Have you dropped down the vendor rankings?

With 10 new entrants to CRN's 2014 Vendor Report, some well-known names have surprisingly dropped a few places

Only one of the "big five" vendors has made it into the top five of CRN's 2014 Vendor Report, and the remaining four all dropped in the rankings.

The top three places were dominated by more niche, specialist vendors, which demonstrates that having a focused channel strategy is paying dividends.

In addition, the 2014 Vendor Report received more responses than ever before, showing that the channel really does care about its relationships with its vendors.

CRN's 2014 list also features a larger sample size of vendors, with 10 more names added to the mix, bringing the total number to 50.

As per last year, vendors were scored by the resellers in seven areas: product quality; account management; accreditation and training; after-sales and technical support; rebates and margin retention; demand generation and funding; and finally channel leadership.

Breaking down the results, 14 vendors actually crept up the rankings, but 26 dropped down - several places in some instances - with new entrants pushing some bigger names aside. One vendor dropped a whopping 10 places, while on the other hand, another vendor climbed 16 places.

Once again, partners were given licence to comment anonymously, and they certainly didn't pull their punches. We will reveal some of the comments at a later date.

Alan Loader, publisher of CRN, said: "This really is an interesting study as to how vendors are perceived by the very partners they work with.

"The fact that the survey allows for frank and honest comments, and on so many benchmark points, shows that there is still a lot of work to be done by many vendors out there.

"And looking at the top five, it is certainly not what most people would expect."

To find out more about CRN's 2014 Vendor Report, contact Colin Logan: [email protected].