Services for Organizations

Using our research, best practices and expertise, we help you understand how to optimize your business processes using applications, information and technology. We provide advisory, education, and assessment services to rapidly identify and prioritize areas for improvement and perform vendor selection

Consulting & Strategy Sessions

Ventana On Demand

    Services for Investment Firms

    We provide guidance using our market research and expertise to significantly improve your marketing, sales and product efforts. We offer a portfolio of advisory, research, thought leadership and digital education services to help optimize market strategy, planning and execution.

    Consulting & Strategy Sessions

    Ventana On Demand

      Services for Technology Vendors

      We provide guidance using our market research and expertise to significantly improve your marketing, sales and product efforts. We offer a portfolio of advisory, research, thought leadership and digital education services to help optimize market strategy, planning and execution.

      Analyst Relations

      Demand Generation

      Product Marketing

      Market Coverage

      Request a Briefing



        David Menninger's Analyst Perspectives

        << Back to Blog Index

        MicroStrategy Battles for Top Spot in Analytics and BI

        I am happy to offer some insights on MicroStrategy drawn from our latest Value Index research, which provides an analytic representation of our assessment of how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements. The Ventana Research Value Index: Analytics and Business Intelligence 2019 is the distillation of a year of market and product research efforts by Ventana Research. We utilized a structured research methodology that includes evaluation categories designed to reflect the breadth of the real-world criteria incorporated in a request for proposal (RFP) and vendor selection process for analytics and business intelligence. We evaluated MicroStrategy and 14 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 data derived from our benchmark research on analytics and business intelligence.

        Ventana_Research-Analytics_and_BI-Value_Index-OverallMicroStrategy’s product offers one of the most complete sets of capabilities in our Value Index assessment. The product line consists of a number of different modules to deliver all this functionality. In recent years the company has reduced the complexity of installing and using these components and has significantly improved the user interface. The architecture is based on a model of direct access to data in a variety of commercial database products including connectivity to Hadoop.

        ABI_MicroStrategy

        MicroStrategy ranks second overall in the Value Index, with just a fractional percentage separating it from the first-place finisher. The product ranks first in the Capability and Reliability categories and second in Usability. MicroStrategy scores well in many of the categories we assess and is particularly strong in its architecture, flexibility and scalability. It ranks a close second in Usability based not only on the user interface of its products but also because it provides capabilities designed for various roles including lines of business personnel, analysts, managers, executives and IT personnel.

        The company’s lowest rankings are for TCO/ROI and Manageability, where it ranks ninth and seventh respectively. In the latter category, the leaders offer slightly better flexibility across both business and IT administration of the system. Leaders also provide somewhat better tools to establish and document the business value of an investment in their products.

        This assessment was based on MicroStrategy 10.11. In January the company released MicroStrategy 2019, which is a platform update. It includes a new feature called HyperIntelligence that enhances integration and collaboration. The release also includes enhancements for analysts, data scientists, developers and administrators.

        This research-based index is the most comprehensive assessment of the value of analytics and business intelligence software in the industry. You can learn more about MicroStrategy and others using our Value Index as an effective vendor selection and RFI/RFP tool; read the report here.

        Regards,
        David Menninger
        SVP & Research Director

        Get the full picture Read the Analytics & Business Intelligence Value Index report

        Authors:

        David Menninger
        Executive Director, Technology Research

        David Menninger leads technology software research and advisory for Ventana Research, now part of ISG. Building on over three decades of enterprise software leadership experience, he guides the team responsible for a wide range of technology-focused data and analytics topics, including AI for IT and AI-infused software.

        JOIN OUR COMMUNITY

        Analyst Perspective Policy

        • Ventana Research’s Analyst Perspectives are fact-based analysis and guidance on business, industry and technology vendor trends. Each Analyst Perspective presents the view of the analyst who is an established subject matter expert on new developments, business and technology trends, findings from our research, or best practice insights.

          Each is prepared and reviewed in accordance with Ventana Research’s strict standards for accuracy and objectivity and reviewed to ensure it delivers reliable and actionable insights. It is reviewed and edited by research management and is approved by the Chief Research Officer; no individual or organization outside of Ventana Research reviews any Analyst Perspective before it is published. If you have any issue with an Analyst Perspective, please email them to ChiefResearchOfficer@ventanaresearch.com

        View Policy

        Subscribe to Email Updates

        Posts by Month

        see all

        Posts by Topic

        see all


        Analyst Perspectives Archive

        See All