We are happy to share some insights about Microsoft 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 Microsoft 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 Microsoft as an Innovative vendor, ranking seventh in the overall research at 64.9%. Microsoft’s best performance came in Product 
Experience at 69.0%, ranking fourth, due in part to its fifth-place ranking in Capability. In Customer Experience, Microsoft placed 16th at 42.4% due to low performance in Validation. Microsoft did not participate in the RFI process.
Microsoft’s Product Experience was impacted by its 70.2% performance in Adaptability, where it could provide more integration with business processes and activities. Customer Experience was impacted by its 41.6% performance in Validation, where it could provide more information about its customer experience.
Microsoft performed best in Product Experience, notably in Capability, where its 67.2% performance was due to its presentation, mobile functionality, data modeling and data access. In addition, Microsoft’s ability to support a variety of personas including tailoring notifications to individuals led to its 73.9% performance in Usability. In Manageability, it performed well in security and privacy.
In the Augmented Analytics Buyers Guide, our analysis classified Microsoft as an Innovative vendor, ranking eighth in the overall research at 61.7%. Microsoft’s best performance came in Product Experience at 65.7%, ranking fifth,
due in part to its sixth-place ranking in Capability and Manageability. In Customer Experience, Microsoft placed 16th at 42.4% due to low performance in Validation. Microsoft did not participate in the RFI process.
Microsoft’s Product Experience was impacted by its 70.2% performance in Adaptability, where it could provide more integration with business processes and activities. Customer Experience was impacted by its 41.6% performance in Validation, where it could provide more information about its customer experience.
Microsoft performed best in Product Experience, notably in Manageability, where its 72.7% performance was due in part to its strong security and privacy features. In Capability, its sixth-place ranking was due to its natural language query and AutoML. Additionally, Microsoft’s ability to support a variety of personas including tailoring notifications to individuals led to its 73.9% performance in Usability.
In the Collaborative Analytics Buyers Guide, our analysis classified Microsoft as an Innovative vendor, ranking eighth in the overall research at 62.3%. Microsoft’s best performance came in Product Experience at 67.8%, 
ranking fourth, due in part to its fourth-place ranking in Capability. In Customer Experience, Microsoft placed 16th at 42.4% due to low performance in Validation. Microsoft did not participate in the RFI process.
Microsoft’s Product Experience was nominally impacted by its 70.2% performance in Adaptability, where it could provide more integration with business processes and activities. Customer Experience was impacted by its 41.6% performance in Validation, where it could provide more information about its customer experience.
Microsoft performed best in Product Experience, notably in Capability, where its fourth-place ranking was due in part to its functionality to annotate and share analyses directly with individuals, as well as collaborating around analytics processes using external tools. Microsoft also provides alerting, monitoring and subscription capabilities. In addition, Microsoft’s ability to support a variety of personas including tailoring notifications to individuals led to its 73.9% performance in Usability.
In the Embedded Analytics Buyers Guide, our analysis classified Microsoft as an Innovative vendor, ranking eighth in the overall research at 65.4%. Microsoft’s best performance came in Product Experience at 69.9%, ranking 
seventh, due in part to its sixth-place ranking in both Usability and Manageability. In Customer Experience, Microsoft placed 16th at 42.4% due to low performance in Validation. Microsoft did not participate in the RFI process.
Microsoft’s Product Experience was impacted by its 70.2% performance in Adaptability, where it could provide more integration with business processes and activities. Customer Experience was impacted by its 41.6% performance in Validation, where it could provide more information about its customer experience.
Microsoft performed best in Product Experience, notably in Manageability, where its 72.7% performance was due, in part, to security and privacy. In Capability, where its seventh-place ranking was due in part to its flexible application customization and white labeling functionality. In addition, Microsoft’s ability to support a variety of personas, including tailoring notifications to individuals, led to its 73.9% performance in Usability.
In the Mobile Analytics Buyers Guide, our analysis classified Microsoft as an Innovative vendor, ranking eighth in the overall research at 66.5%. Microsoft’s best performance came in Product Experience at 71.1%, 
ranking sixth, due in part to its third-place ranking in Capability. In Customer Experience, Microsoft placed 16th at 42.4% due to low performance in Validation. Microsoft did not participate in the RFI process.
Microsoft’s Product Experience was impacted by its 70.2% performance in Adaptability, where it could provide more integration with business processes and activities. Customer Experience was impacted by its 41.6% performance in Validation, where it could provide more information about its customer experience.
Microsoft performed best in Product Experience, notably in Capability, it was designated a leader where its 70.5% performance and third-place ranking was due in part to good interactivity, a wide variety visualizations, annotations, alerts and notifications. It is also one of a few vendors to support wearable devices. In addition, Microsoft’s ability to support a variety of personas including tailoring notifications to individuals led to its 73.9% performance in Usability. In Manageability, it performed well in security and privacy.
This assessment was based on Power BI, Version 2.119.323.0, and was available in July 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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