VendorRate (www.vendorrate.com) announced today that IT professionals attending the Microsoft Tech-Ed 2008 Conference in Orlando last week gave HP’s Desktop/Notebook division, Dell Storage-Networking and VMware the highest customer satisfaction scores among technology vendors.

VendorRate.com, the only Internet site that offers quick, confidential performance ratings and comparisons of technology vendors, said hundreds of vendors were rated during the four-day show, attended by nearly 10,000 Microsoft customers, partners and staff. Attendees were invited to rate any IT or telecom vendor, regardless of whether they were exhibiting at Tech-Ed.

“IT professionals are as likely to give vendors high marks for good performance as they are to poorly score vendors who need to address customer satisfaction problems,” said Rick Schaefer, CEO of VendorRate. “Our objective rating platform gives IT pros a neutral starting point that results in more accurate and relevant vendor scoring information.”

With a maximum possible score of 100 based on ten key performance categories, Schaefer said, HP Desktop/Notebook received the top cumulative rating of 87.3, Dell Storage-Networking was second with an 84.5 and VMware placed third at 83.8.

VMware tied HP for the highest score in four individual performance areas as well, sharing the honors for integrity (8.5), likely to recommend (8.9), expertise (8.8), and overall effectiveness (9.0). HP scored highest in integrity (8.5), timeliness (9.5), usability (8.8), and budget (9.3) Dell Storage/Networking claimed the top scores for timeliness (9.5) and reliability (9.0).

Others vendors receiving “Excellent” overall scores were CDW (83.4), Dell Server (83.2), Microsoft Server/Infrastructure (81.5) and Network Appliance (81.5).

Companies with the lowest total ratings among frequently rated vendors were EMC Corporation (51.2) and Symantec Enterprise Storage/Backup (48.6), Schaefer said.

More information on ratings from Tech-Ed is available at www.vendorrate.com/News.aspx.