We are happy to share some insights about IBM drawn from our latest market research, Ventana Research Buyers Guide: Analytics and Data, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.
We recently published five Ventana Research 2023 Analytics and Data Buyers Guides, an assessment of technology vendors and products that provide individual and combined 
analytics and data, augmented analytics, collaborative analytics, embedded analytics and mobile analytics and platform support. At Ventana Research, we continue to believe that, for most use-cases, there is a clear choice for analytics and data platforms for any use in your organization. We developed five technology assessments and buyers guides to focus on overall analytics and data requirements as well as specific augmented analytics, collaborative analytics, mobile analytics and embedded analytics use-cases.
In all of our Buyers Guides, we utilize a structured research methodology called the Value Index that includes evaluation categories designed to reflect real-world criteria incorporated in a request for proposal (RFP) and vendor selection process for analytics and data. We evaluated IBM and 21 other vendors in seven categories, five relevant to the product (adaptability, capability, manageability, reliability and usability) and two related to the vendor (TCO/ROI and vendor validation). To arrive at the Value Index rating for a given vendor, we weighted each category to reflect its relative importance in an RFP process, with the weightings based on our experience and on data derived from our benchmark research on analytics and data.
In the overall Analytics and Data Buyers Guide, our analysis classified IBM as Exemplary, ranking second in the overall research at 74.1%. IBM’s best performance came in Product Experience at 73.8%, ranking first, 
due in part to its first-place ranking in Reliability. In Customer Experience, IBM placed sixth at 75.7% due to its performance in Validation and TCO/ROI. IBM was designated an Overall Leader and a Leader in Product Experience, Usability, Reliability, Manageability and Capability. IBM fully participated in the RFI process.
IBM’s Product Experience was impacted by its 72.2% performance in Adaptability, where it could provide more and deeper integrations with enterprise applications. Customer Experience was impacted by its 76.0% performance in TCO/ROI, where it could improve its material on the business case and value of its products.
IBM performed best in Product Experience, notably in Reliability, where its 81.3% performance was due to its architecture and deployment options. In addition, IBM’s support for a variety of users and competence levels led to its 81.9% performance in Usability. In Capability, it provides a broad range of analytics and performed well in data modeling, data access, collaboration and augmented analytics.
In the Augmented Analytics Buyers Guide, our analysis classified IBM as Exemplary, ranking third in the overall research with a 71.9% performance. IBM’s best performance came in Product Experience at 71.1%, ranking third, 
due in part to its first-place ranking in Reliability. In Customer Experience, IBM placed sixth at 75.7% due to its performance in Validation and TCO/ROI. IBM was designated an Overall Leader and a Leader in Product Experience, Usability, Reliability, Manageability and Capability. IBM fully participated in the RFI process.
IBM’s Product Experience was nominally impacted by its 72.2% performance in Adaptability, where it could provide more and deeper integrations with enterprise applications. Customer Experience was impacted by its 76.0% performance in TCO/ROI, where it could improve its material on the business case and value of its products.
IBM performed best in Product Experience, notably in Reliability, where its 81.3% performance was due to its architecture and deployment options. In Capability, it provides NLP and AutoML functionality as well as other predictive modeling functionality. Additionally, IBM’s support for a variety of users and competence levels led to its 81.9% performance in Usability.
In the Collaborative Analytics Buyers Guide, our analysis classified IBM as Exemplary, ranking second in the overall research at 73.8%. IBM’s best performance came in Product Experience at 73.3%, ranking second, with a 
first-place ranking in Reliability. In Customer Experience, IBM placed sixth at 75.7% due to its performance in Validation and TCO/ROI. IBM was designated an Overall Leader and a Leader in Product Experience, Usability, Reliability, Manageability and Capability. IBM fully participated in the RFI process.
IBM’s Product Experience was nominally impacted by its 72.2% performance in Adaptability, where it could provide more and deeper integrations with enterprise applications. Customer Experience was impacted by its 76.0% performance in TCO/ROI, where it could improve its material on the business case and value of its products.
IBM performed best in Product Experience, notably in Reliability, where its 81.3% performance was due to its architecture and deployment options. In addition, IBM’s support for a variety of users and competence levels led to its 81.9% performance in Usability. In Capability, it enables users to annotate and share analyses, integrate with external collaboration tools and assign and track tasks related to analytics processes.
In the Embedded Analytics Buyers Guide, our analysis classified IBM as Exemplary, ranking first in the overall research at 76.7%. IBM’s best performance came in Product Experience at 76.9%, ranking first, due in part to its 
first-place ranking in Reliability and Capability. In Customer Experience, IBM placed sixth at 75.7% due to its performance in Validation and TCO/ROI. IBM was designated an Overall Leader and a Leader in Product Experience, Usability, Reliability, Manageability and Capability. IBM fully participated in the RFI process.
IBM’s Product Experience was nominally impacted by its 72.2% performance in Adaptability, where it could provide more and deeper integrations with enterprise applications. Customer Experience was impacted by its 76.0% performance in TCO/ROI, where it could improve its material on the business case and value of its products.
IBM performed best in Product Experience, notably in Reliability, where its 81.3% performance was due to its architecture and deployment options. In Capability, IBM performed well in customization, integration and API support. Additionally, IBM’s support for a variety of users and competence levels led to its 81.9% performance in Usability.
In the Mobile Analytics Buyers Guide, our analysis classified IBM as Exemplary, ranking fourth in the overall research at 72.0%. IBM’s best performance came in Product Experience at 71.3%, ranking third, due in part to its 
first-place ranking in Reliability. In Customer Experience, IBM placed sixth at 75.7% due to its performance in Validation and TCO/ROI. IBM was designated a Leader in Product Experience, Usability, Reliability, and Manageability. IBM fully participated in the RFI process.
IBM’s Product Experience was impacted by its 66.9% performance in Capability, where it could provide additional visualizations and support for location awareness. Customer Experience was impacted by its 76.0% performance in TCO/ROI, where it could improve its material on the business case and value of its products.
IBM performed best in Product Experience, notably in Reliability, where its 81.3% performance was due to its architecture and deployment options. In addition, IBM’s support for a variety of users and competence levels led to its 81.9% performance in Usability. In Capability, its mobile application provides good interactivity, and supports its collaboration and augmented analytics functionality.
This assessment was based on IBM Cognos Analytics, Version 12.0.0, and was available in June of 2023.
This research-based index is the most comprehensive assessment of the value of analytics and data software in the industry. Technology buyers can learn more about how to use our Buyers Guide by clicking here and included vendors that wish to learn more can click here. Click below to read the individual reports:
Analytics and Data Buyers Guide
Augmented Analytics Buyers Guide
Collaborative Analytics Buyers Guide
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