of the Year award. The Specialist Vendor of the Year was Kingston Technology.

Andy Vickers, UK and Ireland director at HP's solutions partner organisation, said it was fantastic to win three out of the four accolades available.

"We were very pleased. You can never take these things for granted and I was quite surprised. You always think you'll win something potentially, because we have a lot of channel partners. But to win all three was excellent," he said.

Winning these awards was, Vickers claimed, a reflection on all the hard work and focus that HP had put into the channel during the year - one in which the HP and Compaq organisations had still been merging.

"There were lots of internal things going on, but for us the channel was the key focus. It reinforced the fact that the strategy we had with PartnerOne was right," he added.

Vickers thinks that winning the awards helped to cement HP's credibility across the whole partner community and the industry as a whole. "They are prestigious awards and are recognised by the whole channel. It proved we were moving in the right direction," he said.

However, Vickers believes it will be harder to win at the Channel Awards this year because of the new categories and the voting process.

"The one we want to go for is the Outstanding Achievement Award. If you look at the others, they are very specific and we have a very broad product portfolio, so in each one we'd be up against some niche, specialist players," he said.

HP will probably look to compete for the Storage award, but the main Vendor of the Year award is its key objective. But there are a lot of strong competitors who will all want to beat HP.

"We have never been complacent about any of this stuff," Vickers added. "The key thing is that we've kept the focus on what we've wanted to do. We haven't changed any of the strategies we've got for two years; we think they are the right ones and we'll continue with them.

"Obviously, winning an award would be great."

If HP wins this year it will be down to the relationships it is building with the channel, he concluded.

"It's not been easy for the channel in general selling anything this year. It has been a tough market, and continues to be tough. From HP's perspective the key has been to try to do the right things for the partners all year," Vickers said.

"We want to try to drive business and build a platform to make sustainable and profitable business for both HP and the channel. That's the message we've been trying to get across. Both have to make money, otherwise it just doesn't work."

For Kingston Technology, it was a great accolade to win last year, said Ann Keefe, UK and Ireland sales director. Kingston's popularity was down to the hard work it put into building good channel relationships, she added.

"Kingston believes in long-term partnerships, and this is the channel's way of telling us it agrees. We have excellent long-standing relationships, so people know who they are dealing with and who to go to if they need help," Keefe said.

"Many of our channel contacts have become good friends over the years and this helps us on a day-to-day basis. I think it contributed to us winning last year."

It certainly did Kingston's business no harm. Last year UK sales grew by 32 per cent and it predicts more than 50 per cent growth for 2004.

Keefe hopes this means that Kingston will be in contention for an award once again.

Kingston is still working on its channel relationships and, aside from taking a lot of partners to Euro 2004, has been running a series of incentives and price promotions.

It is launching a digital media campaign aimed at the consumer market to drive sales of USB Flash products. Kingston has claimed it is seeing strong growth in this area.

VENDOR CATEGORIES 2004

Awarded to the vendors that have done the most to help resellers develop profitable business during the past year.

Voice and Data Vendor Partner of the Year.

Services Vendor Partner of the Year.

Security Vendor Partner of the Year.

Storage Vendor Partner of the Year.

Audiovisual Vendor Partner of the Year.

Vendor of the Year - Outstanding Achievement Award.

Entries for the product-specific awards must be submitted by 31 July, and a team of independent judges will decide who will go on to the short list and who will be the eventual winners. For details go to www.crn.vnunet.com and click on the Channel Awards button.

Voting for Outstanding Achievement awards begins on 1 September. These awards are not open to entry. Readers of CRN will vote for the winners.

Details of how to cast your vote will appear on the Awards web site from September.