Read any marketing book—all strategies culminate in a simple philosophy—are your customers satisfied? And the IT industry is no different. And the CIO is not a different animal either. To find out what rules the mind of the CIO and what are the key determinants for his buying decision, this Dataquest-IDC India Survey contacted 307 CIOs and conducted the Customer Satisfaction Audit 2003. While most top brands have fared well, some have fallen by the wayside.

Desktops
IBM customers are more than satisfied with their vendor, and this propels IBM to the top. IBM and Compaq are the only vendors scoring above the industry averages in all parameters. Given that the "product" is the most important attribute for CIO satisfaction, it is important to note that barring HCL Infosystems (HCLI) and assemblers, other vendors score high on this attribute. When you remember that HCL Infosystems is the #1 vendor in the Indian market, there can be two possible reasons for its low performance. One, that CIOs are setting very high benchmarks for all attributes. Two, that CIOs are not satisfied with the ‘HCL’ brand and the product. Analyze the Product category a bit further and HCL shows a decline in the most important factor in this category—Reliability. Even HP falls below the industry average for this sub-category. Another key area where even HP and Wipro—along with HCL—need to focus is delivery. Even assemblers meet the CIOs’ expectations and are above the industry average. Also, in terms of the most important sub-factor, Delivery, assemblers are above the industry average in all five sub-factors. Moreover, since all products are more or less standardized, assemblers tend to focus on delivery. All vendors are broadly focussed and have got ratings according to their importance attributes. The exceptions in the list are assemblers and IBM—where installation has taken a backseat, making way for sales and marketing.

The ‘product’ is the most important attribute of satisfaction in the desktop segment. Within products, CIOs attribute the ‘reliability’ of the product as the most important factor for satisfaction. Again, one must not overlook the fact that the difference between the first and the last attribute is not very significant. Dataquest stresses that while all the five factors are important in the final decision-making for buying desktops, the perception of a CIO—that ‘product’ tops his list—led to the judging of this attribute as an important satisfaction parameter. Delivery closely follows product as the next most important factor. Also, due to the high degree of standardization in desktops, sales and marketing did not figure very high. It is the same in the case of after-sales service. As medium and large corporations have their own IT teams or outsource the same—and given the degree of support infrastructure built by vendors—ASS has become a non-issue today.

Portables
How did the key brands fare?
IBM is on top here too. Following the gains in the desktop segment, IBM tops the satisfaction list in the notebook segment as well. Toshiba and Compaq follow. Of the five categories, IBM leads in four, while Toshiba—with support infrastructure from HCLI—leads in ASS. Also, CIOs perceive that all vendors are broadly focussing on the top three attributes in order of importance. Thanks to highly-satisfied IBM customers—those who have given high satisfaction scores to IBM—Compaq takes a beating. Toshiba has just about managed to score above the industry average. In the top two importance parameters—viz product and installation—IBM seems to have set the benchmark, with customers of the other two companies not giving them scores to match. Again, it needs to be highlighted that the differences are only marginal, but that’s what surveys are all about.

What CIOs want from vendors of portables
The findings are in line with the desktops segment. Product, delivery and installation are the top factors driving CIO satisfaction. Given the solid support programs initiated by all vendors for notebook repairs—within 48-72 hours—after-sales services has ceased to be a major concern for CIOs

Servers

How did the key brands fare?
Compaq is setting the benchmarks in this segment. Given its #1 position in the overall server market, that’s not hard to understand. Satisfaction for Compaq is way ahead. Look at the top attribute, Product. Compaq, with a score of 81, is way ahead of Unix segment leader Sun Microsystems, which scores 72. In fact, Sun—along with Big Blue—is well below the industry average on all five product sub-factors. And this is not an isolated case for the Product attribute alone. If Sun and IBM want to counter the Compaq threat, they need to focus on improving their satisfaction levels, as against Compaq and HP (now one company). Also, it is important to note that all vendors are focussing on attributes based on the importance that CIOs give them. Maybe it’s time for IBM and Sun to get going.

Like the other two segments, Product, Delivery and Installation top the importance list for CIOs. One assumes that given the high degree of obsolescence in the trade and the high-end nature of the product, ASS would be an important factor, especially with respect to factors like availability of spare parts, warranty, replacement warranty, competence of technical personnel etc. However, CIOs seem to be far more concerned with the three attributes in question—Product, Installation and Delivery.

Enterprise Apps
How did the key brands fare?
It’s interesting to note that market leader SAP is just marginally behind BAAN in satisfaction terms. Given the higher marketshare and penetration of SAP, IDC India had taken this key factor into account and included weight according to the marketshare (see research methodology). So how did BAAN pull it off? One, it has been a neck-to-neck race for the top place, with SAP leading in one and BAAN in the other four attributes. BAAN scored higher in Overall Product and Compatibility to edge ahead of SAP, despite the higher weightage given to SAP for higher marketshare. And that tipped the ratings in favor of BAAN. A few sub factors, including compatibility with the existing hardware platform, initiative of the company to constantly upgrade its product and its quality, availability of adequate documentation for usage (user manuals literature, etc) and user-friendliness of the product helped BAAN move ahead. However, a word of caution for BAAN and Ramco. While overall product and functionality top the importance attributes, BAAN needs to relook at the same, as its customers feel that the company is focusing on products and compatibility. Also, Ramco’s focus seems to be away from the CIOs’ needs—the focus seems to be more on installation, support and pre-sales activities.

What CIOs want from vendors of enterprise applications
Product reigns supreme, even in enterprise applications. Hand-in-hand is the functionality built into the product. In terms of functionality, the most important factors are appropriateness in business requirement and provision of complete solutions for all relevant processes. Given the nature of enterprise applications, off-the-shelf products do not command much respect among CIOs—and customization is the name of the game. The level of customization helps determine the level of CIO satisfaction.

IT Services

TCS—the software giant—is the clear choice for CIOs when it comes to integration and outsourcing requirements. It leads the satisfaction ratings in all attributes. Can competition move to the same level? Yes, but it’s going to be a long, hard climb. All things considered, all vendors—including TCS—need to refocus their strategies according to the CIOs’ importance list. For one, while CIOs indicate quality of service as the pinnacle of their importance list, no company except IBM is focussing on this attribute. Even for TCS, scores on this parameter are rather low. Also, while TCS is focussing on routine or preventive maintenance/checks by engineers, this parameter is low on the CIOs’ priority list.

Quality of service, contract sanctity, going an extra mile are the drivers of the services function. Vendors have a help desk to sort out CIO concerns, but that comes last on the priority list of CIOs. What CIOs are looking at is how the vendors look at the contract, adhere to it, their response and complaint resolution time-cycles, etc...

Yograj Varma
Research and analysis by Tirthankar Sen, senior market analyst (end-user research), IDC India Ltd

Research Methodology>>>>>>>>>>>

Page(s)   1  2