January 13, 2006

According to the overall success and ROI of the various B2B companies surveyed, IDC has released an industry evaluation of the many channel programs of large B2B vendors. The results of the survey name Microsoft as being in the lead when compared to the other vendors.

IDC placed vendors in a grid, one axis of which is "ability to gain share" (ability to set industry standards, market share, potential for market dominance, potential for place or show, and product and service breadth) and the other axis of which is "opportunity alignment" (relative vendor performance against IDC's existing partner program model measurement criteria).

Microsoft leads on both axes, with IBM close behind.

Other B2B vendors in the leader box are bunched up, with Oracle, CA, Novell, and Progress fairly close together. BEA and Sun barely made it into the leader box, and Intuit was on the borderline.

SAP didn't do as well. The German e-business giant did well in opportunity alignment but not as well in ability to gain share. Sybase's channel program was the worst performer of any of the featured vendors.

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