How Gartner Experts Work With Vendors

At Gartner, our commitment to delivering unbiased and insightful research is paramount. This commitment is reflected in how we interact with vendors, ensuring that our research and advisory services remain independent and objective. 

Gartner experts interact with vendors through two distinct channels: evaluative research and strategic advice. We’re sometimes asked to clarify the difference between these two types of interaction with experts, so here’s a simple summary.

Our evaluative research reports, including the Magic Quadrant™ (MQ) and Critical Capabilities (CC), provide an independent assessment of vendors and their offerings. These evaluations are based on criteria that reflect the needs of end users, ensuring that they receive the most objective, relevant and accurate insights from Gartner. Importantly, the decision to include vendors in these evaluations is determined solely by whether a particular vendor meets inclusion criteria, which are, in turn, governed by rigorous methodologies. These vendors can be clients and non-clients of Gartner. Either way, it doesn’t matter to the outcome of the research. Client status never influences the outcome or inclusion in our evaluative research.

For vendor clients, Gartner offers strategic advice through engagements such as Inquiry and Strategic Advisory Services (SAS). These engagements focus on market trends, go-to-market strategies and business challenges, providing valuable insights without compromising the integrity of our evaluative research. During these engagements, analysts are prohibited from discussing forthcoming or in-progress research, or giving guidance about how to improve positions in evaluative research or proprietary methodologies.

Gartner’s commitment to fairness, objectivity and confidentiality governs all interactions with vendors. Our experts are prohibited from providing feedback on vendor briefing materials or discussing specific scores or methodologies. This ensures that all vendors are treated equally (regardless of client status), and that client inquiries remain confidential. Read more about our policies and common FAQs here: Expert Interactions with Vendors.

For any questions about our expert interactions with vendors, we encourage you to contact the Office of the Ombuds at ombuds@gartner.com. Our Ombuds team is dedicated to upholding the integrity and objectivity of our independent research, reinforcing the trust our clients place in Gartner’s objective insights.