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Vendor retains scanner championship with high quality and tech support scores
EWI ETT-PACKARD Co. maintained its strong leadership position in the scanner category of this year's Channel Champions race, scoring a solid 5.5 overall satisfaction rating to beat two primary competitors.
This marked the third year in a row that HP gained the top spot in scanners, and its margin of victory was greater than in past competitions. The company rolled up large winning margins in product quality and reliability; upgradability and compatibility; technical support; and coop marketing to clinch its latest victory.
In fact, one measure of HP's dominance in this product category was that resellers gave its ScanJet product line a winning satisfaction rating in each of the eight areas surveyed. HP's overall 5.5 satisfaction score was comfortably ahead of the 5.0 rating given to both runners-up-Microtek Lab Inc., Torrance, Calif., and Epson America Inc., Torrance.
HP, whose headquarters for scanner products is in Greeley, Colo., scored it highest rating in an important category: product quality and reliability. Resellers gave HP a strong 6.2 here, well ahead of Microtek's 5.6 and Epson's 5.5.
Many resellers were impressed with HP's performance in this area. Mark Romanowski, vice president of services at Jade Systems Corp., Cold Spring, N.Y., said HP scanners are consistent performers. "HP is an excellent scanner," he said. "I've sold a lot, and I use it. . . . The [product] just does not break."
HP also won in price/performance, with a rating of 5.8. But its margin of victory was much smaller here, as Microtek rated 5.6 and Epson, 5.2. Some resellers said competing scanner products are often more competitively priced than HP's product line.
David Woo, president of Mainstream, a VAR in Westminster, Calif., said HP's scanner products are priced a bit higher than competing scanner brands.
"The main reason for paying the higher price is support," Woo said. "You get updated drivers very easily. I don't want my clients to get stuck with an obsolete product or to find that they can't get support."
HP's 5.8 score in the area of upgradability and compatibility also...