Lenovo, CDW Get Kudos From Readers

When readers suggested that I balance our "Worst Vendor of 2006" poll by asking for nominations for a Best Vendor of the year, I must admit I had my doubts that such an exercise would prove very useful. After all, this is the Gripe Line, and my readers are not all that attuned to saying nice things about vendors. But it turns out to have been quite an enlightening experience, not just for who won, but for all th

Great Rift Software: "My nomination goes to a small software house called The Great Rift Company. They produce a wonderful software product called AnyBook that caters to small book publishers like myself who need to manage day-to-day sales, inventory, and royalty data. AnyBook does a marvelous job of addressing these needs while at the same time being very affordable. I migrated to AnyBook in early 2006 leaving behind a competing product that was all but abandoned by its author. I can't begin to tell you how helpful Great Rift was in answering my questions and getting me up to speed. To my surprise, e-mail was often answered within minutes, software patches -- when necessary -- often followed within hours, and suggestions were not only welcome but encouraged. In fact, many of my suggestions are now features in the current product. I was so conditioned to expect the worst when it comes to support that I thought this positive experience might be an anomaly. But after one year of frequent contact with Great Rift I am pleased to say that it is their normal mode of business. They subscribe to an ethic that is long forgotten in the 'Worst Vendor' camps: They care, they value their customers, and they stand behind their product. Plain and simple. Now I know this niche company is unknown to 99.9% of your readers but if you do compile a best vendor list then I truly believe it deserves a place on that list."

Caelo Software: "My vote for best vendor is Caelo Software, Inc., makers of the NEO line of products: NEO free, NEO standard, and NEO pro. I've been using their software since the V1 beta several years ago and I have found their customer service to be consistently superior. Any time I email them I get quick, useful responses. Proactive support is built into the software with features like automatically emailing crash dump info to them if the program does crash. And the program itself is outstanding and they've been upgrading it steadily for the past few years. The user interface is polished and provides an elegant frontend for Outlook."

Atlassian: "Atlassian is probably unknown to most of your readers. They provide a commercial wiki, Confluence, and an issue-tracking system, Jira, that are gaining popularity in the commercial and open-source worlds. The product kills the competition in the price/performance measurements. Each release is better than the last - we've experienced no regressions over the past two years. The support people are knowledgeable and work very hard to solve problems. Kudos to them!"

37Signals: "For hosted software, I nominate 37signals.com, specifically their BaseCamp product. Forget the ease of use and amazing utility of their services -- their responsiveness and transparency are a marvel. The ease of upgrades, downgrades, and cessation is also noteworthy."

There were more Best Vendor nominations, but that's enough for now. If you know a vendor that you think should be added to the list - no shills, please, unless you want to wind up on the Worst Vendor list - then post your nomination on my website, write me at Foster@gripe2ed.com or phone the Gripe Line voice mail at 1 888 875-7916.

Read and post comments about this story here.