Market Trends Service (Basic)

Additional Information

Overview

The Standish Group’s Market Trends Service (MTS) purpose is to track, analyze and report on both buyer behavior and best practices of enterprise IT users. MTS is an online database of analysis and data of almost 300 yearly unique questions and thousands of data points. Each month The Standish Group executes a 20 to 25-question survey collecting data on a different theme and 20 different categories. MTS gives Standish the uncanny ability to predict behavior far in advance before most organizations know it to be obvious. Users can use the trends feature to predict how things will change in the future or consider how they fit into the current environment.

The MTS offers the four major deliverables:

• Trends: Demand Assessment Requirements Tracking Survey (DARTS) began in 1991 and has a rich history of data. The online version started in 2003. Many of the questions go back to 2003 and can been seen online to form trends. DARTS has a monthly theme and twenty categories giving it hundreds of different observations. Many of the 20 to 25 monthly questions are in multiple parts; therefore there are thousands of data points.
• Analysis: The Market Trends Center (MTC) houses the top trends of the year. In the MTC we look at the top priorities and movement within the enterprise computing space. This analysis presents the top ten drivers in order of importance. Further it breaks down drivers into three elements thus providing the 30 elements of trend. Each driver has both a chart and definition to support the conclusions.
• News: The Market Trends News (MTN) offers two features. First, the MTN offer changes and additions to the Market Trends Center and the DARTS database. Second, the MTN has a feature story, such as a new driver, new feature, or an analysis on a particular subject. The other feature of the MTN is it is a quick read, it is only 2 pages.
• Reports, Profiles and Charts: Within the MTC we have some classical reports. A new classic report focuses on a vendor or technology subject. Profiles are generally a vendor product or service. These profiles are a single page and offers our analysis of the product or service. They do not go into feature and functions of the product. The Charts section provides a quick method to scan primary data points.

The DARTS offers the four major uses:

1. Peer Measurements: Enterprise IT executives use this to measure themselves against their peers with product usages, best practices, return on investments and other information to help them manage their IT environment.
2. Planning: Enterprise IT executives use MTS to do both strategic and tactical planning for their application development, business processes and operational areas.
3. Buyer Behavior: Enterprise IT providers use MTS to do product and services strategic and tactical product and marketing planning for new and existing products and services.
4. Marketing: Enterprise IT providers use MTS in presentations, marketing collateral, sales proposal and other marketing and selling environments.

In summary, the MTS is a rich depository of IT trends and history. Yet the MTC is always fresh and up-to-date. Clients can be assured with the latest thought leadership on enterprise best practices and behavior. The other big strength is the diversity of the subject matter. The analysis and questions are fairly simple and straight forward and easily understood. Charts and graphics are displayed in both written and graphical forms.