Dell Continues Its Reign as Top Vendor in TBR's 1Q99 Customer Satisfaction Ratings,
Yet Weakness Cited for On-Site Support; Compaq Notebook and IBM
Intel-Based Server Satisfaction Scores Decline
Business/Technology Editors
HAMPTON, N.H.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 3, 1999--Technology
Business Research's (www.tbri.com) first quarter 1999 Corporate IT
Buying Behavior and Customer Satisfaction Study is based on interviews with
341 IT Managers at U.S. large corporations, conducted between
mid-January and early April. Consistent with previous quarters, Dell
retains its number one ranking across all three form factors, based on
a scoring system that weights customer satisfaction ratings by the
importance of the various attributes. Overall, the key recurring areas
of concern this quarter include cost of ownership issues,
configuration issues, delivery and availability, replacement parts
availability, declining on-site support expertise among the systems
vendors as well as third parties, and relatively lower scores for
notebooks regardless of vendor, particularly for repair time.
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*T
Sample Size 1Q Score Rank % Change % Change
4Q98 over 1Q99 over
3Q98(a) 4Q98
Notebook:
Dell 98 84.68 1 -4.5% 0%
IBM 115 80.97 2 -4.9% -1.5%
Toshiba 47 79.05 3 -3.9% +1.8%
Compaq 65 76.16 4 -4.4% -4.0%
Intel Servers:
Dell 52 86.84 1 +1.7% -2.3%
Compaq 179 85.32 2 0% 0%
Hewlett-Packard 46 84.76 3 -2.0% 0%
IBM 51 80.72 4 +4.2% -8.5%
Desktops:
Dell 102 84.94 1 +0.8% -2.2%
IBM 62 82.32 2 +0.7% 0%
Compaq 99 81.27 3 +3.7% -1.9%
Gateway 35 80.09 4 +1.1% -1.0%
Hewlett-Packard 51 79.75 5 -0.9% -3.4%
*T
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(a)Appearance of falling scores for all notebook vendors in 4Q98
rankings the result of adjusted weightings due to increased importance
of certain attributes, e.g., delivery time, repair time.
Compaq (NYSE:CPQ) makes a very strong showing this quarter in
the Intel-based server competitive analysis, with particular strength
in the performance features (upgradability/scalability, storage
capacity, and server management). While on-site support is not cited
as a competitive weakness, there is strong evidence that this is an
area with room for improvement. It is in the mobile products arena
where Compaq customers interviewed expressed some very deeply-rooted
concerns. Compaq's scores show an overall decline this quarter in
areas such as delivery time, availability, set-up/configuration, DOA
incidences product design, and support. While scores for reliability
and pricing have stabilized over previous quarters, Compaq is clearly
out of the competition. Product integrity complaints continue,
including everything from bad systems boards to hard drives and cards
to displays.
Dell's (NASDAQ:DELL) customer satisfaction scores have reached
the inevitable leveling off this quarter following its run for
remarkable improvement in consecutive preceding quarters. Dell,
however, continues to benefit from its customers' positive
perceptions. Dell respondents in the sample are the most likely group
to give their vendor a series of 'A' ratings across the attributes. In
spite of Dell's leadership position in the ratings, some changes
discovered this quarter represent a continuation of hinted
inconsistencies from the previous two quarters. On-site support for
the desktop has been cited this quarter as a weakness for Dell, based
on the perception that there is evidence of a considerable lack of
technical expertise regarding some of Dell's authorized service
partners. While Dell historically has far exceeded the competition
regarding customer perceptions of volume discounting, the past several
quarters have shown that this is becoming a more competitive area, and
this quarter confirms that a larger proportion of Dell's customers do
not believe Dell is aggressive enough with its discounting policies.
IBM (NYSE:IBM) would likely be a leader in notebook customer
satisfaction were it not for delivery and availability issues, as well
as configuration and set-up issues. In the Intel server arena, the
repeating pattern this quarter is that there are three vendors
perceived as exceptional, with IBM being the conspicuous outlier, for
whom the scores average around the 'B' level. IBM is weak against the
competition across most of the attributes save support, cost of
ownership, and volume discounting for their Intel-based servers. Among
the principal areas of concern among IBM's server customers are slow
lead times for new technology, poor upgrade path, configuration and
compatibility issues, parts availability, overpricing, and a level of
increase in DOAs. While support did not emerge as a particular
weakness, TBR collected several comments regarding a lack of technical
expertise and an increase in support costs.
Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HWP) makes a competitive showing this
quarter for its Intel-based servers. The most common complaint, and
this translates to desktops as well, is cost of ownership (costs over
time) and an unwillingness on the part of HP to provide volume
discounts as an incentive. There continue to be some issues revolving
around configuration inflexibility, and technical support response (on
the desktop only).
Gateway (NYSE:GTW) customer satisfaction ratings on the desktop
show consistency over previous quarters. The vendor continues to
under-perform against the competition regarding volume discounts,
however this is not an area cited as important to Gateway's customers
in the sample, who tend to believe that price/performance, Gateway's
principal strength, represents the true value. 6 Technical support
response scores showed continued improvement this quarter.
Toshiba shows a level of improvement in its customer satisfaction
scores this quarter, particularly regarding repair time, reliability,
and price/performance. Toshiba's principal drawbacks include volume
discounting, where Toshiba is scored by its customers on a
significantly lower plane than the competitors' customers, and product
availability.
The complete study results are contained in TBR's ninth
consecutive quarterly Corporate IT Buying Behavior and Customer
Satisfaction Study. The first quarter study represents an installed
base of approximately 1.7 million systems and a purchase intent of
over 400,000 systems. The report is based on interviews with MIS/IT
and purchasing managers at 341 large U.S. corporations. For vendors,
distributors, large end users and the investment community, this
program has become the preeminent tactical tool for monitoring
customer satisfaction from quarter to quarter. A customer satisfaction
research program subscription, consisting of four quarterly reports,
is available for $5,000 annually to interested parties through the
contacts listed below.
Complete results available to accredited journalists.
--30--bh/bos*
CONTACT: Technology Business Research, Inc.
Julie Perron, 603/929-1166
perron@tbri.com
or
Jon Lindy, 203/426-7172
lindy@tbri.com
or
Ed Wagner, 650/712-0355
ewagner@tbri.com
KEYWORD: NEW HAMPSHIRE MASSACHUSETTS
INDUSTRY KEYWORD: COMED COMPUTERS/ELECTRONICS TELECOMMUNICATIONS
INTERACTIVE/MULTIMEDIA/INTERNET
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