Company Out-Ranks EMC, IBM, and Others in Service, Support, and Technical Performance of Storage Equipment
Santa Clara, California, 5 June, 2001 — Hitachi Data Systems, the world's fastest- growing supplier of enterprise data storage systems, today announced it scored significantly higher than its major competitors in a survey commissioned to determine how well the company is satisfying its U.S. customers' service and support needs.
The survey, conducted by FIND/SVP, found that 89 percent of the customers queried were either "extremely satisfied" or "very satisfied" overall with the service and support they have received from Hitachi Data Systems. This contrasts with an overall satisfaction rating of 59 percent for EMC and 58 percent for IBM in the same survey.
These results confirm those reported in an independent survey of data center users last December by Wit SoundView Corp. In that survey, respondents rated Hitachi Data Systems' substantially higher overall than any of the eight other competitors mentioned, including EMC, IBM, and Sun. Hitachi's lead in services was especially notable.
"Hitachi Data Systems' commitment to customer satisfaction is a great strength," said Mark Calkins, Technology Manager, Valero Energy Corp., one of the largest independent refining and marketing companies in the United States. "We especially value their proactive efforts to fix problems before we even know about them. They are great at understanding our IT requirements, and their local support staff is well trained to deliver exceptional customer service."
"Our satisfaction with the support we get from Hitachi Data Systems is largely based on our relationship with their people," said Jack Broome, Senior Vice President, Bank of America. "As with most large IT shops our ability to support business requirements calls for quick response from our vendors. Because Hitachi Data Systems knows us and our business they are able to meet our needs quickly."
All the customers queried for this survey deploy storage from more than one vendor. Most of them have significant installations from at least three different vendors, and some from as many as six vendors.
"These days we're operating in a world of multi-vendor data centers," said Jim Davidson, Hitachi Data Systems vice president and general manager, United States sales. "More than ever before customers are making day-to-day comparisons of our performance against that of our competitors. The results of our most recent customer satisfaction survey are gratifying in that they show we are delivering on our promises better than any one else. We're working hard to maintain and improve that level of satisfaction."
Hitachi Data Systems received higher ratings than EMC on 16 of the 19 service and support criteria measured. The company out-performed EMC most noticeably on the following issues:
Quality of service during initial installation — 93 percent extremely or very satisfied vs 69 percent
Flexibility in performing preventative maintenance — 88 percent vs 72 percent
Providing response time and throughput measurements — 66 percent vs 48 percent
Having a clear understanding of customer requirements — 61 percent vs 45 percent
Overall satisfaction with the technical performance of Hitachi Data Systems' storage equipment was also rated high in this survey, with 94 percent reporting their level of satisfaction with Hitachi Data Systems as "extremely satisfied" or "very satisfied." Hitachi's score in this category is the highest among all competitors measured in this survey, well ahead of EMC's 73 percent and IBM's 63 percent.
Details of survey methodology, criteria, and results are available on Hitachi Data Systems' Web site http://www.hds.com/pdf/custsatwriteup6.pdf.
Committed to helping customers exploit the value of information technology for success in the Internet economy, Hitachi Data Systems, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd. (NYSE:HIT), is a leading provider of business solutions for the world's most information-intensive corporations. For further information on Hitachi Data Systems, access www.hds.com.
Hitachi, Ltd., headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is one of the world's leading global electronics companies, with fiscal 2000 (ended March 31, 2001) consolidated sales of 8,417 billion yen ($67.9 billion) The company manufactures and markets a wide range of products, including computers, semiconductors, consumer products and power and industrial equipment. For more information on Hitachi, Ltd., please visit Hitachi's Web site at www.global.hitachi.com.
FIND/SVP is a worldwide business advisory, research and consulting service with almost 2,000 retainer client organizations in the U.S. The Company has been helping executives make more informed decisions since 1969. It is the second largest member of the global SVP Group, of which Ms. Brigitte de Gastines is chairperson. Worldwide, the SVP Group serves more than 75,000 executives in 11,000 companies. The Customer Satisfaction & Survey Research Practice of FIND/SVP is one of the leading firms offering business-to-business and consumer customer satisfaction measurement in the United States, and has executed studies domestically and internationally for a wide array of leading U.S. and multinational companies. FIND/SVP is located at 625 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10011. More information is available by calling 212-645-4500 or visiting FIND/SVP's web site at www.findsvp.com or the SVP Group's site at www.svp.com.
Contacts: PR
1 At an exchange rate of 124 yen to the dollar.
Hitachi Data Systems is registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office as a trademark and service mark of Hitachi, Ltd. Nanocopy, ShadowImage, Freedom Storage and Lightning 9900 are trademarks of Hitachi Data Systems. S/390 is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation. UNIX is a registered trademark in the United States and other countries, licensed exclusively through X/Open Company Limited. Windows NT and Windows 2000 are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.
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