Sock it to the vendors

Help CRN keep IT vendors on their toes by telling us what you really think and completing our short survey

Unless we live in a parallel universe and everything is absolutely hunky-dory, some channel partners out there are feeling exasperated about their vendors.

Elsewhere, others are delighted and would love to show them how appreciated they are.

With the CRN Vendor Report 2016 survey, you can do both without any fear of repercussions.

In recent CRN research, 14 per cent of our respondents said they were concerned by vendors taking more business direct. So we know the worry is definitely there, and it is only by telling the vendors how it really is that things can change. We all know competition in our market is cut-throat and there is always someone in the queue waiting to pick up any slack. So it is often easier not to rock the boat too much and keep allowing things to tick along as they are.

This can mean that vendors get away with too much. That is why CRN originally launched the Vendor Report five years ago: to give channel partners a voice without fear of reprisals.

At the time we benchmarked 40 vendors on key areas of channel performance including support, margin retention, and reliability. It was the first time such a report had been carried out and we had a fantastic response.

It actually shook up quite a few vendors and gave some a much-needed wake-up call. This time our report will focus not only on channel programmes, but also on products in terms of quality and reliability, and the services aspect of the channel relationship.

Do vendors help their partners generate services revenue through their products or are they actually taking business away from their channel? The number of vendors covered this year remains at 40, although due to the constant consolidation and changes in the industry, the list may differ slightly from previous versions.

The focus is also very heavily on security, cloud and infrastructure, and services. We are hoping as many resellers/VARs/MSPs as possible will take part in this survey to give us a true understanding of how vendors are performing in 2016. If you work with one or more of the listed vendors, we need to know what you think.

All responses are anonymous, and remember: this is open only to resellers to complete. Plus you will get a free executive summary of the findings.

To complete the survey, click here.