Gartner Market Guide

Understanding early, mature and smaller markets

When markets are growing and IT solutions are stable yet competitive, Magic Quadrants provide the best tool for understanding the positioning of the providers; however, when new markets emerge and the offerings and user requirements are in flux, solutions are often difficult to compare, making a competitive positioning less useful. Or, when a market matures to the point that the offerings become fairly interchangeable, comparative positioning is less important than an analysis of and recommendations about the market itself. In these scenarios, a Gartner Market Guide can provide the right insight.

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How do you use a Gartner Market Guide?

You can use a Gartner Market Guide to understand how the status of an emerging market aligns to your future plans. In addition, since Gartner has published over 100 Market Guide research notes, IT and strategic leaders and investors can gain a broad view of many markets, including mature and smaller markets, in an easy-to-read format.

A Market Guide can help with such questions as, “How suitable is it to make a buying decision today for this market?” or “What key capabilities are providers generally able to bring to this market this year?”

How does a Market Guide work?

A Market Guide defines a market and explains what clients can expect it to do in the short term. With the focus on early, more chaotic markets, a Market Guide does not rate or position vendors within the market, but rather more commonly outlines attributes of representative vendors that are providing offerings in the market to give further insight into the market itself. 

Gartner Market Guide helps you:

  • Manage the risk of investing in an emerging market with insight into its direction and potential. 
  • Support the argument for allowing an emerging market to further evolve before making a commitment. 
  • Survey the types of provider options in the market and understand how offerings are likely to evolve.