Reputation is everything

A whopping 64 per cent of IT manager respondents to a recent CRN survey said peer recommendations are an influence when choosing IT suppliers

It may sound obvious, but 51 per cent of IT managers questioned said picking the right supplier was "very important" to their business.

Over the late summer period, CRN questioned more than 350 end users from public sector and private firms of all sizes, along with over 100 financial directors from a similar mix of firms to find out how they viewed the channel and how they procured their IT.

Crucially, 64 per cent of those questioned by CRN said peer recommendations had a “heavy influence” when choosing those suppliers, meaning reputation is everything.

But worryingly, 20 per cent of the IT managers questioned by CRN for the IT Buyers Guide said they had had a bad experience with the channel and were reluctant to engage with third-party suppliers.

The reasons given for the bad experience included pushy salespeople, poor communication, not adhering to deadlines and poor value for money. In more positive news, 47 per cent of firms questioned outsourced between 25 and 50 per cent of their IT functionality to a third-party supplier, demonstrating that business was out there for the taking.

The findings of CRN’ s research are not just from box-ticking exercises. We asked for full and frank feedback on both the successes and failures of the channel from an end-user viewpoint – both at an IT manager level and also a financial director level.

The responses are bluntly honest and show the need for serious rethinking of strategies in some channel corners. It is also the first report that asks resellers for their take on the buying process and how they think they are perceived by their customers, providing a full 360-degree view of the buying process.

The 70-page report also contains several high-level interviews with customers and suppliers, with some serious insight into the customer mindset.

The CRN Buyers Guide is not a free publication, but to find out more information, please contact [email protected]