The DQ-IDC Customer Satisfaction Audit 2006 finds overall satisfaction levels rise significantly, vendors getting more aggressive and competitive on price across categories, and CIOs looking for a complete portfolio of services from their suppliers

How Satisfied Is the CIO?
The Indian CIO has become one of the most difficult customers to please over the years. Ask some of the vendors and they would surely agree. But that's understandable given the larger role that IT heads play in today's enterprises. Their responsibilities are no longer confined to just being technologists. Today, CIOs are more hands-on with IT budgets and play a significantly strategic role in organizations. It's not enough to just showcase the best technology, features and technical support and services to the CIO. One needs to align these with the long-term goals of the company while offering the best price and RoI.

It is again that time of the year to revisit the Indian CIO check out what it is that satisfies him the most; and the names (read vendors) that have managed to perform the best on the CIO satisfaction parameters.

In the fourth edition of the Dataquest-IDC Customer Satisfaction Audit, the CSA 2006, we look at customer satisfaction with respect to five categories-desktops, notebooks, servers, enterprise applications and IT services.

CSA 2006: Desktops
It's good news for the desktop vendor community. The overall satisfaction score at 84.3 this year is up two percentage points from last year. However, unlike in the past, the CIO today wants more bang for the buck. Products and post-sales support are no longer the only derivatives of satisfaction for IT chiefs. Satisfaction levels on key factors like pre-sales and marketing; price and commercials; and delivery and installation have gone up significantly-satisfaction scores rise by nearly two percentage points on all the- parameters.

Interestingly, a key area of concern for today's price-conscious Indian CIO is total cost of ownership. Vendors should also be able to offer value for money with respect to any purchase while pulling down the TCO of desktops. While all vendors have obviously taken note of the price-conscious Indian market and shown significant improvement on the satisfaction levels over last year, Indian price warrior Zenith seems to have beaten everyone in the game. Close at its heels is IBM-Lenovo, while there's tough competition between HCL and HP for the third place. Two players who seem to have lost some steam during the last one year are Wipro and Dell. However, while Wipro has actually performed better over the last year, it is Dell, which has slipped badly on price point.

Desktop Vendor Ranks
Brand	Rank-06	Rank-05
IBM-Lenovo	1	5
Zenith	2	4
HP	3	2
Wipro	4	7
assembled	5	6
HCL Insys	6	3
Dell	7	1
Up  Down   Unchanged

Dell's drop this year is startling. From being the leading vendor last year, Dell slipped on all parameters. But the most worrying are overall product offerings, and both pre-sales service and marketing and post sales service. Post sales service is an area that should worry HCL as well, with all other vendors, including the assembled players, faring far better.

CSA 2006 shows some upheaval in terms of overall ranks. IBM-Lenovo has clearly learned from its mistakes, and the new entity has pulled up from being #5 last year to establish itself as the leader in desktops. Following close is Zenith, which has replaced HP for the second spot. However, competition between the two remains stiff with the statistical significance of the difference in their satisfaction scores being marginal. Zenith has topped on key derivatives like pre-sales and marketing, post sales service, price and commercials, and delivery and installation. The assembled players remain a reckoning force in the market, especially when it comes to after sales service, and delivery and installation.

All major vendors except Dell, Wipro, HCL and the assembled players have registered satisfaction scores above the industry average of 84.3. While Wipro has upped its satisfaction score this year, it fails, only marginally, to score above the industry average because the industry has raised its bar significantly. However, nearly all major vendors have got their act together, with Dell being the only exception.

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