| Enterprise Storage
After enterprise applications, CIOs are most satisfied with their storage
vendors. The overall satisfaction (84.6) of the storage users of enterprises has
been boosted by higher satisfaction with vendors on the product features offered
by them, followed by their aggressive pre-sales and marketing stance.
With two top rankers and the following two vendors not very far behind,
ensuring satisfaction in the enterprise storage market is becoming a challenging
play for vendors. No vendor has a clear edge over the other, and in such a
scenario, propositioning a USP becomes critical to determining higher
satisfaction. Today, some of the challenges being faced by enterprise storage
vendors when it comes to customer satisfaction are unforeseen storage
requirements, 100% uptime availability, scaling up to the business demands and
requirements, integration of legacy systems, and avoiding disruption and
maintenance of business continuity.
 |
| While both EMC and Sun share
the number one position, the latters ascendance clearly reflects the fact
that customer satisfaction is not always a factor of the vendors market
share. A closer look at the satisfaction ratings of all the four vendors
indicates that competition in the enterprise storage market is getting
tougher with little variance in the satisfaction scores of each |
Sun has been increasing its focus on the storage market in the last
one-and-a-half-years, increasing its manpower and improving the footage on
ground. The rub off effect of StorageTek has also helped Sun make it to the top
along with EMC. StorageTek is a high-end backup, and while there will be
enterprises with IBM and HP at the entry level, there are chances that they
might still be having a StorageTek at the back end.
Both Sun and EMC have scored the highest satisfaction on two parameters each.
While EMC has edged past Sun on the most important parameter of product, on the
following most important parameters cited by CIOs (pre-sales and marketing and
post sales service), the latter takes away the cake.
While CIOs are most satisfied with product reliability and features offered
by EMC, their verdict for EMC is the need for the vendor to become more
responsive to their specific requirements and improve upon their domain
knowledge and understanding. The company has scored the lowest among all the
vendors on the pre-sales and marketing parameter. However, the good news for EMC
is that it maintains a good lead over its competitors when it comes to timely
delivery and training and handholding.
 |
| Some of the major concern areas that came up
for vendors of enterprise storage as well as consumers of enterprises
include interaction with service team, vendors understanding/domain
knowledge of the business, credit facilitys received, availability of spare
parts, proper demonstration and training to client, and total cost of
ownership |
While HP closely follows EMC and Sun on many of the satisfaction parameters,
it takes the lead in terms of price competitiveness. CIOs are quite happy with
its clarity of pricing contract, even tough its Sun followed by EMC that they
perceive offers value for money.
Some of the major areas of concern that enterprises have from their storage
vendors are interaction with the service team, vendors understanding, credit
facility received, availability of spare parts, proper demonstration and
training to client, and total cost of ownership.
|
We are focused on proactive services
Anil Zachariah, director,
Customer Service, EMC India & SAARC |
What has
been some of EMCs customer related initiatives in 2007?
We have added two logistics centers in India and also 35-40 engineers
for supporting our customers. The expansion of our logistics centers has
helped us reach our customers better in terms of spares. There are close to
$12 mn worth of spares lying across the six logistics centers. We also got
into account reviewing for our large enterprise customers. There is senior
management engagement once in a quarter to review customer engagement. We
provide them with consulting on how to improve their infrastructure and
other key issues. Also, the feedback from the customer helps us in removing
any gap areas from our side. With our commercial customers we do the review
every six months. Overall, we have been focused on proactive services.
What holds the key to CIO satisfaction in the
storage market?
Business continuity is a big concern for the CIO. He cant afford any
down time. Therefore, the availability of spare parts is key. However, we
have gone a step ahead and built in redundancy within the box itself. Today,
all the boxes are configured for redundant spares, which means that if a
drive fails there is a stand by within the box itself. |
|
Customers like a good value proposition, rather than a price proposition
Joyjit Chatterji, country
director, Services, Sun Microsystems India |
What are
some of the customer service/support initiatives that Sun undertook during
the year?
We enable the customer to use his IT infrastructure as a competitive
business weapon. For this, it is imperative to ensure that we provide
innovative products and solutions. To offer our customers best of breed
solutions, we have broken design convention and created a pool of storage
experts who have implemented complex solutions to serve customers need
effectively. Implementation of the dial-home features for enterprise storage
units, remote management of customers mission critical storage 24x7, and
periodic review of implementation process to incorporate global best
practices are some of the initiatives we have undertaken for customer
support.What makes an enterprise
user of storage happy and satisfied?
Every customer appreciates a good value proposition, rather than a price
proposition. Every customers need is different, so are the requirements.
Suns innovative approach also reflects in the way they offer solutions and
choices to customers. Though in each of our core competencies, we continue
to innovate to deliver industry leading solutions, at the same time are
aware of the reality that IT infrastructure cannot be retro-fitted, so we do
not offer a common solution for all our customers needs. |
 |
| Some of the major concern areas that came up
for vendors of enterprise storage as well as consumers of enterprises
include interaction with service team, vendors understanding/domain
knowledge of the business, credit facilitys received, availability of spare
parts, proper demonstration and training to client, and total cost of
ownership |
Shipra Malhotra Page(s) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
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