Interactive Magic Quadrant With Peer Insights User Reviews

1. What is the Interactive Magic Quadrant with Peer Insights User Reviews?
Peer Insights User Reviews have been added to Gartner’s online Interactive Magic Quadrant^® experience. It’s an easy-to-use tool that integrates Gartner expert advice from the Magic Quadrant and user-contributed ratings and reviews from Peer Insights to help clients make faster and more effective decisions for a given market.

2. Who is able to use Interactive Magic Quadrant with Peer Insights User Reviews? Will there be a report version?
All Gartner clients with entitlement to view Interactive Magic Quadrants will be able to see the enhanced version with Peer Insights User Reviews. Legacy clients will not have access to Interactive Magic Quadrant with Peer Insights User Reviews. There are currently no plans to create a static version for inclusion in the report. This enhanced view is part of the interactive client experience only at this time.

3. What are the major changes that Gartner clients will see with the integration of Peer Insights into the Interactive Magic Quadrant?
Gartner clients will see two major changes to the Interactive Magic Quadrant experience. On the Magic Quadrant tab, hovering on a vendor “dot” in the Magic Quadrant previews the Peer Insights User Review data. When a client clicks on a vendor “dot,” a Peer Insights histogram and data highlighted will appear on the right side. The new user review tab will display the following:

• Gartner Magic Quadrant with a Peer Insights “Context Overlay,” where the dot for each vendor with five or more reviews will be shaded a color corresponding to its Peer Insights average user rating
• List of Magic Quadrant vendors with the number of Peer Insights reviews
• A list of other vendors with Peer Insights reviews in that market
• When a vendor is selected, the right panel will display the histogram of Peer Insights user ratings, the products reviewed, and a selection of recent reviews with links to the Peer Insights to read more or to write a review
• Digital watermarking, indicating the colors, represents Peer Ratings

4. When will the Peer Insights User Review tab appear? Is it based on the number of reviews or on a certain number of vendors?
The Peer Insights user review tab will appear anytime the market is open for reviews in Peer Insights. It will occur if we have reviews associated with a market or if we have the market open, but have not yet collected any reviews for the market.

5. When will the Peer Insights hover-over capability appear on the Interactive Magic Quadrant experience? Is it based on the number of reviews by a certain number of vendors?
The Peer Insights hover-over feature for vendor's dots in the Interactive Magic Quadrant will appear as long as the user review tab exists in the client experience, even those with zero Peer Insights reviews.

6. Can there be a difference between the market position implied by a vendor’s dot placement in the Magic Quadrant and its Peer Insights average user rating?
Yes. Peer Insights represent the views of end users. Magic Quadrants represent a broader view of the market — a snapshot in time — and are future-looking. Our analysts look broadly across markets and across buyers in multiple geographies, industries and with varying budgets. Buyer organizations have to think about their own specific needs, hence there may be a difference (at times) in opinion about vendors, products and services, and there will be differences in user sentiment depending on the organization’s location and experience (among other factors).

7. Will all Interactive Magic Quadrants have associated user reviews?
The majority of all Interactive Magic Quadrants should have associated user reviews. There is a very small percentage of Magic Quadrants where we have not yet launched a related Peer Insights market.

8. Does a Peer Insights review on a company’s product or service affect its placement in a Magic Quadrant or Critical Capabilities?
Analysts are able to use Peer Insights reviews as one of their inputs to their Magic Quadrant and Critical Capabilities assessments. It is only one potential input among hundreds of different sources. Effects of any single review on placement would be negligible.

9. The Magic Quadrant is published annually. How often are the Peer Insights user reviews updated in the Interactive Magic Quadrant?
The Peer Insights ratings and reviews change dynamically whenever new reviews are published. The Peer Insights user reviews are published after they are approved through the moderation and validation process.

10. How do you verify that reviews are from legitimate IT or end-user professionals?
Reviewers are verified through a multistep process, including completion of a profile with their email, job role, title and details about their organization. For a review to be posted on Peer Insights, writers must:

• Attest to the authenticity of their review by certifying that they are not an employee, consultant, reseller, direct competitor or in any way associated with the vendor they are reviewing, and that their feedback is based entirely on their own personal experience with the vendor's product/service
• Have an identifiable corporate email address that matches their stated company
• Be an IT or end-user professional, or otherwise involved in technology purchasing
• Have a confirmed profile on gartner.com or a credible external site (e.g., LinkedIn) that verifies their identity, employer and role
• Not be employed by a company that has a direct stake in the market or product being reviewed (this includes system integrators and consultants, as well as the company whose product is being reviewed or competitors in that market)

If you come across a review that looks illegitimate, please alert us by sending an e-mail to peerinsights@gartner.com.

11. How will the Peer Insights ratings be displayed if a technology provider has two or more dots in a Magic Quadrant?
In most cases, all Peer Insights reviews for a technology provider’s products in a single market are aggregated together into a single average rating, even if the Magic Quadrant presents two different dots for that provider’s solutions. In those cases, the same Peer Insights data will appear associated with both dots in the Interactive Magic Quadrant.

1. How can I start a review campaign?
Please see the Technology Providers section of the Peer Insights site to learn how to start a review campaign on your product.

2. What tools are available to manage a review campaign?
A new suite of Technology Provider Tools is now at your disposal to enable you to:

• See review counts by product
• Track reviews from submissions to publication
• Create and track review sourcing campaigns

New functionality will be frequently added to the Technology Provider Tools portal.

3. I would like to ask my customers to submit a Peer Insights review. How can I do that?
Go to the Technology Providers section of the Peer Insights site for more information and advice about asking your customers to write reviews on Gartner Peer Insights.

4. How can I add a product or manage my product list?
Very soon you’ll be able to request to add products via the Technology Provider Tools. You may also email us at peerinsights@gartner.com and provide the following information:

• The name of your organization
• Each product you would like to make available for review
• The market that each product should be aligned to:
  • For a list of markets that are currently open for review or that we plan to open this quarter, please refer to the Market Roadmap on the Technology Providers page. Please select from one of these markets.
  • Identify a specific market for each product, even if multiple products belong in one market or if one product belongs in multiple markets.

5. What if a product is not in an established Gartner market — can it be reviewed and added to Peer Insights?
We can only display reviews associated with a market open in Peer Insights. While reviewers can write in a product or service, the review will not be visible until it has been associated to a Peer Insights market. We encourage you to submit your review and our team will work on finding the right home for it as soon as it becomes available. If you are a vendor who would like to get your product added, please visit us here.

6. Can vendors be mentioned in the user review tab but not be present in the Magic Quadrant? How about open-source vendors?
Yes, vendors not covered in the Magic Quadrant but that have Peer Insights reviews in the market will have their own designation list. Open-source vendors are also eligible to be displayed in the list.

1. Will Gartner analysts use or quote Gartner Peer Insights in their published research?
No, at this point, individual quotes from Gartner Peer Insights will not be used in published research.

2. Can analysts comment on Gartner Peer Insights reviews?
No, research analysts will not have the ability to comment on Gartner Peer Insights reviews.

3. Will Gartner analysts use or quote reviews from Gartner Peer Insights in presentations or other interaction with clients?
Broad data points collected from Peer Insights reviews can be used in presentations as long as there are no direct single vendor or multivendor comparisons displayed in the visual.

4. Will Gartner analysts be able to access Peer Insights reviews?
Yes, Gartner Peer Insights reviews are now a new source of information for Gartner analysts. We will encourage them to use the data as one of their data sources. Analysts conduct in-depth primary and secondary research as the underpinning of the research process. They draw from a vast network of sources, including interactions with end-user clients, technology providers and industry leaders, in formats ranging from client inquiries to one-on-one meetings at events and a variety of other client interactions. Analysts may also incorporate content from academic journals and media sources. While end-user feedback is important, it is just one of many criteria that are considered.

5. Do the user reviews replace the Gartner Critical Capabilities?
No, Gartner will continue to produce the detailed product and service analysis based on expert analyst research for many of the Magic Quadrant markets.

6. What if there is a difference in the Peer Insights user reviews and ratings for a vendor and the official Gartner position in a published Magic Quadrant?
Peer Insights represent the views of end users. The value of integrating end-user reviews with the expert opinion of Magic Quadrants is to give our clients two viewpoints that may or may not always be in sync with each other. If there are major differences in opinion, the analysts will have access to the data to see the crowd’s sentiment and use it as one of many data points for future evaluation.

1. What does the “Overall Peer Rating” for a vendor represent? How is it calculated?
“Overall Peer Rating” represents the straight average of each approved review submitted for that vendor in that specific market. At present, each review is treated equally, that is, none are weighted more heavily than others. This may change in the future; for instance, older reviews could be given lower weight.

2. Can technology providers reply to or comment on reviews about their products and services directly on the site?
We have a limited capacity for technology providers to post replies to factual inaccuracies in a review. Providers who see factual inaccuracies in a review of their solutions may contact us at peerinsights@gartner.com to submit a response that addresses those inaccuracies.

3. Are these user reviews representative of global end users? If not, what is the plan to create a more representative view by region and industry?
We are still in the early stages of collecting Peer Insights reviews, and most reviews currently come from North America. We are working to collect additional surveys, and we aim to have a broad representation across industries and geographies over time. We plan on capturing reviews at several Gartner international events, from email campaigns and on gartner.com.

4. Can reviewer’s comments be used for vendor escalations to the Ombuds’ office?
The first place to go with concerns regarding Peer Insights is peerinsights@gartner.com. If that does not resolve your concern, the Office of the Ombuds is always recommended for any questions regarding Gartner’s independence and objectivity.

5. How do I contest a user review if I feel it’s inaccurate?
Peer Insights reviews reflect the experience and opinion of the authors. Gartner neither endorses nor makes any promises about the accuracy of the reviews. If you feel a review contains factually incorrect information about your product or service, you may inform us, along with the correct details, at peerinsights@gartner.com.

6. Can a Peer Insights review be removed by Gartner?
Yes, Gartner reserves the right to remove reviews for three general conditions: factual error, incorrect product/market selection and revised validation/moderation standards. 

7. Can I buy a reprint of the Magic Quadrant with Peer Insights overlay?
No, the Interactive Magic Quadrant with Peer Insights User Reviews overlaid image is not available for reprint or quote purposes at this time.