Magic Quadrant For Business Intelligence Platforms

10/02/2011

Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligen…

Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligence Platforms
27 January 2011 Rita L. Sallam, James Richardson, John Hagerty, Bill Hostmann Gartner RAS C ore Research Note G00210036

In 2010, business users had greater influence over BI buying, often choosing data discovery vendors as an alternative to traditional BI tools. But megavendorscontinued to hold the majority of BI market share, despite ongoing customer dissatisfaction, by selling the stack into their installed base.

What You Need to Know
This document was revised on 28 January 2011. For more information, see the Corrections page on gartner.com. This document presents a global view of Gartner's opinion of the main software vendors that should be considered by organizationsseeking to use business intelligence (BI) platforms to develop BI applications. Buyers should evaluate vendors in all four quadrants and not assume that only those in the Leaders quadrant can deliver successful BI implementations. Year-to-year comparisons of vendor positions are not particularly useful given market dynamics (such as emerging competitors, new product road maps, new buying centers)and client concerns/inquiries have changed since our last Magic Quadrant. Therefore, we have evaluated vendors based on these new market dynamics and have reflected the changes in our Magic Quadrant criteria evaluation weights for 2011. For further guidance on the Magic Quadrant evaluation process and on how to use a Magic Quadrant, see "Magic Quadrants and MarketScopes: How Gartner EvaluatesVendors Within a Market." Moreover, while it is tempting for the reader to apply his or her own definitions for the Ability to Execute and Completeness of Vision evaluation criteria in order to judge vendor positions, such assumptions will likely lead to incorrect conclusions. For the purpose of this analysis, Ability to Execute is a function of a vendor's score of five measures that Gartner believescustomers care about most in vendor selection. It does not equate to revenue, revenue growth or market share. Completeness of Vision is based on the scoring of six key measures, including, but not exclusive to, "Offering (Product) Strategy." It is important to understand these criteria while judging vendors' positions on the Magic Quadrant. These evaluation criteria are detailed in the EvaluationCriteria section of this document.
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Vendors A dded or Dropped W e re view and adjust o ur inclusio n crite ria fo r Ma gic Q ua dra nts a nd Ma rk e tSco pe s a s m a rk e ts cha nge . As a re sult o f the se adjustm e nts, the m ix o f ve ndo rs in a ny Ma gic Q ua dra nt or Ma rk e tSco pe m a y cha nge o ve r tim e . A ve ndo r appe a ring in a Ma gic Q ua drant o r Ma rk e tScope o ne ye a r and no t the ne x t do e s no t nece ssarily indica te tha t we ha ve cha nge d o ur o pinio n o f tha t ve ndo r. This m a y be a refle ctio n o f a cha nge in the m ark e t a nd, the re fo re , cha nge d e va lua tio n crite ria , o r a change o f fo cus by a ve ndor. Evaluation Criteria Definitions

Ability to Execute
Product/Service: C ore go o ds a nd se rvice s offe re d bythe ve ndo r tha t com pe te in/se rve the de fine d m a rk e t. This include s curre nt pro duct/se rvice capa bilitie s, qua lity, fe a ture sets a nd sk ills, whe the r o ffe re d native ly o r thro ugh O EM a gre e m e nts/pa rtne rships a s de fine d in the m a rk et de finitio n a nd de ta ile d in the subcrite ria . Overall Viability (Business Unit, Financial, Strategy, Organization): Viability includes a n a sse ssm e nt o f the o ve ra ll o rga niza tio n's fina ncial he a lth, the financia l a nd pra ctica l succe ss o f the busine ss unit, a nd the lik e liho o d tha t the individua l busine ss unit will co ntinue inve sting in the pro duct, will co ntinue o ffe ring the pro duct a nd will adva nce the sta te o f the a rt within the o rga niza tio n's po rtfo lio o f pro...