Technology: Tracking Vendor Evolution

Gartner has Magic and Quadrants. Forrester has Waves. Now CMSWatch has branded their own approach, a new kind of analyst chart, one that tries to show vendor evolution. It’s cool, but maybe they need to come up with a shorter or catchier name for it, but clearly provides a a different perspective than what other analysts are doing.

They say, “Let us be clear: there is no “right” or “magic” or “leader” location this chart.” They reason that vendors that are ‘evolving’ “can influence roadmaps and new technology and leapfrog competitors stuck with older tools and approaches.”

The CMS charts are plots of vendor circles that identifies small, medium and large vendors across the broad technology marketplace. Each vendor circle is partially filled to give a rough estimate of the percentage of the vendor’s focus on the technology they are covering, like enterprise search, or ECM. Vendors are positioned on a grid mapping the speed of vendor evolution versus the speed of the vendor’s product development.

A neat approach, but being able to separate change which occurs within the vendor organization and change occurring with the vendor’s product might be hard to do.
CMSWatch’s chart, in effect, tries to quantify the volatility behind vendors and their products. Given the waves of acquisitions, mergers and consolidation happening among enterprise application vendors, this information can be of great use in getting a sense for what to expect from a vendor in the future.

CMSWatch explains their philosophy: “Each buyer is different. What represents a high risk to one, may represent a chance for innovation and a competitive advantage to another. What represents a staid, uninspiring, and somewhat slow-moving product set to one, may represent a solid area of comfort and low risk to another. Matching your appetite for change and risk against the vendors is an important element of the selection process. Equally important is the knowledge that this chart is in constant flux. Each edition looks different as new products and initiatives are launched and others mature. As many enterprise search projects stretch over many months, monitoring this vendor movement is an important part of the project process.