Networking Channel Partner Survey

We are conducting a short voice survey with channel partners in the enterprise networking market, commissioned by a client of Woozle Research. We are looking to speak with senior individuals at distributors and value-added resellers who sell enterprise networking equipment — principally campus and branch Ethernet switching and wireless LAN products, as well as data centre switching. The ideal respondent holds responsibility for vendor relationships, line-card or portfolio strategy, purchasing, or sales of networking hardware, and has direct visibility of how demand is split across the vendors they carry. Titles might include vendor or alliance manager, category or product manager, sales director, general manager or owner. Experience at a distributor is particularly relevant, though we are also speaking with resellers and integrators. Partners with a North America-focused business are a priority, and respondents should be able to speak to current-year dynamics rather than historic experience alone. If you have not personally been involved in selling or managing networking vendor lines within roughly the past year, this study is unlikely to be a good fit.

The conversation will cover how demand for enterprise networking equipment is developing across your business, with a focus on distinguishing campus and branch deployments from data centre deployments, as these behave quite differently as end markets. We will explore the drivers of vendor selection and how partners position competing portfolios with end customers, pricing and margin dynamics, lead times and availability, attach rates for software and services, and any observed shifts in share of wallet between the vendors you carry. We are also interested in how changes to vendor channel programmes, incentives and go-to-market approaches are influencing partner behaviour. We are seeking your candid, first-hand observations; there are no preferred answers and the study is exploratory in nature.

The survey is conducted by telephone and takes approximately 20 minutes. It follows a structured question set covering the themes above, with room for you to add qualitative colour where helpful. Interviews are being scheduled over the coming weeks at a time convenient to you. Participants are compensated with an honorarium of GBP 200 for completing the survey. Responses are used in aggregate for research purposes, and we do not ask for confidential, proprietary or non-public information about your employer, its customers or its suppliers.