Microsoft Leads BI and Analytics Platforms in Gartner Magic Quadrant 2021

A Microsoft is a leader in BI (Business Intelligence) platforms and Analytics in the magic quadrant Gartner Research, for the 14th time. According to the report released by the Gartner Group, an organization that conducts information technology (IT) research and consulting, Salesforce (Tableau) and Qlik also occupy the leaderboard in 2021. 

Understand how the magic quadrant works

The Gartner Magic Quadrant is Audience-Facing B2B and annually highlights the main companies in the technological market, allowing the sector's executives to have an overview of the available IT solutions and to be able to analyze the advantages and disadvantages of each one. 

As the name implies, the magic quadrant is divided into four parts: leaders, challenging, niche competitors e visionaries. O leaders quadrant It is one of the most coveted. Companies that occupy this position have a broader market vision, are concerned with customer success and even offer more credibility. In addition, leading companies have the ability to bounce back even with sudden changes in the financial market. as is the case of Microsoft that achieved impressive quarterly results, even in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

One of the main characteristics of companies in the challenging quadrant is the ability to execute strategies, but they are not capable of offering very assertive and effective planning. This ends up making these companies unable to maintain a long-term value proposition for their customers. On the other hand, if companies in the Challenger quadrant are able to improve their market vision and internal planning, they can evolve to the position of leader. In fact, Gartner highlighted that the Google, which occupies the Challenger quadrant, has a good chance of evolving into the Leaders quadrant in 2022. 

Os niche competitors are companies focused on a specific niche. Despite offering excellence in the niche in which they operate, companies in this quadrant find it more difficult to innovate and offer broader solutions to outperform their competitors. Finally, companies in visionaries quadrant they are characterized by innovation and strong expansion potential, and generally end up being acquired by larger companies. 

The Gartner magic quadrant is also constructed as a scatter plot, that is, it uses the X and Y axes. The horizontal X axis corresponds to the completeness of vision. To define a company's position on the X axis, Gartner uses eight distinct criteria: market understanding, sales strategy, approach strategy, marketing strategy, business model, industry strategy, innovation, and geographic strategy. Basically, this means that the more to the right a company is located, the better its view of the market will be. 

The vertical Y axis corresponds to the Ability to Execute or execution skill. Gartner uses seven different criteria to position companies on the Y axis: products and services, sales and pricing, feasibility, market responsiveness, marketing execution, customer experience, and operations. Generally speaking, the higher a company is positioned, the better its ability to perform tasks. 

What makes Microsoft a leader in BI platforms in the Gartner magic quadrant?

As we explained above, what makes Microsoft a leader in BI and Analytics platforms is its position within the quadrant. For the second year in a row, Microsoft is positioned above and to the right of Salesforce and Qlink, indicating that the company has greater execution capabilities and better market insight than the other two companies. 

According to Gartner, the strengths that made Microsoft a leader in BI and Analytics platforms were the integration of Business Intelligence solutions with Microsoft Teams, making the company increase the reach of Power BI for users in remote work. The price and quality of services offered by Microsoft, as the company's cloud solutions offer a variety of features at a competitive price. Furthermore, Microsoft's ambition is welcomed by Gartner, as it indicates that the company is willing to continue investing in resources to improve artificial intelligence (AI) services in Power BI solutions. 

As negative points, Gartner highlights the lack of IaaS options in cloud computing, with the Power BI service being used only on Azure. Additionally, Gartner reported that “Microsoft Teams has functional gaps compared to the Power BI cloud service”. In addition, the report highlights that the way Microsoft handles the promotion and publishing of content can result in a burden on customers.

Source: MSPowerUser; Power BIMicrosoft; rock content, Gartner Research