According to a study from Ziff Davis Enterprise Research, HP scored the highest in its latest Vendor Value survey, among midmarket CIOs. The survey questions CIOs on how well their vendors deliver business value, reliability and quality. The study questioned respondents from 472 organizations of any size, 172 of which were from midsize firms. The study found that vendors had very different response rates according to the respondents' size of business.

For example, while HP, IBM and Symantec score with midsize companies, fewer than half of AT&T's midtier clients rate it as good or excellent at value and reliability, and Sun's customer loyalty among smaller firms is 14 points lower than at larger organizations.

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With HP in poll position, according to the CIOs of midmarket firms, Dell came in joint second with VeriSign. Joint fourth were Cisco and Citrix. However, more interesting is that Oracle came in 15th, despite the firm's recent attempts to move downstream into the midmarket sector.

The two firms that were most consistent among all companies were Microsoft and Cisco Systems.

In the overall survey, HP was also a winner in the hardware, software and services category. The 427 CIO respondents rated it as excelling in providing hardware, software and services. Between 21 percent and 30 percent of its customers rate HP as excellent in the seven value and reliability categories. HP's overall score increased four points from 2006, boosted in large part by a nine-point shot in the arm for being flexible and responsive to its customers.

IBM, by comparison, hasn't shown any major changes from last year within the hardware, software and services category, but its customers are standing by it—Big Blue's loyalty score is 22 points higher than its overall rating. While its 65 percent overall score is not inspiring, Sun deserves credit for a four-point rise; it's biggest gain is a 10-point rise in "solving the business problem paid to solve." EMC scored five-point gains in meeting ROI and quality expectations.

Click here to read more about the Vendor Value study.