The Best Of The Best: CRN’s 2019 Annual Report Card Awards

Fortinet, HPE Aruba, Scale Computing and Sophos were among the companies taking top honors at XChange 2019 in the 34th consecutive Annual Report Card awards.

And The Award Goes To…

More than 320 solution providers from across the country gathered in Denver earlier this month to celebrate the 16 winners of the 34th consecutive CRN Annual Report Card awards.

Thousands of solution providers cast votes for the ARC awards, scoring IT vendors across 23 product categories on four criteria: product innovation, support, partnership, and managed and cloud services. The winners were recognized at an awards ceremony on Aug. 13 at XChange 2019.

Read on to find out which vendors were voted the best of the best by solution providers.

For a detailed wrap up of the complete Annual Report Card scores, see 2019 Annual Report Card Winners: Solution Providers Give Top Grades To Key Vendors.

APC

APC by Schneider Electric came out on top in the all-important Power Protection and Management product category in 2019, receiving an overall score of 88.9 – including scoring an impressive 94.2 in product innovation.

Katie Boeh (left), Channel Marketing and Communications Director, accepted the award from Jennifer Follett, CRN Executive Editor.

Aruba, A Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company

Aruba was one of this year’s big winners in the ARC scoring. The company swept two product categories: Enterprise Networking Infrastructure (with an overall score of 88.6 – including a very impressive 96.1 in product innovation) and Enterprise Wireless LANs (overall score 89.0). Aruba was also the overall winner in the SMB Networking product category (overall score 87.0), thanks to its win in product innovation.

Brian Junnila, Director of North America Channel Marketing, accepted the awards from Jennifer Follett, CRN Executive Editor.

Buffalo America

Buffalo America was the overall winner in the SMB External Storage Hardware product category with an overall score of 87.1, thanks to its top scores in the support and partnership criteria.

Accepting the award was Ben DeLaurier, Director of Support, from Jennifer Follett, CRN Executive Editor.

Cisco Systems

Cisco has moved into collaboration in a big way in recent years with its unified communications, contact center, conferencing and collaboration endpoint products. In the Collaboration product category Cisco received an overall score of 79.8, including a high score of 87.8 in product innovation.

David Stearns, Americas Partner Organization Collaboration Director, accepted the award from CRN Executive Editor, News, Steve Burke.

Comcast

Telecommunications conglomerate and media giant Comcast owns a broad portfolio of services including internet, broadband and VoIP services for businesses. The company won the Network Connectivity product category with an overall score of 69.1.

Craig Schlagbaum, Vice President and Channel Chief, accepted the award from Jennifer Follett, CRN Executive Editor.

Datto

Datto swept the Data Protection Software product category and received an enviable 88.1 overall score. Datto was also the top scorer in the support, partnership, and managed and cloud services criteria in the SMB Networking technology category.

Channel Development Manager Eric Torres (second from left), Channel Development Manager Michael DePalma (second from right) and Vice President of Datto Networking John Tippett (far right) accepted the award from Jennifer Follett, CRN Executive Editor.

Dell

Dell Technologies is a major player across many segments of the IT industry and that’s reflected in the company’s multiple wins in this year’s ARC awards. Dell swept the Industry Standard Servers product category, earning an overall score of 85.5, and the tablets category with an overall score of 81.1.

Dell was also the winner in Notebooks/Mobile Computers with an overall score of 83.2 and was the top scorer in the product innovation, support, and managed and cloud services criteria within this product category. Dell also had the highest scores for product innovation and managed/cloud services in the SMB External Storage Hardware product category.

Maureen Gaumer, Senior Director of North America Channel Marketing, accepted the awards from Jennifer Follett, CRN Executive Editor.

Fortinet

Security technology developer Fortinet was one of the biggest winners in this year’s ARC judging, sweeping three product categories: Network Security – Enterprise (with an overall score of 87.3), SD-WAN (overall score 84.9) and Security Management (overall score 85.2).

Jon Bove, Vice President of Channel Sales, accepted the awards from Jennifer Follett, CRN Executive Editor.

HP Inc.

HP was the winner in the Multifunction Printers product category with an overall score of 74.2. The company also outscored the competition in product innovation, partnership, and managed and cloud services within the category. HP also took the top scores for product innovation and partnership within the Workgroup Color Printers product category.

Gary Simms, Vice President of HP Americas Channel Programs and Enablement, accepted the awards.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Hewlett Packard Enterprise was the winner in the Enterprise Network Storage product category, garnering an overall score of 84.9. HPE also earned the top scores for product innovation and managed/cloud services criteria within the product category.

Terry Richardson (center), Vice President, North America Channels & Alliances, accepted the awards from Jennifer Follett, CRN Executive Editor, and Steve Burke, CRN Executive Editor, News.

Intel

Intel remains king of the Processors product category where it swept the criteria and received an overall score of 81.1.

Todd Garrigues (center), U.S. Partner Sales Programs Director, accepted the awards from Jennifer Follett, CRN Executive Editor, and Steve Burke, CRN Executive Editor, News.

Lenovo

Lenovo received the top score for partnership criteria within the Notebooks/Mobile Computers product category.

Rob Cato, Vice President of North America Channels, accepted the award.

Scale Computing

Upstart Scale Computing was another of the big winners in this year’s ARC, sweeping the product categories of Converged/Hyperconverged Infrastructure (with an overall score of 89.3) and Desktop and Server Virtualization (with an impressive overall score of 91.3).

Scott Mann, Vice President of North America Channels (center), and Dave Hallmen, Chief Revenue Officer (right), accepted the awards from Jennifer Follett, CRN Executive Editor.

Sophos

This year’s biggest ARC winner, Sophos swept three product categories: Data Security with an overall score of 90.7, Endpoint Security with an overall score of 91.1, and Network Security – SMB with an overall score of 90.9.

Senior Sales Directors Brian Galgano, Regina Vignone and Dave DeHaven (left to right) accepted the awards from Jennifer Follett, CRN Executive Editor.

Xerox

Xerox was the winner of the Workgroup Color Printers product category with an overall score of 75.5. The company also took top scores in support and managed/cloud services criteria within the category and the top score for support within the Multifunction Printers product category.

Debbie Purfurst (right), Vice President of Channel Sales and Distribution, accepted the awards from Jennifer Follett, CRN Executive Editor.