Golden Rhino: Honoring the Best

It was that time of the year when in a marathon round of survey conducted by 360 Magazine, channel partners voted for their favorite vendors, crowning them with the highly acclaimed Golden Rhino Awards.

The results were declared in the 30th April special issue of the fortnightly.

Commenced in the year 2000, the Golden Rhino awards seek to reward IT vendors who have earned their partners trust. The channel community across the country voted enthusiastically for the most channel friendly company in twenty-six categories deciding on the reliability and quality.

An advisory panel was constituted that comprised of various heads of different regional IT trade associations. Some of the names included, Chetan Shah of TAIT, Mumbai; P. N. Prasad of ITTA, Pondicherry; and K L Lalani of COMPASS, Kolkata. The panel framed a set of parameters, on the basis of which the partners rated the vendors in the respective categories.

Partners had to rate the nominated company in 12 criteria, some of which were: warranty policy, replacement speed, location and spread of service, uniformity of service, and a few others. The survey leading to 360 Magazine’s Golden Rhino Awards 2007 was conducted over a period of two months through an offline and online voting process.

The 2007 Golden Rhino saw major surprises in the form of winners across the categories. For the first time, an Indian memory modules vendor, Simmtronics emerged as the winner. D-Link, winner in the networking products category for past four years, suffered a major setback as it saw itself loosing to Netgear. The most notable progress made in the mind of partners was another desi vendor Iball, which won in four categories - Cabinet, Keyboard, Mouse, and Speakers.

One of the highlights of the awards was HP being crowned as the unchallenged winner in total seven product categories. The hardware major holds on to its forte in the imaging and printing market by retaining all the awards in all these categories. Along with this, HP managed to grab channel’s attention in server and notebook categories racing ahead of the past winners.

The entire vendor community appreciated the efforts taken by 360 Magazine and acknowledged the partners for ventilating their choice.

360 Magazine is India's widest circulated IT Channel Fortnightly reaching a community of 27,000 readers. It features analytical, reseller-centric stories, interviews etc that provide a unique insight on the impact of various business functions on overall growth and profit.

360 Magazine's various awards have become symbols of trust in the industry.

About ITNation

ITNation is India’s leading online infomediary that focuses on technology markets covering enterprises, technology resellers, and general consumers. While it empowers the always-on marketplace with valuable information, its tech media brands including CXOtoday.com, Channeltimes.com, Techtree.com, and 360 Magazine are viewed as the market benchmarks by the readers and customers alike. It also provides effective information-exchange platforms to vendors and users by organizing nationwide technology events. And it promises to deliver quality of service by constantly improving its business and content management processes.