The dictionary defines satisfaction as the act of fulfilling a desire or a need. And many a marketer has failed to find the perfect for mula to satisfy the customer, who Sam Walton very eloquently described as the ‘only boss.’ The one who can fire anyone in the company — from the chairman to rank and file—by simply spending his money somewhere else. As long as this one boss is satisfied, the cash register will keep ringing.

Satisfaction ratings have come to occupy a very important place in the marketers’ arsenal of tools when reaching out to a new prospect and this is precisely what the Dataquest-IDC India Customer Satisfaction Audit 2004 tries to do. In its second edition, the CSA has evolved to add a few new parameters that help get a better fix on the CIO’s satisfaction level.

Like last year, CSA tries to gauge the levels of satisfaction of the five key categories namely desktops, notebooks, servers, enterprise applications and IT services.