2007 Readers' Choice Awards: Readers put their seal of approval on technology providers

For the fourth consecutive year, the results are in and the votes have been tabulated for Chemical Processing’s 2007 Readers’ Choice Awards. This reader-driven survey is important to a lot of people for many reasons.

Learning which vendors that readers consider the technology leaders can help you make better decisions. “I like the questions. They make you think,” says one reader. The survey, according to another reader, is “a very useful tool for bidding, procurement, etc.” Indeed, the results provide real-world perspectives of users that can serve as a valuable resource for choosing or recommending suppliers. Engineers need the right tools to get the job done efficiently and effectively. We hope you consider this year’s list of Readers’ Choice Award winners as one of those tools.

Vendors certainly pay attention to the results. Those cited really do feel proud and honored when they’re named as the top choices by the people who actually use their equipment on the job each and every day. It means they’ve hit the mark and have provided something that is both useful and appreciated by their customers. The results also may spur suppliers not honored to enhance their efforts.

Each year, since the Readers’ Choice Awards were established in 2004, the number of responses and categories has grown. After starting with 40 categories in 2004, this year we list 47, including one for variable speed drives which was suggested by a respondent to the 2006 survey.

Breaking down the numbers

Readers received e-mail notices and electronic newsletters with a link to the questionnaire or used a link posted on our Web site (www.chemicalprocessing.com). The survey was open for responses for approximately one month. A total of 324 readers shared their opinions about which vendors they prefer in 47 different categories. Last year, there were 285 respondents and in 2005, there were 276. Categories were listed, but respondents had to type their own selections in a blank text box. By not providing a pre-selected list of companies in each category, we avoided any inherent bias in the survey.

The rankings show the percentage of total responses in each category that a particular company received. A minimum of at least 5% of the votes in a category is required to be listed. Scores within 3% of each other should be considered a statistical tie.

As in past surveys, Emerson Process Management has maintained its dominance, placing first in seven categories and scoring highly in several others. Alfa Laval and Aspen Technology are the only other multiple category winners. ABB, Allen Bradley, Baldor, Fluke, Honeywell, Fluke, GE and Endress+Hauser had strong showings, achieving listings in multiple categories.

If you didn’t participate in our survey this year, we hope you will consider doing so next year. More detailed survey results are provided on the subsequent pages. If you desire more information about any of the vendors or products listed, we encourage you to visit www.chemicalprocessing.com and search for bearings, pumps or any other category you are interested in. Results from previous Readers’ Choice surveys also are available online.

Reader wins too

Doug Mancosky, research scientist, at Hydro Dynamics in Rome, Ga., is the recipient of the 30-GB video iPod offered as an incentive for our respondents to participate in the Readers’ Choice survey. His name was randomly selected by computer from all of the respondents.