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Due to increasing satisfaction for price and commercial followed by pre-sales and marketing, the overall satisfaction of server users of enterprises has increased by 0.36% (from 83.8 to 84.1 points) as compared to last year.

Customer satisfaction in the server market seems to be a highly competitive play. The top three satisfaction scores (of Sun Microsystems, IBM, and HP) are within 1.6 points of each other, with Sun and IBM standing almost neck-to-neck. Among the top three, only Sun has managed to grow its satisfaction score and that too with a margin of almost five points.

Looking at unit market share, Suns position would come as a surprise. However, customer satisfaction is not a direct co-relation of market share. While Sun might be more expensive than its competitors, it is the perceived value that it brings for that cost in terms of robustness is what seems to have worked in favor of the vendor.

The satisfaction on product functionality, convenience in operation and responsiveness to the customer requirements have catapulted Sun onto the number one position. Interestingly, the company is the only one to have made some significant improvement in satisfaction score over last year, while its competitors didnt budge far from their last years scores

Another plausible reason can be the expansion of Sun into the x86 server space in the last one-and-a-half year. Because it is a new product from Sun, there are higher chances of a product refresh as compared to the vendors whore already there in the x86 space. The footprint in the x86 space is also much higher and that could have possibly helped expand its customer base itself. The expansion in customer base means that there is a wider base of customers to vouch for satisfaction versus customers who dont have any experience with the product and, therefore, cant judge satisfaction levels.

With the operating system coming from the Sun stable, there is a possibility of the OS talking to the server much better, thereby leading to a satisfying experience with the product. This is reflected in the fact that the company has got the highest score (90.3 points) on the product parameter, which is quite ahead of the industry average of 86.3. CIOs are particularly happy with the reliability, functionality of Suns servers and also the convenience in their operations.

Last years top ranker IBM couldnt keep pace with Sun on parameters like product, pre-sales and marketing, and post-sales service, thereby conceding its position to the latter this year. While there is little variance in the scores of Sun, IBM, and HP on all the five parameters, HCL and Wipro have quite some catching up to do

Continuing the good run, Sun has improved upon its last years scores on all the five derivates of satisfaction, while last years top ranker, IBM, has seen a fall in scores on at least three countsproduct, pre-sales and marketing, and post-sales service.

Wipro, on the other hand, despite scoring the lowest on all the five parameters, has improved upon its last years scores on four of the five parameters.

At a broader level, the survey indicates some drastic changes beginning to take place in the satisfaction trends in the server market. CIOs now expect vendors to be more aggressive and forthcoming in terms of domain knowledge and responsiveness to their specific requirements. Price and commercial, which was rated fourth in importance among the five parameters last year, has been rated the second most important parameter this year.

Reduction in tolerance is viewed by Sun as an opportunity to modify and enhance Joyjit Chatterji, country director, Services, Sun Microsystems India

What have been some of your customer focused efforts? And, how are your global practices assimilated in the Indian market? Our efforts have focused toward prevention with proactive management. Specific initiatives have revolved around tracking of all cases once opened through the various stages of process from initiation to closure. Each stage has defined tolerance level and escalations are initiated if crossed. We have also undertaken restructuring to focus on tier-2 customers with more regular engagements. Other initiatives include proactive system health checks, replacements, among others. We have a common global target for Customer Feedback Index (CFI) which is measured every quarter. Best practices are customized to meet local needs but the concept is to ensure consistent service quality irrespective of customer location. Post-sales is emerging as a critical customer satisfaction imperative. How do you ensure customer satisfaction on this count? From an implementation and post-sales service perspective, simple answers have been; adhere to time lines, ensure quality, ensure prevention, rectify in case of issues and rectify quickly, and capture the learnings. How are the dynamics of customer satisfaction changing? Rapid growth has been one of the key highlights of the Indian industry, coupled with increased dependency on IT, compliance. Adherence to best practices and high availability are some of the drivers. Customer tolerance levels have reduced and perfection is becoming a natural demand. This, then, is becoming challenging for the vendors. How do you cope with it? Reduction in tolerance is viewed by Sun as an opportunity to modify and enhance. We have been making efforts to ensure we capture the needs early for a customer/segment and have the optimum solutions. Our structure and technology brings in the flexibility to mould ourselves to the customers needs. The key success factor is pace of change that any company, which is serving the demanding market, has to adapt to. The need of the hour is to evolve continuously, assuming that what worked today may not work tomorrow.

Wipro and HCL fall way below the industry average scores on the derivates of the two most important satisfaction parameters of CIOs. Even though the respondents have expressed the highest satisfaction with Suns responsiveness and domain understanding, their satisfaction on these two grounds is still relatively much less as compared to their satisfaction with the functionalities and reliability that Sun offers with its products

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