Believe some of this info is old, but it's great to read how DELL still leads the other vendors in service. This is even more significant when you consider DELL is the ONLY one of the top vendors without it's own in-house service department.
COMPUTER RESELLER NEWS
November 09, 1998, Issue: 815
Section: Systems & Peripherals
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Channel shows gains in survey -- Partners Edge Closer To Dell's Lead
Joe Wilcox
Round Rock, Texas -- Dell Computer Corp. remains the favorite choice among top IT managers in terms of product and service reliability, according to a recently released study.
Technology Business Research Inc. tapped IT managers from 278 Fortune 1000 companies representing an installed base of 2.2 million systems for its third-quarter Corporate IT Buying Behavior and Customer Satisfaction study.
Dell ranked No. 1 in all three hardware categories: desktops, notebooks and servers. But channel partners are coming on strong. Compaq Computer Corp., Houston, gained 10.3 percent in notebooks, and IBM Corp. improved by 7.4 percent in both notebooks and desktops over the second quarter.
"It will be interesting to see how long Dell can stay ahead of the others," said Julie Perron, manager of primary research for the Hampton, N.H.-based market research firm. "They have quite a margin in the desktop area, but their lead was cut in the notebook area and the server area a little bit."
Dell has little to fear yet, Perron said, as channel-friendly companies struggle to grab mind share from the direct competitor. But the Round Rock company does have one potential problem, Perron said: Dell has drawn a lot of attention to itself and has become the target of channel competitors.
Compaq, for example, consistently matches price with or undercuts Dell on many product lines. Other competitors have stood back while the Texas rivals duke it out, analysts said. In a recent round of workstation introductions, for example, Compaq and Dell locked horns on price while Hewlett-Packard Co. and others refused to match them.
But low prices have not dispelled the negative perceptions about Compaq products, according to the study. Surprisingly, the majority of Compaq's problems extend beyond its installed base, the study concluded.
Compaq customers tended to be fairly satisfied, but competitively the company suffered from the perception its hardware and support infrastructure is not reliable enough. Compaq's image problem is toughest in the desktop market, where IT managers ranked the company as weak in seven out of 11 categories and neutral in the other four.
Gateway Inc., North Sioux Falls, S.D., also chalked up disappointing scores overall in the study, and Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM garnered average marks across the board. Palo Alto, Calif.-based HP generally drew praise from IT managers for quality of support and hardware performance.
In the notebook category, Compaq and Toshiba America Inc., Irvine, Calif., vied for last place, scoring low marks in many of the 13 categories within the notebook area.
Compaq's quality perception problem extended to long-term and out-of-the-box reliability among notebooks. Dell, in stark contrast, drew top marks in eight areas and neutral in the rest, and HP scored well in four categories and poorly in only one.
Dell and IBM led the pack in notebooks with scores of 84.71 and 82.82, respectively, out of a possible 100 points. Compaq climbed to third place at 79.09 over the previous quarter, and Toshiba pulled up the rear at 76.37 points.
"I was aware in the notebook segment, IBM put a lot of effort into upgrades and support, and it clearly showed up in the results," Perron said.
But the market overall is volatile with little brand loyalty, the study concluded. Twenty-two percent of respondents switched notebook vendors in the past year, picking Dell by a margin of 20 to 1. IT managers most frequently dropped Compaq and Toshiba portables.
This is the first time Gateway appeared in the study, and the notebook standings did catch Perron off guard. She did not expect Gateway to do as well as it did.
"I was also a little surprised about Hewlett-Packard that they did so well," Perron said. "They were in our report a couple quarters ago and their scores were on par with Toshiba's."
In the desktop area, Dell easily commanded first place with a score of 86.20 followed by HP with 83.35 points. IBM jumped to third place from fifth over the previous quarter with 82.27 points, followed by Gateway with 80.03 and Compaq with a score of 79.96.
Volume discounting boosted the score of Dell and hurt HP, which otherwise gained good marks for out-of-box quality and product reliability.
Unlike the other areas, servers was a near photo finish, with a mere 3 percent difference between first and fourth place, a decline from the second quarter's 5.5 percent. One reason for this, the study concluded, is greater loyalty than for desktops and, especially, notebooks. Although Dell increased its lead slightly over HP, the vendors remained close.
Dell led the pack in servers with a score of 87.44 followed by HP at 85.87, Compaq at 85.85 and IBM at 84.71. Dell and HP rated strong in seven and five categories, respectively, out of 14, including out-of-box quality and technical responsiveness.
Once again, Compaq was harshly criticized for quality, with IT managers complaining 10 percent of its servers were dead on arrival. While Perron acknowledged Compaq had made dramatic improvements, "competitively, they're still second rate," he said.
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