Vendor Subway Map - 2013

Here's the latest edition of our famous vendor subway map. With this latest iteration, we add the Cloud File Sharing marketplace, a.k.a., the beige line.

We also account for other vendor additions and subtractions -- typically via mergers and acquisitions, such as the ones that finally put Oracle firmly on the purple line.

Real Story Group
            Vendor Subway Map, 2013

Some Key Take-aways

So what can we learn from this map?

  • These marketplaces all still characterized by major platform players and (typically more agile) smaller players spanning out from the center. Platform versus Product remains a critical decision-point for selection teams in almost all marketplaces.
  • Because a vendor has multiple stops doesn't mean that transferring from one line to the next (i.e., integrating two of their products) is easy for you the customer. In fact usually the opposite: traversing from one line to another means navigating poorly lit passageways with broken escalators and station diagrams that don't reflect the actual station layout...
  • Digital Marketing Technology, Web Content & Experience Management, and Brand & Digital Asset Management (the purple, blue, and red lines, respectively) remain quite distinct. No single vendor has mastered these three increasingly inter-related disciplines, so customers should be sure to budget resources to tie them together on a case-by-case basis.

Want more info or context? If your employer subscribes to our service, feel free to schedule an analyst advisory session.

P.S., For a higher-resolution JPG and nicely-printable PDF versions of the map, visit https://www.realstorygroup.com/vendormap/.

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