A remarkable shift is seen in the top places of the PC server category
and the UNIX server category as compared with last year's survey results.
Dell Computer Corp. of Japan earned first place
in the PC server category, even though the company entered the Japanese
PC server market just a year ago. (See table.)
Dell Computer is notable for its hardware pricing strategy.
Nihon Sun Microsystems K.K. succeeded in taking the No. 1 ranking in
the UNIX server category. Although its support work has been poorly
rated, Nihon Sun's products have a reputation for excellence.
Nikkei Computer conducts the survey each year
(See Survey Methods.), targeting midsize and
large businesses to ascertain user satisfaction. In the recent survey
(the fourth such survey), questionnaires were sent to information system
divisions of 7,786 companies, with effective answers received from 1,903
companies.
The questionnaires specify "comprehensive satisfaction" and "satisfaction
by each item." The former is for evaluating products and services, and
the latter is for judging the degree of satisfaction with performance
and prices, independent of the evaluation of comprehensive satisfaction.
The survey covers the three fields of hardware, software and application
services. However, Asia BizTech will focus on the hardware results.
PC Servers: Dell Earns Top Place in its First Entry
Although it had relatively few survey respondents (just 68), Dell Computer
achieved the highest score of 66 points, for "comprehensive satisfaction"
in the PC server sector.
Following Dell Computer, other computer makers are in a head-to-head
competition for "comprehensive satisfaction." Nihon Unisys Ltd. and
Hitachi Ltd. shared the second place (with 64 points).
Next, comes NEC Corp. and Compaq Computer K.K. in fourth place (with
63 points). IBM Japan Ltd. ranked sixth, and Fujitsu Ltd. ranked seventh.
Thus, three companies with lower market shares are in the upper ranks,
while four enterprises with larger market shares are in the lower rankings.
As for "satisfaction by each item," Dell Computer and Nihon Unisys were
appraised highly. Dell Computer is seen as leading others in terms of
hardware prices.
Dell Computer got its top marks based on a high score of satisfaction
(75 points), or 21 points higher than the average satisfaction level.
According to the analysis done by Nikkei Computer, the "Dell Model" has
contributed to increasing satisfaction levels among users in terms of
price. The Dell Model aims at reducing inventory and distribution costs
by producing on orders and taking a direct sales approach.
The second place in the ranking of hardware price satisfaction is occupied
by Compaq Computer, with a score of 62 points. Compaq made the best
use of its advantage as the top-ranking corporation in market share
in the global market (source: IDC survey in 1998). IBM Japan was the
only maker with a score below 50 points. The remaining four companies
had average scores.
Nihon Unisys and Hitachi gained remarkably high marks in satisfaction
with product-related services, such as responses to inquiries when trouble
occurs.
According to Nikkei Computer's analysis, the most important factor that
contributed to the high satisfaction rate is that all users of Nihon
Unisys and Hitachi computers are provided with services directly by
vendors offering services for mainframes. By contrast, Dell has a low
mark in this area.
In terms of "comprehensive satisfaction" of PC servers by type of operating
system, the highest points were gained by machines using the Intel version
of UNIX. Although the number of responses with this type of UNIX machine
was not large (at 104), the degree of satisfaction expressed (64 points)
is a point higher than that of the No. 2 ranked machine running Windows
NT (the number of responses for which was 1,714).
In the survey, no questions were asked on product names of the Intel
version of UNIX. However, it seems reasonable to assume that many of
the responses should refer to free UNIX such as Linux and FreeBSD, because
there have been few deliveries of Intel versions of UNIX for commercial
use in Japan.
UNIX Servers: Nihon Sun Makes a Strong Comeback
As for "comprehensive satisfaction" of UNIX servers, Nihon Sun made a
comeback to the top position (with 65 points) after an interval of two
years.
Ranking second are IBM Japan and Hewlett-Packard Japan Ltd. (HP Japan)
both with a score of 64 points. HP Japan advanced greatly from last
year's ranking by gaining 10 points in a single year.
Fujitsu ranks fourth with 63 points, and Hitachi ranks fifth, with 62
points. Hitachi had earned the top position last year. Next, Digital
Equipment Corp. Japan (DEC Japan) and Nihon Unisys gained scores of
61 points.
And, following them, NEC ranks eighth (with 59 points). NCR Japan Ltd.
is in the lowest rank with 49 points.
As for the evaluation of "satisfaction by each item," there are no significant
gaps among target enterprises, except for NCR Japan.
Nihon Sun should be noted for its high scores in various items concerning
products. Nihon Sun ranks top in the following four items: hardware
price, operating system price, productivity of application development,
and variety of software product lines.
Also, HP Japan scored high points, and the company's popularity gained
ground since last year. This was on the basis of HP Japan's public notification
of the PA-RISC development road map as well as its business plan to
enhance the availability factor of UNIX servers to the level of mainframes
(or 99.999 percent by 2000).
On the other hand, NCR Japan is working hard to enhance its customer
satisfaction. NCR Japan has provided a remote maintenance service, called
Customer Care Link, since the spring of 1998.
As for the evaluation of product-related services, Hitachi got high marks.
The company won high marks for its support on introducing products and
changing types of machine or operating systems as well as responses
to problems. By contrast, in terms of quality of service, Nihon Sun
got fairly low points.
Mainframes: Hitachi Ranks No. 1
As for "comprehensive satisfaction" in the mainframe category, Hitachi
ranks in the top position for the first time without a tie, with 72
points.
In the 1996 survey, Hitachi shared the top place with IBM Japan. And
in 1997, it shared the top position with Nihon Unisys. In the most recent
survey, Nihon Unisys is ranked second with 71 points, a point lower
than Hitachi.
As for the evaluation of "satisfaction by each item," Nihon Unisys surpassed
Hitachi in many items. However, Hitachi holds the lead over Nihon Unisys
in "hardware reliability," which users regard as most important. Thus
the score in this item seems to push up the degree of "comprehensive
satisfaction" for Hitachi.
The second group, following Hitachi and Nihon Unisys, comprises Fujitsu
(68 points) and IBM Japan (67 points). In the fifth-rank, namely, the
lowest position, is NEC (with 64 points). That is two points higher
than its score last year. Fujitsu grabbed a lead over NEC, although
they shared the lowest position with the same score last year.
Hitachi and Nihon Unisys are strong in terms of "satisfaction by each
item." Thus, there are two strong players and three weak players. Hitachi
has not lost the top place in hardware reliability in the last three
surveys.
IBM Japan has scored high points regarding a variety of software product
lines. This is reasonable when taking into consideration the large global
market share of products occupied by IBM. Its business performance in
providing UNIX service bundled with OS/390 apparently contributed to
the high overall appraisal.
As for "satisfaction with product-related services," Hitachi and Nihon
Unisys showed significant strength.
Nihon Unisys got high evaluations for support on operating system upgrades
as well as smooth responses to inquiries from clients. Hitachi got top
honors along with IBM Japan in the area of product information service.
Office Computers: IBM Japan Proves Strong
Office computers are a type of general purpose machine running on unique
operating systems. In Japan, this type of computer is widely used by
midsize businesses. In this category, IBM Japan got the top ranking
for the second straight year for "comprehensive satisfaction" (with
a score of 70 points).
Following IBM Japan are Nihon Unisys, Hitachi, Fujitsu, Toshiba Corp.,
Mitsubishi Electric Corp. and NEC. Each of those six companies has between
60 and 65 points.
IBM Japan won the highest points for all items concerning evaluation
of products, except for hardware prices and operating system prices.
Nikkei Computer assumes that those high appraisals were attributed to
the PowerPC AS using 64-bit processors and the OS/400 operating system.
IBM Japan also is highly regarded in terms of productivity of application
development. The company has been provided with various development
support tools by independent software vendors (ISVs).
As for their shares in the office computer market, Fujitsu and NEC are
outstanding. Fujitsu has been evaluated with an average degree of satisfaction
in each item. However, NEC was given severe appraisals in many items.
*Survey Methods
The survey was conducted by sending questionnaires and related forms
to information system divisions of 7,786 midsize and large businesses
in early October 1998. Effective answers were received from 1,903 companies
(and the response rate is about 24.4 percent).
The questions mainly deal with "comprehensive satisfaction" in evaluating
products and services in each category and "satisfaction by each item"
in judging the degree of satisfaction with performance and prices, independent
of the evaluation of comprehensive satisfaction.
Respondents were asked to provide their level of satisfaction on a scale
of four: 4 as satisfactory, 3 as somewhat satisfactory, 2 as somewhat
dissatisfactory, and 1 as not satisfactory. Those scores are converted
to points between 0 and 100, by allocating 100 to the level of 4, 66.7
to the level of 3, 33.3 to the level of 2, and 0 to the level of 1.
Target companies to be ranked are manufacturers that got 30 or more responses
for "comprehensive satisfaction" and also gained at least 3 percent
of all responses.
In addition, Compaq Computer and DEC Japan were handled as separate companies
because the survey was conducted just after Compaq Computer had acquired
DEC.
(return to news)
Table: Satisfaction with PC Servers
Target companies to be ranked are manufacturers that got 30 or more responses
for "comprehensive satisfaction"
and also gained at least 3 percent
of all the responses.
Vendor | Dell Computer | Nihon
Unisys | Hitachi | NEC | Compaq
Computer | IBM
Japan | Fujitsu | Total/
Average |
Comprehensive
Satisfaction
| 66
| 64
| 64
| 63
| 63
| 62
|
61
|
63
|
|
Number of Responses
|
68 |
90
|
212
|
428
|
236
|
340
|
585
|
2,239
|
|
Satisfaction with
Products
|
Degree of total satisfaction
| 70
| 66
| 66
| 65
| 67
|
64
|
63
|
65
|
|
|
Performance
|
72
|
66
|
63
|
66
|
66
|
66
|
63
|
65
|
|
|
Hardware reliability
|
68
|
70
|
67
|
64
|
63
|
64
|
58
|
63
|
|
|
Hardware prices
|
75
|
56
|
51
|
54
|
62
|
49
|
54
|
54
|
|
|
Ease-of-use of OS
|
66
|
69
|
62
|
61
|
62
|
61
|
61
|
62
|
|
|
Load in OS operation
|
58
|
66
|
58
|
58
|
60
|
58
|
54
|
57
|
|
|
OS reliability
|
55
|
66
|
54
|
55
|
56
|
54
|
53
|
55
|
|
|
OS Prices
|
57
|
61
|
57
|
57
|
58
|
53
|
56
|
56
|
|
|
Productivity of application
development
|
61
|
58
|
54
|
56
|
57
|
55
|
56
|
56
|
|
|
Ease of management of
operation
|
55
|
59
|
54
|
54
|
54
|
54
|
53
|
54
|
|
|
Variety of software product
lines
|
66
|
65
|
64
|
64
|
63
|
61
|
63
|
63
|
|
Satisfaction with Product
Related Services
|
Degree of total satisfaction
|
56
|
64
|
62
|
59
|
56
|
58
|
57
|
58
|
|
|
Support on introduction
|
48
|
66
|
64
|
59
|
54
|
56
|
58
|
58
|
|
|
Support on changing types of
machine
|
35
|
63
|
56
|
51
|
47
|
51
|
53
|
51
|
|
|
Support on changing OS
|
35
|
62
|
55
|
48
|
46
|
48
|
50
|
49
|
|
|
Response to troubles
|
51
|
57
|
58
|
51
|
49
|
49
|
49
|
50
|
|
|
Response to inquiries
|
50
|
56
|
53
|
49
|
46
|
49
|
47
|
49
|
|
|
Information service of
products
|
50
|
46
|
48
|
44
|
43
|
49
|
42
|
45
|
|
|
Customer training
|
31
|
48
|
41
|
37
|
31
|
41
|
39
|
38
|
|
|
Service charge
|
47
|
49
|
43
|
44
|
43
|
41
|
43
|
43
|
Note
Below table shows the names of major
makers that didn't meet the designated number of responses.
|
|
|
Toshiba
|
DEC Japan
|
HP Japan
|
|
Comprehensive
Satisfaction
|
64
|
65
|
69
|
|
Number of Responses
|
61
|
64
|
59
|
|
Satisfaction with
Products
|
Degree of total satisfaction
|
62
|
69
|
72
|
|
|
Performance
|
65
|
70
|
72
|
|
|
Hardware reliability
|
65
|
68
|
71
|
|
|
Hardware prices
|
54
|
54
|
62
|
|
|
Ease-of-use of OS
|
64
|
68
|
66
|
|
|
Load in OS operation
|
58
|
58
|
59
|
|
|
OS reliability
|
53
|
55
|
52
|
|
|
OS Prices
|
56
|
58
|
59
|
|
|
Productivity of application
development
|
56
|
59
|
60
|
|
|
Ease of management of
operation
|
54
|
55
|
54
|
|
|
Variety of software product
lines
|
62
|
68
|
71
|
|
Satisfaction with Product
Related Services
|
Degree of total satisfaction
|
59
|
62
|
61
|
|
|
Support on introduction
|
61
|
60
|
52
|
|
|
Support on changing types of
machine
|
51
|
49
|
41
|
|
|
Support on changing OS
|
46
|
45
|
40
|
|
|
Response to troubles
|
48
|
55
|
44
|
|
|
Response to inquiries
|
46
|
55
|
46
|
|
|
Information service of
products
|
45
|
48
|
50
|
|
|
Customer training
|
36
|
42
|
37
|
|
|
Service charge
|
41
|
43
|
45
|
(return to news)
(Eisuke Mori and Mie Satake, Staff Editors, Nikkei
Computer)
<Visit News Center for more Asian news.>
|
