HP earned the highest overall rating from its customers in a recent survey of nearly 1,200 information technology managers and professionals by Computerworld and InterUnity Group Inc.

Customers gave HP the top satisfaction marks in six of eight categories, including meeting customer expectations, contribution to customer profitability, product quality, product reliability and licensing policies.

HP's overall rating was a full eight and seven points higher than Dell and IBM, respectively, and eight and 11 points higher in the contribution to profitability category. EMC was ranked sixth overall among the top 10 hardware and software vendors which were rated; HP scored 49 points higher than EMC overall, 51 points higher on product quality, 34 points higher on customer service and 42 points higher on meeting expectations.

HP also ranked No. 1 among customers when asked if they would recommend the vendor.

A May survey from Technology Business Research, Inc.'s ongoing IT customer satisfaction study revealed that in the first quarter of 2004 HP secured the No. 1 ranking in customer satisfaction among vendors of Intel®-based servers.

"Meeting customer expectations is essential," said Peter Blackmore, executive vice president, Customer Solutions Group, HP. "HP has long been known for product quality and reliability, but these surveys show we've made strides in delivering even higher business value that impacts our customers' bottom lines. We intend to continue this momentum with our focused strategy of delivering high technology at low cost with the best customer experience."

The InterUnity Customer Satisfaction Index (ICSI) scores used in the Computerworld survey were based on the number of customers who ranked their vendor as "excellent" and "good," adjusted by the number of customers who reported a "poor" experience. With an ICSI score of 136, HP earned the highest overall rating from its customers. A score of 100 is average. Customers of 10 major IT vendors responded between April 5 and May 14, 2004, after being invited to participate via e-mail. Of those who took part in the survey, 64 percent held titles of manager or higher, and the rest had technical or senior technical titles.

More than 30 industry groups were represented in the survey, including manufacturing, health care, banking, aerospace and financial services. Enterprise IT vendors surveyed, ranked in order of their overall rating by their customers, were: HP, IBM, Dell, Sun, Oracle, EMC, Microsoft, Computer Associates, PeopleSoft and SAP.

In surveying customers on their satisfaction with IT vendors, Computerworld teamed with InterUnity Group, which provides companies and vendors with technology intelligence to improve their business performance.

Details on the survey are available online