How to use Gartner Magic Quadrant and other reports throughout technology selection process?

Hands down, the most popular independent report in the technology market is the Gartner Magic Quadrant report. If there was a Magic Quadrant for the Independent research reports, Gartner MQ would be at the top right of the quadrant.

But sometimes, it can get confusing when your prospective brings new reports such as Critical Capabilities (CC), Peer Insights rating, eMQ, etc.

We should understand these other reports are not to replace the MQ report but should be used in conjunction with the MQ report in various phases of the technology selection process.

Gartner reports in multiple stages of tech-selection process

Let’s understand the meaning of these reports first and then we will understand how to use it across the technology selection process.

• Magic Quadrant: needs no explanation but this is a representation of vendors in a given market in a quadrant graphic where the vendors are measured on their current product capabilities, financial performance, overall viability, growth rate, marketing message and channels, sales strategy, geographic presence , vision, etc.

• Critical capabilities: This is a product evaluation report and is published alongside the MQ report. Where the MQ report plots the vendors in a quadrant, the Critical Capabilities (CC) report scores the products from the same vendors who participated in the MQ report. The big difference is that MQ is about vendors and CC report is about the product and the platform based on the 3 most common use-cases mapped to customers requirements. The report includes Top 3 use-cases: Core Endpoint Protection, Workspace Security, and On-premises Endpoint Protection.

• Gartner Peer Insights: This is very different from the two reports explained above. This isn’t written by Gartner analysts and Gartner analysts have no control over the ratings, inclusion in the list. Gartner Peer Insights rating for the vendors is purely driven by user community and their feedback and experiences on the vendor and their product.

As all the three reports mentioned above cover different aspects of the market, they shouldn’t be construed as a replacement of each other during technology selection process and should be used in conjunction with each other.

Voice of the customer reports: The voice of the customer report should also not be confused with the Magic Quadrant report just because they look similar. The voice of the customer report is based on the user ratings on Gartner Peer Insights and the vendors are not ranked and rated by Gartner Analysts.

No single Gartner report tells the whole story. The real value comes from understanding how they complement each other throughout the evaluation process.

With Q4 technology evaluations around the corner, now is the time to put that approach into practice.