In a modestly growing market, the ability of storage firms to provide services and integrated solutions is increasingly important. Most buyers weigh equally the hardware, software, and services when making a purchase decision. Building brand awareness, knowledge, and preference for services and solutions is therefore essential to successful positioning in the storage market.

Preferences and Priorities for Storage Services provides a detailed analysis of how IT executives from large enterprises and government agencies assess leading providers of storage services and the market as a whole.

Based on interviews with 300 U.S.-based IT decision makers from large companies and organizations in four major industries, the report is designed to help providers of storage services and solutions plan marketing initiatives, shape market perceptions, and track the effectiveness of marketing programs on an ongoing basis.

Key findings in the report include:

• Unaided and aided awareness of IT storage services and solutions firms
• Familiarity with, favorability toward, and preference for doing business with storage services and solutions firms
• Competitive positioning of storage services and solutions firms
• Importance of different attributes in when buyers select services and solutions firms
• Comparison of the relative strength of brand attributes of primary sponsors and specified peers
• Sources of information about IT storage services and solutions providers
• Awareness and recall of advertising venues

The report includes analysis by respondent title, buyer responsibility, industry, and organizational revenue.

Companies covered in detail in the study include:
Brocade Communications, Cisco Systems, CNT, Computer Associates, Dell, EDS, EMC, Hewlett-Packard, Hitachi Data Systems, IBM Global Services, LEGATO, McDATA, Network Appliance, StorageTek, Sun Microsystems, Tivoli, and VERITAS. A number of other firms are also included in ratings and discussions of brand awareness.

Study Methodology
From December 2003 through February 2004, ITSMA conducted interviews with 300 IT executives involved in the purchase of storage services to assess the brand awareness and market positioning of the major storage and storage services firms. The study respondents held director-level positions or higher and represented organizations in four major industry groups and with annual revenue ranging from $200 million to more than $20 billion.

Respondent Demographics
Respondent Titles			Company size			Industry Groups
C-level executives	20.7%		$200-999 million	25.0%		Government/public sector	26.0%
IT Vice Presidents	24.0%		$1-4.9 billion	25.3%		Financial services	25.3%
IT Directors	55.3%		$5-20 billion	17.0%		Manufacturing	25.3%
			More than $20 billion	32.7%		Communications	23.4%

This report is available for sale at member and nonmember prices.
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