Competitive Analysis of Top 5 Hardware Vendors to the European Manufacturing Industry

Manufacturing Insights evaluated the top 5 hardware vendors to the European manufacturing industry - Cisco, Dell, Fujitsu Siemens Computers, HP, and IBM - primarily based on questionnaire responses and individual interviews.

The results of this research are hardware vendor profiles and a competitive map in which Manufacturing Insights positions them against a number of competitive indicators.

"The vertical alignment competitive map differentiates the hardware vendors we have analyzed into two very different groups - incumbents such as HP and IBM, which have a strong position in the manufacturing sector, and challengers such as Cisco, Dell, and Fujitsu Siemens Computers," said Pierfrancesco Manenti, EMEA research director, Manufacturing Insights, an IDC company. "It is still possible for a hardware vendor to win substantial business from manufacturers without adopting a vertical approach either in terms of offering or go-to-market, but the general trend is towards partnering with other vendors in order to create solution packages tailored towards subindustries or manufacturing business processes and at the same time working with channel partners to leverage their industry expertise."