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Today Ventana Research released its 2023 Buyers Guide for Augmented Analytics, a quantified, research-based report evaluating technology providers and products. The Buyers Guide assesses 22 vendors’ products using our Value Index methodology to evaluate software in seven key categories that are weighted to reflect buyers’ needs based on our expertise and research. The Buyers Guide evaluates the sophistication of vendors and products in the area of augmented analytics.

For decades organizations have been improving and expanding the way they use analytics and data software, commonly referred to as business intelligence (BI), to improve their operations. Vendors have made dramatic improvements to BI products with highly interactive visualizations and the ability to process and display very large volumes of data quickly. However, organizations quest for more. Artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) have gained in popularity with 87% of participants in our Analytics and Data Benchmark Research indicating they have a plan to adopt AI/ML.  

Adopting AI/ML has proven more difficult than many had expected. Ideally, BI software products could simply be extended to include a full set of AI/ML capabilities. But that hasn’t happened yet. AI/ML requires skills that are beyond the reach of many analysts, and organizations have had difficulty finding skilled resources. As a result, AI/ML software products have remained largely independent of BI and we expect through 2025, AI/ML approaches will remain largely independent of BI approaches requiring three-quarters of organizations to maintain multiple, separate skill sets.  

Faced with this separation, BI software vendors have invested in ways to make AI/ML more accessible, by augmenting the capabilities in their products. These combined capabilities have been referred to as augmented analytics or augmented intelligence.

“Vendors are racing to add augmented analytics capabilities to their products including natural language processing and automated machine learning assistance. However, it is early in the release of capabilities that is creating confusion on what is ready to be utilized,” said David Menninger, SVP and Research Director at Ventana Research. “The Buyers Guide provides an objective and complete assessment of the vendors from both the product experience and customer experience perspectives helping organizations distinguish between vendor and product offerings.”

The Buyers Guide for Augmented Analytics evaluates the following vendors that offer products that include key elements of augmented analytics as we define it: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Domo, GoodData, Google, IBM, Idera, Incorta, Infor, insightsoftware, Microsoft, MicroStrategy, Oracle, Pyramid Analytics, Qlik, SAP, SAS, Sigma Computing, Sisense, Tableau Software, ThoughtSpot, TIBCO, and Zoho.

The research finds Oracle first on the list with SAP in second place and IBM in third. Companies that place in the top three of a category earn the designation of Leader. Oracle has done so in six of the seven categories; SAP in five, IBM in four, Domo and Qlik in two, and Sisense and Tableau in one category.

The research places vendors into one of four overall categories: Exemplary, Innovative, Assurance, or Merit. This representation classifies vendors’ weighted performance overall in Product Experience and Customer Experience. The vendors were awarded the following categories:

Exemplary - Domo, IBM, Oracle, Qlik, SAP, Tableau, and Zoho.

Innovative - Microsoft, MicroStrategy, Pyramid Analytics, and SAS.

Assurance - GoodData, Incorta, insightsoftware, and Sisense.

Merit - AWS, Google, Idera, Infor, Sigma Computing, ThoughtSpot, and Cloud Software Group.

The Ventana Research Buyers Guide for Augmented Analytics is the distillation of over a year of market and product research efforts. It is an assessment of how well vendors’ offerings will address organizations' requirements for augmented analytics software. The index is structured to support a request for information (RFI) that could be used in the RFP process by incorporating all criteria needed to evaluate, select, utilize, and maintain relationships with technology vendors. An effective product and customer experience with a technology vendor can ensure the best long-term relationship and value achieved from a resource and financial investment.

The structure of the research reflects our understanding that the effective evaluation of vendors and products involves far more than just examining product features, potential revenue, or customers generated from a vendor’s marketing and sales efforts. We believe it is important to take a comprehensive research-based approach since making the wrong choice of augmented analytics technology can raise the total cost of ownership, lower the return on investment, and hamper an organization’s ability to reach its potential performance. In addition, this approach can reduce the project’s development and deployment time and eliminate the risk of relying on a short list of vendors that do not represent the best fit for your organization.

“For decades the industry has been working to provide more human-type intelligence to their analytics and especially business intelligence investments.”, said Mark Smith CEO and chief research officer at Ventana Research, “The Buyers Guide provides the most specific research on the vendors and products in the industry, focused on what matters to enterprises including evaluation categories like capability, adaptability and usability that can ensure the effective adoption of the technology. Unlike other analyst firms who focus their research on vendors' ability to market and sell, or the future of their company, that has no bearing on the success that organizations can achieve with the technology which requires a close examination of the product and customer experience.”

The Buyers Guide for Augmented Analytics is neither sponsored nor influenced by technology vendors and is conducted solely in pursuit of Ventana Research's mission to provide value to business and IT (Information Technology) through the Consulting, Advisory, Research, and Education (CARE) portfolio of services. Ventana Research's goal is to help guide organizations to optimal efficiency in their use of technology investments for business and IT. To learn more and to read the Buyers Guide for Augmented Analytics, please click here.

About Ventana Research

Ventana Research is the most authoritative and respected market research and advisory services firm. We provide insight and expert guidance on mainstream and disruptive technologies through a unique set of research-based offerings including benchmark research and technology evaluation assessments, education workshops, and our research and advisory services, Ventana On-Demand. Our unparalleled understanding of the role of technology in optimizing business processes and performance and our best practices guidance are rooted in our rigorous research-based benchmarking of people, processes, information, and technology across business and IT functions in every industry. This benchmark research plus our market coverage and in-depth knowledge of hundreds of technology providers means we can deliver education and expertise to our clients to increase the value they derive from technology investments while reducing time, cost, and risk.

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