Gartner and Forrester just released their new CI/MI tool reports and we are in both! To read the full reports click on the links below (to read the respective reports you need to be a Gartner customer or you need to be a Forrester customer/buy the report individually)
Gartner "Market Guide for Competitive and Market Intelligence Tools For Technology and Service Providers"
Forrester "The Market And Competitive Intelligence Platform Landscape, Q4 2022"
Both reports provide a brief overview of the prominent software vendors in the CI/MI industry, of which we are included. But, we would like to take this opportunity to perform a public service announcement. (Spoiler: This same conclusion was communicated by both thought leaders in their reports.)
The competitive and market intelligence tool landscape is challenging to navigate as a buyer. There are a number of tools whose functionality is built for specific use cases (Intelligence Hub, Deliverable Production, Financial Report Analysis, Battle Cards, Digital Ad Monitoring, Information Feeds etc.). The truth is, certain tools are better at particular use cases, but they have all been bundled under this overarching category of MI/CI tools. As we have heard from many customers, the messaging utilized throughout our industry in the form of website copy, social posts, and ads share a similar message yet in real-world use, the products differ significantly.
This is an unfortunate reality of a burgeoning technology category. Everybody is building feverishly to meet customer needs, and testing messaging that they believe will resonate with their target audience. Having served intelligence professionals since 2005, we have had a front-row seat to this growth. We have made a conscious effort to solicit third-party feedback and be reflective of our own messaging to ensure that it aligns with features that are utilized daily in our own platform. We believe that this intentionality has, at least in part, resulted in our high level of customer satisfaction and long retention rates.
Although these aforementioned reports are intended to provide a brief overview of each vendor, we feel that Gartner and Forrester have done a great job of encapsulating the tools available in our market and highlighting key differentiators where possible. More importantly, they will play a key role in helping buyers navigate this growing market. In the near future, we believe the intelligence industry will have a similar trajectory to more mature technology categories. The applications available to intelligence professionals will be in one of two categories; use case-specific tools and intelligence platforms. To draw a parallel to other industries, think of Slack v.s. Microsoft Office 365. Slack is a very good messaging tool, but Microsoft has bundled Microsoft Teams with Office 365 which contains other complimentary tools. Depending on the size of a company and its tech stack, Slack may be exactly what they need, but others would need a comprehensive and integrated platform. As is true today, but will become glaringly obvious in the future, the buyer will need to be introspective of their own true needs which will dictate whether a use-case-specific tool or a wholistic platform best fulfills their needs.
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