Understanding Gartner Market Coverage

The Gartner publication calendar for Magic Quadrants and Critical Capabilities is nothing new. We have been sharing information about the 12-month plan for Magic Quadrants and Critical Capabilities for years. However, Gartner recently made available its three-year outlook for market coverage to share our vision of markets with vendors and buyers of technology and help them plan farther ahead. It not only includes Magic Quadrants and Critical Capabilities, but it now provides visibility into other types of market coverage Gartner anticipates publishing, including Market Guides, Innovation Insights, and Emerging Market Quadrants. 

This post addresses some common questions and helps vendors navigate this new information. 

Covering markets is one of the most valuable things that Gartner does for buyers, vendors, and investors. Buyers consistently find value in objective insights from Gartner to help them make informed technology purchasing decisions. The demand from these buying centers has expanded beyond IT to leaders in other lines of business such as Sales, Marketing, Finance, HR and Supply Chain, among others. Clients are asking for more coverage of mature markets, like those covered in Magic Quadrants and Critical Capabilities, and insights into emerging and dynamic markets, like those covered in Innovation Insights, Emerging Market Quadrants and Market Guides. Gartner will now provide a three-year outlook on markets as a first step toward that goal. The result will be more market coverage reports of all types over the next few years.

It’s important to note that while the 12-month publication calendar lists documents that are underway or planned, the three-year outlook is expected to evolve and does not represent committed research. This outlook signals our general direction in market coverage and may change. Both the 12-month publication calendar and three-year market coverage plan are publicly available documents that will be updated at least monthly.

Gartner realizes vendors spend time and resources to participate in Gartner research processes. Analysts value their input which complements Gartner expertise and proprietary data sources. Gartner is taking steps to reduce the burden and the unanticipated surprises that can make participation difficult. First and foremost, we are providing more visibility into what’s on the horizon by adding a directional three-year outlook of markets, in addition to the committed research in the one-year publication calendar. Second, Gartner is streamlining the research process to reduce the effort required from vendors to respond to requests for information. Examples include shorter vendor questionnaires to support Magic Quadrant and Critical Capabilities production, improvements to the Gartner vendor portal such as exploring the use of AI to more easily surface re-use of information vendors provide about one market to other markets, and shortening the research production cycle and therefore the time that Gartner insight takes to reach its clients.

In some cases, markets in the three-year outlook from Gartner may already be defined in published content, but in many cases, the market definitions and specific research inclusion criteria are still taking shape. And in any market, definitions or inclusion criteria for specific research can change over time as markets evolve. 

All vendors being considered for a specific publication in a market will receive more information about the market definition and inclusion criteria prior to the kickoff of the research process at the same time. Vendors who may be Gartner clients do NOT learn about future research early. Remember, Magic Quadrants will typically appear in the publication calendar several months prior to publication.  

For more information:

Read more about Magic Quadrants

Read more about Critical Capabilities

Read more about Market Guides

Read more about Emerging Market Quadrants

Gartner remains committed to providing high-quality, objective business and technology insights to clients. The Office of the Ombuds will continue to evaluate any concerns about our process, methodology, or published research.

Increased market coverage from Gartner is driven by the needs of technology buyers, not only in IT buying centers, but in all lines of business. Buyers also want an early view into dynamic and emerging markets, which have introduced opportunities for new types of insights. Gartner is providing vendors in all markets with more transparency into planned coverage and aiming to give an earlier heads up for planning. The Methodologies team is streamlining the process and improving tools to make participation easier for vendors. 

Questions about the three-year plans or how different content is created can be directed to methodologies@gartner.com, and concerns can be sent to the Office of the Ombuds at ombuds@gartner.com.