Microsoft rated poor by IT professionals in Q2

Microsoft's image took a beating for the second quarter of 2009, as IT professionals gave the company poor rating in customer satisfaction for server and infrastructure software, operating systems and applications in a study conducted by a web-based market researcher.

Although UK consumers voted the Redmond-based software giant as the top UK brand in the 12th annual 500 Superbrands survey this month, toppling the previous year winner and arch rival Google, (See: Microsoft crowned as No. 1 UK brand), IT professionals who rated 347 hardware, software, telecom and service vendors have given the company a lot to think about its customer satisfaction.

IT professionals rating vendors on web-based market research firm VendorRate for April, May and June, hammered Microsoft across the board with poor customer satisfaction scores in categories like integrity, timeliness, reliability, communications, customer service, expertise, lowest budget and whether they would recommend the vendor to others.

Microsoft customer satisfaction scores tumbled between Q1 and Q2 of 2009. Microsoft Applications dropped 17.9 per cent to a score of 64, Microsoft Server/Infrastructure fell 16.7 per cent to 55 and Operating Systems slipped 9.5 per cent to 67.

''Microsoft was cruising along with satisfactory scores in earlier reports but it simply fell off a cliff in this quarter,'' said Rick Schaefer, CEO of VendorRate. ''Meanwhile, IBM Informix was among the top rated vendors for the fourth straight quarter, and this is the first time that ShoreTel made it into the top rankings.''

Telecom equipment maker ShoreTel's score was 92, while IBM Informix scored 96. Among other notable results in the quarter was GovConnection, which was the top rated reseller with a score of 98, the highest ever posted for a VendorRate quarterly report.