With so many digital tools available, it can be difficult for organizations to select the right ones for their needs. Companies using tech consultation giant Gartner’s BuySmart approach can use situational analysis and data-driven insights using exclusive Gartner data to choose the best technology as part of a digital transformation strategy.
But what is Gartner BuySmart? How can BuySmart help your team identify critical technologies? And What are technology life cycle streamlined vendor evaluations? We will explore all these questions, beginning with a definition.
What Is Gartner BuySmart?
Gartner BuySmart is an approach trademarked by the leading consultation company Gartner. It seeks to support businesses of any size to evaluate vendors to identify what type of technology they need using the latest insights resources. Within this, the system includes suggestions for vendors and features, which supports a structured, collaborative decision to invest in the best technology from the right vendor to suit a company’s needs.
How Can BuySmart Help Your Team Identify Key Technologies?
Gartner predicts that companies will spend $4.6 trillion on technology by 2023. Companies need to ensure that their massive investments bring the best returns. Gartner BuySmart uses expert insights to help companies seek alignment between better technology purchasing decisions and their needs, leading to better business outcomes. The approach uses a structured process using five steps, the first of which is to start with a template.
Start with a template
Is your company seeking to integrate new technology? BuySmart may be the ideal option as you begin your journey within the Gartner BuySmart template hub. You will find information specific to each software type and many Gartner insights and data within each template. Templates also include detailed requirements lists and vendors considered reputable and relevant to your needs. The templates also incorporate customization tools, comprehensive evaluation checklists, and expert and peer insights.
Manage the evaluation process
BuySmart promotes collaborative workflow, which allows the team’s evaluation process to be diverse and well-structured when choosing new technology. The tool helps teams to define their objectives, key dates, and budget. Another feature of BuySmart is that it supports staff to assign owners while formulating a checklist of tasks. Above all, the approach allows your company to track evaluations, requirements, and vendors in one unified package with the support of industry-leading Gartner experts.
Analyze requirements
Before you begin your evaluation process, you must analyze requirements and acquire all necessary signoff authorizations from relevant team members. Companies can utilize requirements suggested by the template, add their own and alter the priority level for individual factors. Gartner provides scorecards that allow companies to seek alignment across stakeholder needs.
Evaluate vendors
BuySmart supports businesses choose the best vendor through vendor evaluations, presenting the best vendors for specific needs. Gartner is a world leader in objective Gartner insights via research. This research is used within BuySmart to provide organizations with all the information they need to make the final decision.
The research includes ratings and proprietary insights and allows teams to develop vendor shortlists to score against specific requirements. Gartner also contains features that enable teams to track key takeaways and screen out inappropriate vendors.
Reduce risk
When your team has selected a vendor, they can export the report to communicate this to stakeholders. This communication includes your decision based on selection criteria and the considered vendors. There is also the option to consult with a Gartner representative to meet for a Gartner expert proposal review, within which you can receive support to reduce risk and optimize your investment.
This process is how BuySmart supports teams in finding the best vendor and technology for their organization. But how can teams utilize the technology life cycle today within BuySmart vendor evaluations?
What Is The Technology Life Cycle Streamline Process?
The technology lifecycle is the time it takes for a company to research and develop a product and provide ROI within the time it utilizes, referred to as its lifecycle. Gartner designed BuySmart to streamline the technology lifecycle by reducing the research and development phase time, increasing efficiency, and optimizing this process.
By informing the best decisions for the best technology in a structured way, organizations get new products to market more quickly, driving business value for customers and companies.
What Services Does Gartner BuySmart Offer?
Within BuySmart, Gartner offers four primary services:-
- Accessible and objective Gartner insights: Context-appropriate insights are relevant to your chosen technology evaluations.
- Structured, team-led workflow: All the tools your team requires to access information and act on better purchasing decisions.
- Optimized vendor evaluations: Comprehensive scorecards utilizing detailed requirements support your team in selecting the best vendor.
- Confidence that you are choosing the best vendor: BuySmart optimizes investment and aims to reduce risk, assisted by a proposal review by a Gartner expert.
Now that the services of BuySmart are transparent, we can look at the benefits these services bring to your organization.
What Are The Benefits Of Using Gartner BuySmart?
There are many benefits to using Gartner BuySmart, starting with the optimized spending that BuySmart facilitates.
Optimized spend
The main advantage of BuySmart is that it allows companies to ensure they are getting the most for their investment. The features of BuySmart allow teams to enter their needs and business outcomes to tailor technical requirements to the BuySmart approach to confidently manage the most cost-effective final decision.
Reduced risk of waste
The Mark Gartner BuySmart approach influences the team’s path to evaluating vendors. Reviewing what vendors offer is streamlined so companies can be sure a vendor provides what they need, avoiding common pitfalls and making the best final decision. Resources are not wasted using trial periods or subscribing to a digital tool for a month before realizing it does not fit company needs.
Efficiency and productivity
Because BuySmart streamlines the technology lifecycle process using the team’s requirements to select the right vendor for the company’s needs, employee efficiency and productivity increase. Employee retention can also increase when the company gives them the right tools for their role, reducing frustration and improving employee experience.
Shareholder Value
When BuySmart streamlines the process of choosing digital tools and vendors, it creates more robust and efficiently completed value. This action leads to a faster time to market new products, meaning higher value for customers in a short period. A higher value for customers translates into higher company value to shareholders, increasing confidence for investment in better products, increasing value, and boosting revenue and growth further as companies build digital resilience.
Who Are The Ideal Candidates For Gartner BuySmart?
Any company can benefit from Gartner BuySmart if they want to make the most cost-efficient decisions on technology evaluation and investment. BuySmart utilizes exclusive Gartner research, making it a market-leading approach to vendor evaluation. Whether a candidate company is SME or a large enterprise, if they wish to choose the technology in a structured, collaborative way, they will benefit from Gartner BuySmart.
The Value Of Proprietary Insight For Organizations
Proprietary data is data unique to a company. This data is essential for companies when they need new technology, as they must know their needs to meet them in the most resource-friendly and appropriate way.
Companies should ask questions on how they can maximize the value of insights taken from their proprietary data, such as:-
- What types of data will be valuable to us?
- How can we turn our proprietary data into revenue?
- How can we make public data into valuable proprietary data?
Deciding how to use data and transform it into proprietary insights allows companies to differentiate themselves in the market. It also helps equip companies with the information needed to prepare for deciding what vendor and technology are best.
What Is Magic Quadrant?
Magic Quadrant is a research methodology that provides visual snapshots and in-depth analyses of a market environment within a limited period. The Magic Quadrant shows the status of tech vendors about their competitors to allow businesses to choose the right vendor. There are four quadrants that the system uses to evaluate and monitor vendors continually. The first of these is Leaders.
Leaders
- The most prominent vendors fall into the Leaders category based on their high scores for completeness of vision and ability to execute functions successfully. Vendors in this group usually have control of a specific market segment and strong financial stability and credibility.
Challengers
- Challengers are the next highest grade of vendors, fighting for a position as one of the Leaders. Challenger vendors are capable of disrupting market trends and challenging Leaders. Challengers lack the vision completeness of Leaders but can dominate more significant market segments in time.
Visionaries
- Visionaries anticipate future trends and have a broader view of the market. They are innovative and often create initiatives involving new ways of perceiving customer needs, changing the world with bold market decisions.
Niche players
- Niche players look more narrowly at a more specific market segment as they don’t have the same vision as more prominent vendors. New SMEs are often in this category.
The Magic Quadrant helps companies decide what vendor is best for them. But how can it be used alongside BuySmart?
BuySmart Vs. Magic Quadrant
The main difference between the Magic Quadrant and BuySmart is that Quadrant formulates the data, and BuySmart forms this data into actionable insights to inform companies’ decisions on technology vendors.
1. Magic Quadrant (top left of chart)
The Quadrant shows the position of vendors in quickly changing markets.
1. BuySmart (top right of the chart)
Gartner designed its proprietary insights consulting service to support companies investing in the best technologies.
2. Magic Quadrant (bottom left of chart)
The quadrant scores vendors based on their vision completeness and capability to execute functions.
2. BuySmart (bottom right of the chart)
BuySmart aligns financial and technical business needs with technology vendors and solutions.
It is helpful to use the Magic Quadrant alongside BuySmart to get the most out of the vendor evaluation process. Doing so can lead to better choices when selecting a vendor.
Vendor Evaluation Is Essential in 2022
BuySmart and the Magic Quadrant are helpful today as companies struggle to confidently manage investments in the best technology solutions to ensure business adaptability. These approaches are essential as they give current data in a constantly changing and disruptive technology market. With these approaches, companies utilize technology optimally, ensuring market sustainability, growth, and boosted revenue.
