Wouldn’t it be nice if an organization somewhere took it upon themselves to research which technology solutions live up to their promises? And wouldn’t it be extremely nice if those solutions could be broken down into neat little categories so you knew which ones might be better for your organization?
This organization exists! It’s called Gartner, Inc., and the way it identifies and sorts top tech solutions is with the Magic Quadrant.
About the Magic Quadrant and Why It Matters
Gartner Inc. conducts extensive research to evaluate a wide variety of tech solutions. Gartner considers not only a company’s vision but also their ability to execute that vision. Only top contenders make their way into the Magic Quadrant, so seeing your name there is a big deal in the technology world. However, Gartner further sorts its top contenders into leaders, visionaries, niche players, and challengers. The upper right-hand corner is considered the elite of the elite.
Here’s a simple explanation of what each square means, although you can find a more detailed explanation of each square here.
- Leaders are in alignment with their vision and well-positioned for tomorrow
- Challengers execute well today but don’t seem to anticipate future demands
- Visionaries understand where the market is going but don’t yet execute well
- Niche Players focus on a small segment and don’t look like they plan to expand
Gartner will revisit its findings every one or two years, so if a software platform makes significant improvements, its status may change!
How Technology Providers Use the Magic Quadrant
At Marco, we use the Magic Quadrant when we’re evaluating new technology and deciding what solutions are best positioned to serve our clients. When something shifts, we’ll know about it right away, and you’ll frequently see us revise our offerings accordingly.
Fortunately, Gartner creates these quadrants for almost every category of business technology you can think of, from email and backup to video conferencing and cloud services.
If you’re interested, you can view a list of these quadrants — for free!
How Other Organizations and Investors Use Magic Quadrants
Magic Quadrants have been geared more toward investors or resellers like Marco, so it’s easy for us to spot a new or upcoming tool that will provide more ROI. But these quadrants also have value to buyers.
For example, you can choose almost any category of business tech and get a quick picture of the major players. And if you’d like more information on the capabilities and sustainability of a particular solution, Gartner also offers more of a deeper dive called Critical Capabilities.
Our Tips for Making the Most of Magic Quadrants
Every organization is different, but here’s where we’d advise most organizations to use a magic quadrant.
- Generally speaking, we’d advise most organizations to shy away from niche players. They may still be very good at what they do, but they’ll often lack the breadth that other solutions have.
- Focus on players that appear in the top two quadrants — leaders and challengers. They’ll have the vision, capabilities, and sustainability to serve you well.
- Follow industry news to understand what comes into play. For example, when Webex by Cisco was identified as a Magic Quadrant leader for the 5th year in a row, we all took notice. But Cisco was also wise to seize the opportunity to articulate why it provided a good value and how it had earned its status.
Getting the Best Deals on Leader and Challenger Solutions
We cultivate strong relationships with the leaders and challengers on Gartner’s Magic Quadrants so we can provide best-in-class support for our clients on these solutions. And because we get volume discounts on many of these solutions, we can also pass on the savings.
Browse our list of strategic partners at the bottom of this page!
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