2017First Half
Telecom Vendor Equipment Selection
ACGRESEARCH MARKET
PULSE STUDYRay Mota CEO and Principal Analyst
www.acgcc.com [email protected] @rmota
Table of Content
Sr. No
01.
02.
03.
04.
05.
07.
08.
09.
10.
11.
12.
Description
Overview and Methodology
Demographics
Key Findings
Top-of-Mind Brands
Vendor Recommendations
Top Criteria Influencing Purchases of TelecomEquipment - Unaided
Top Criteria Influencing Purchases of TelecomEquipment - Aided
Vendors' Performance
Top Vendors by Technology
Vendors Score by Purchase Criteria
Final Words – Buyer’s Advice
Slide#
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
14
15
Overview And Methodology
Overview Methodology
ACG Research is an analyst and consulting firm in the networking and telecom domain.
To understand what drives brand and purchase choice of telecom equipment and key vendors in this domain.
This research identifies the top purchase drivers and top brands in the telecom equipment market, as well as key di�erences in purchase drivers and brand value perception by technology type.
This study was conducted in 1Q17 and 2Q17 among companies across North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific and the Middle East.
A total of 35 interviews were conducted with buyers involved in and/or influencing purchase of various types of telecom equipment.
The study included a mix of close-ended and open-ended questions, which allowed respondents to provide both unaided views (of top purchase drivers and vendors' choices) as well as quantitative evaluations of a core set of vendors.
Key vendors assessed in this study included Cisco, Ericsson, Huawei, Juniper and Nokia. The typical respondent purchased equipment from 3 or more of these vendors. We did allow some fill answers. Palo Alto Network was high on security.
Demographics
The study was conducted in local languages and included a good mix of respondents from all geographic regions.
All roles involved in purchasing were targeted and the final sample included a good mix of purchase roles.
Most respondents had purchased from 3-4 of the vendors included in this study.
North America,29%
Latin America,14%
Asia Pacific,14%
Europe,29%
Middle East,14%
Respondents' Locations
Respondents' Purchase Roles Respondents' Vendor Experience(Previously purchased from these vendors)
Influencers9% Nokia
Cisco
Ericsson
Juniper
Huawei
Evaluators 43%
Decision48%
34
28
31
26
28
Purchase DriversKey
Ease of Integration/Open Architecture
Bundle/End-to-End Solution
Innovation
Pricing
Support Quality
Product Feature & Performance
Thought-Leadership
Financing
Vendor Reputation
Sales Team Quality
72%
58%
54%
49%
47%
41%
37%
35%
17%
25%
Key Findings
Purchase choices are all about Quality and Product Performance, regardless of final vendor choice
WHAT BUYERS ARE SAYINGVendors' Reputation
Purchase choices are all about quality and product performance, regardless of final vendor choice
Ericsson's customers are confused about Ericsson's direction and long-term vision but still see its integration business as value
Cisco is becoming more of a security company vs. a routing and switching company. Need a router refresh
PTX and MX are still viewed as high-end products and value but see a need to reset the security area for Juniper
Key Purchase Drivers (Q2)
Unaided views call out Cisco as the top brand. Ericsson “brand” is ratedlow because of concerns about sustainability
Top Rated Telecom Equipment Vendors (Q4)
Vendor Performance Ratings (Q5)
Top-of-Mind Brands
Vendors' Performance Ratings
Top-Rated Telecom Equipment Vendors
Nokia
Cisco
Ericsson
Huawei
59%
18%
12%
6%
5%
Cisco
Nokia
Juniper
Juniper
Huawei
Ericsson
54%
40%
29%
29%
26%
Top Recommended Vendors – NPS (Q13)
Net Promoter Scores WHY
Cisco
Nokia
Juniper
Huawei
Ericsson
79%
67%
55%
48%
26%
Operators are most likely to recommend Cisco and Nokia but Ericssonfor services, and Huawei for pricing
Vendor Recommendations
Cisco is the global service provider for cloud solutions and considered extraordinary in providing security & networking solutions. Robust and high-quality equipment with great service quality are the main reasons. Confident about its approach toward the satisfaction of its customers.
Ericsson is struggling. Diversifying and following the same strategy Nokia did a few years back.
The quality of the equipment and service from Nokia is always up to the mark. Sales service and support are the main factors for why customers trust Nokia solutions. Nokia has provided the highest quality services and best a�er-sales support team.
Juniper has been able to o�setweak Tier 1 spending with strongwebscaler solutions.
Cisco is really doing well in providing networking and security equipment. We prefer the company in small-scale integrations over other vendors.
Huawei's quality of technology products has improved and the company continues to gain in APAC & EMEA.
Top-of-mind (unaided) drivers come down to three: product features & performance,service & support and price.
Ease of Integration/Open Architecture
Product Features & Performance
Price
Innovation
Service & Support
32%
27%
21%
9%
7%
3%
1%
Top Purchase Criteria (Q1)
Timely Delivery
Reputation
Top Purchase Criteria - Unaided
Top Purchase Criteria - Unaided
Pricing is important but more important are: Quality, followed by Product Features& Performance and Innovation.
Service & Support
Product Features & Performance
Innovation
Ease of Integration/Open Architecture
Pricing
78%
56%
54%
48%
46%
39%
36%
33%
28%
24%
Bundle/End-to-End Solution
Vendors' Reputation
Financing
Thought Leadership
Sales Team Quality
Top Purchase Criteria - Unaided
Support quality, product feature & performance & innovation are the top criteria that influence telecom equipment purchase decisions.
Financing, thought leadership & quality of sales team are ranked much lower; however, these criteria do have some influence on purchase and can provide vendors with incremental di�erentiation.
Ease of integration and pricing are also strong considerations for purchase.
The “Top” Purchase Criteria
For most buyers, there is a preferred vendor that receives a 5 rating. Nokia and Cisco havethe most 5s but it’s a close race overall.
Vendor Performance
Cisco
Nokia
Huawei
Juniper
Ericsson
Top Vendors by Performance of Telecom Equipment (Q5)
54%
40%
29%
29%
26%
Product & service qualityInnovationProduct performanceEnd-to-end solution providerMarket reputation
Quality of equipmentE�icient in planning & implementationInnovationNetwork management expertisePricing
InnovationProduct & service qualityOptimistic capabilitiesPricing
Cisco
Nokia
Huawei
Juniper
High-end expertise in security solutionsRobust and high-quality equipmentInnovationProduct features and a�er-sales services areup to the mark
Peeling back the layers, we see that being a top brand doesn’t mean beingthe top choice across all types of telecom equipment!
Top Vendors by Technology
Technology
Broadband
Cloud
Data Center
Mobile
Cisco Product feature & performance and ease of integration
Ease of integration, innovation and support qualityNokia
TopVendors What makes them top?
Juniper
Cisco
Cisco
Juniper
Ericsson
Nokia
Ease of integration and innovation
Innovation and ease of integration
Ease of integration, support quality
Ease of integration and product feature and performance
Global integration integration and orchestration
Bundle/End-to-end solution and support quality
Peeling back the layers, we see that being a top brand doesn’t mean beingthe top choice across all types of telecom equipment!
Top Vendors by Technology
Technology
Optical
Router/Switches
SDN/NFV
Security
VoIP/IMS/UC
Wi-Fi
Huawei Inexpensive support quality and product featureand performance
Ease of integration and thought leadershipCisco
TopVendors What makes them top?
Cisco
Juniper
Nokia
Nokia
Ericsson
Cisco
Cisco
Cisco
HPE
Palo AltoNetworks
Support quality and product feature, large loyalcustomer baseEase of integration and reputation and openand flexible to webscaler
Reputation of foundation of Nuage Networks
Cloud manager and orchestrator
Reputation and product features and performance
Product feature and performance
Vendor's reputation
Innovation and support quality
Support quality and product feature and performance
Ease of integration and innovation
@
Yes, quality is key but for incremental market share gains, vendors maydo better to focus on improving pricing.
Vendor Scores by Purchase Criteria
Pricing 3.62
3.51
3.84
3.87
4.00
4.51
4.21
3.62
3.12
4.42
3.82
4.11
4.23
4.41
4.09
4.36
4.36
3.71
4.27
4.18
3.32
4.17
4.79
4.69
3.91
4.92
4.75
4.42
4.67
4.56
4.85
4.87
3.87
3.77
3.87
4.36
4.73
3.12
3.9
3.80
3.72
3.80
4.50
4.52
4.87
4.57
4.30
4.12
4.00
3.25
Financing
Innovation
Support Quality
ThoughtLeadership
Ease of Integration/Open Architecture
Product Features& Performance
Sales Team Quality
Vendors' Reputation
Bundle/End-to-EndSolution
Should maintain and improve
Satisfactory but improvement needed
Need significant focus & improvement<3.5
3.5-4
>4
I think there is a need to focus more on innovation in implementation rather than implementing in traditional ways.
It is expected that so�ware dependency would increase in the future so the vendors need to concentrate more on developing the solutions that are more so�ware dependent rather than hardware oriented.
Network and data security is of utmost important, so the vendors try and make their equipment more secure and reliable and make some necessary changes at the planning and designing phase only.
Vendors should work on open architecture; however, there are constraints related to investments for the new network roll-outs & equipment so ROI is very important.
Vendors should o�er competitive pricing and solutions which are future proof for at least couple of years.
Support quality is very important because errors need to be reduced significantly, high up-times are required Network congestion needs to be eliminated.
Highest level of commitment is expected from service providers. Their SLAs should be very stringent to ensure that operators deliver desired level of services to customers.
Vendors should work more on improving the quality of the support services as it is a very important aspect for any customer/operator. Vendors should also provide enough flexibility at the architecture level of the equipment.
Vendor should come up with the bundled products which can meet the current needs and demands of the telecom market. Not that they do not o�er any at this point of time.
Also, vendor thought leadership is a very important factor because vendors should have a good project management o�ice with e�ective leadership to take projects forward.
It is expected that vendors make some changes to their pricing structure based on the complexity of the solution deployed and servicing regular customers.
Support quality plays a vital role in delivering smooth and uninterrupted services.
Want to become a preferred provider? Here are some key points of advice from buyers.
Final Words – Buyer’s Advice
Top Related