Report: 2012 Temkin Experience Ratings of Tech Vendors
January 31, 2012 8 Comments
We are excited to be publishing this first report from our large-scale research on customer experience in the IT sector.
We just published a new Temkin Group report, 2012 Temkin Experience Ratings of Tech Vendors. The report analyzes feedback from 800 IT professionals to rate 60 tech suppliers. Congratulations to the top firms:
1) Microsoft (business applications)
1) Cisco
3) IBM SPSS
3) Microsoft (servers)
5) Microsoft (desktop software)
5) IBM software (other than SPSS)
5) Intel
Here is the executive summary from the report:
To understand the customer experience delivered by IT vendors, we surveyed 800 IT professionals from large companies. Using their feedback on the functional, accessible, and emotional components of experiences with vendors, we created the 2012 Temkin Experience Ratings for Tech Vendors which rates 60 large IT suppliers by their customers. Microsoft business applications, Cisco, IBM SPSS, and Microsoft servers were at the top of the list with “excellent” ratings. At the other end of the spectrum, Compuware, Capgemini, and Fujitsu were at the bottom of nine companies with “very poor” ratings. Our research also looked at the 2012 purchase plans for these IT buyers. When we chart the Temkin Experience Ratings for Tech Vendors with the purchase momentum for these 60 firms, it shows the clear connection between customer experience and revenues.
The Temkin Experience Ratings for Tech Vendors are based on evaluating three elements of experience:
- Functional: How well do experiences meet customers’ needs?
- Accessible: How easy is it for customers to do what they want to do?
- Emotional: How do customers feel about the experiences?
Here are the ratings for all 60 tech vendors that had feedback from at least 60 IT professionals:
The report also examined IT purchasing plans. We created a purchasing momentum index, equal to the percentage of companies planning to increase spending in 2012 minus the percentage that were planning to decrease spending. The report contains the purchasing momentum for all 60 tech vendors in the study. It turns out that the Temkin Experience Ratings are highly connected with purchase momentum:
The bottom line: Customer experience and loyalty go hand in hand in the tech sector.
About Bruce Temkin, CCXP
Customer Experience Matters® 
Can you please publish more detail on methodology? How many comapnies did the 800 IT professionals come from, how were they selected (was it self selection), what levels in their organisations were they? What industry sectors were represented, what sizes were the companies, not just the revenue threshold? What was the vendor revenue threshold in the company required for inclusion of those results? How many reports on a vendor did you require to include that vendor in the results?
Hi Chris:
Excellent questions. Here are some answers…
Q: How many companies did the 800 IT professionals come from?
A: We used a panel company to provide access to the IT professionals. Given the panel structure, we do not have the company names.
Q: How were they selected (was it self selection)?
A: As discussed above, we contracted to use an industry leading panel of IT professionals. The criteria for selection was that the IT professionals needed to have interacted with at least two of the 80 or so vendors on our list during the previous six months to be included in the study.
Q: What levels in their organisations were they?
A: We did not control for level in the organization, so the collection of responses is reflective of a vendor’s overall set of interactions within an IT organization. We do have data on the decision making levels of respondents, which differs across vendors. 76% of CGI respondents, for instance, have a significant role in making decisions about how much business their company does with CGI.
Q: What industry sectors were represented, what sizes were the companies, not just the revenue threshold?
A: The respondents came from a wide variety of industries with the largest concentration in the manufacturing sector. The companies were all at least $500 million in annual revenues. 41% were between $500 million and $2 billion, 41% were between $2 billion and $10 billion, and 18% were above $10 billion.
Q: What was the vendor revenue threshold in the company required for inclusion of those results?
A: There was no vendor revenue threshold. The IT professional just had to have interacted with the vendor as previously described.
Q: How many reports on a vendor did you require to include that vendor in the results?
A: To be included in the ratings, we required a vendor to have at least 60 pieces of feedback.
How is this report licensed? To the named user who purchases it? More broadly?
The report, when it’s purchased as a single user license, is licensed to the person who downloads it. We are okay if the downloader transfers it to another person without using it (for instance, we often find that administrative assistance will download for their boss). When licensing the report to multiple users (which you can do at the time of purchase from our website), we leave it up to the person who downloads the report to monitor appropriate compliance with the number of users.
Hi Bruce, great report. On the respondents, were the IT Decision Makers polled US-based or global?
They were global…
Mr. Temkin, I wish I had a better purchasing experience – after several attempts to change the payment method from paypal to credit card, I gave up!
I was trying to purchase “2012 Temkin Experience Ratings of Tech Vendors”
Hi Manoj: Sorry that you are having trouble. Unfortunately, we have no control over the design of the checkout process. If you go thought the process as if you are using PayPal, then you will be presented with credit card options. I’ve made suggestions for improvements to the vendor, but it remains a bit confusing.