The VAR Guy

What if you could fire IT vendors that don’t meet your needs? What if you could simply stop recommending their hardware, software or services — and easily uninstall all of their products?

Of course, walking away from an IT partnership is nearly impossible. But the folks at CIO Insight have produced an interesting Vendor Value Survey that includes the following question: “If our company had a choice, we would continue to do business with this vendor.” Companies that scored best on that Vendor Loyalty question included CDW, Cisco Systems, Trend Micro and Red Hat.

Companies scoring worst on that Vendor Loyalty question included Novell, CA and Accenture.

What’s the upshot? Market leaders like Cisco can continue to charge a premium for their products because CIOs believe the solutions deliver true value and innovation. Apparently, you can continue to remain customer and partner focused even when you hold 70-plus percent market share in an IT sector.

The survey results also highlight how difficult it is for a vendor to change long-term CIO perceptions. CA and Novell have struggled with branding and market perceptions for more than a decade. Both companies have certainly made progress under the latest CEOs. But true change requires more than a new logo or big IT partnership with Microsoft.