ValueBlue's positioning in the 2023 Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Architecture tools

We are excited to announce that ValueBlue has been named a Challenger in the 2023 edition of the Gartner Magic Quadrant™ for Enterprise Architecture Tools.

Having made the biggest jump in the quadrant to date, we are extremely proud to share our biggest recognitions that help us ‘challenge’ the future outlook of Enterprise Architecture tools.

Before we explore ValueBlue’s positioning, let’s take a look at what the Gartner Magic Quadrant is and how you can use it to evaluate vendors in the Enterprise Architecture space.

What is the Gartner Magic Quadrant (MQ)?

A Magic Quadrant shows the competitive positioning of technology providers in fast-growing markets. Based on their performance across several criteria, Gartner determines the vendors’ overall ‘Ability to Execute’ and their ‘Completeness of Vision’ in the market. As a result, they are positioned as either Leaders, Challengers, Visionaries, or Niche Players.

How does Gartner evaluate Completeness of Vision?

• The vendor’s understanding of market needs
• The vendor’s proposition and marketing strategy
• The product development roadmap
• Sales and business model strategy
• The viability of the vendor’s geographic, vertical, and industry strategies

How does Gartner evaluate Ability to Execute?

• Most importantly, the product and/or service capabilities
• Pricing models and sales execution
• Responsiveness of the market to the proposition
• The customer experience
• The vendor’s overall financial health and operations

The Gartner Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Architecture Tools

The Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Enterprise Architecture tools is the standard report for the EA tools market. The report features key vendors in the EA space, ranking them based on Gartner’s expert opinion, as well as user-contributed reviews from Gartner Peer Insights.

The report details each evaluation — highlighting the strengths and challenges of specific vendors, and the functionalities of their tools. It also summarizes the trends and key capabilities of the market.

How can you use the MQ?

The Gartner Magic Quadrant can serve as a first step in understanding the technology vendors in your market of interest — in this case, Enterprise Architecture.

Gartner evaluates the vendors based on carefully chosen criteria, which can help you:

1. Compare the strengths and challenges of different vendors
2. Understand their relative positioning in the market
3. Choose a vendor that serves your business needs 

As Gartner notes, it's important to carefully evaluate each vendor based on your specific needs. This counters the common misconception that Leaders should be your first choice, or are best equipped to serve every customer. This is not the case.

If you take another look at each quadrant, you will notice that Visionaries stand out for their cutting-edge solutions in the market, while the Leaders may be somewhat static. Similarly, Niche Players are often recognized for their strengths within particular market segments or geographies — which may fit your company. Additionally, challengers dominate a large segment and have a proven, high ability to execute. This means that, if their vision grows and develops over time, they can move into the Leader quadrant.

Ultimately, you should always refer to individual vendors' strengths and their tools' functionalities when making a decision. This will ensure that you pick the right solution for your business needs and level of maturity.

ValueBlue was named a Challenger! What's our story?

This is the fifth year in a row that ValueBlue has been included in the Magic Quadrant™ for Enterprise Architecture Tools. After being a ‘Niche player’ for four years, we have now made a significant leap to the Challenger quadrant.

This rapid growth shows a significant increase in our ‘Ability to Execute’, as well as a higher ‘Completeness of Vision’. Gartner recognized ValueBlue’s “intentional emphasis on supporting strategic planning, impacts and business transformation” — which is reflected in the following strengths:

Reduced time-to-value of transformation projects

The report highlights BlueDolphin’s “brief learning curve”, recognizing the platform’s ability to reduce time-to-value for customers. In addition, ValueBlue is said to offer a “very quick configuration of its metamodel compared to its industry peers”, thus making complex models more accessible to users.

Democratized transformation planning for non-technical stakeholders

With “plentiful features for non-EA users” … “that increase the engagement and collaboration opportunities throughout customer organizations”, BlueDolphin is also gaining traction among non-technical stakeholders. Gartner acknowledges that “BlueDolphin’s varied set of personas and features is resonating with more individuals within customer organizations.”

By facilitating collaboration between the EA function and the rest of the organization, BlueDolphin empowers Enterprise Architects to gather relevant information from all layers of the organization, share strategic insights, and plan transformations faster and more effectively. This not only ensures a faster time-to-value but also a higher strategic value from transformation projects.

"We believe that being acknowledged as a Challenger in the Magic Quadrant reflects our commitment to helping clients quickly realize tangible results with architecture. Our intuitive onboarding and implementation, as well as abundance of features for non-EA users, ensure a smooth journey for customers who are starting or reinventing their EA practice" shares Jelle Visser, our CEO.

The EA market: Key takeaways from the report

There are several market trends and considerations highlighted in the report. Gartner primarily emphasizes that, when selecting an EA tool, architects should focus on those that support long-term transformation, modernization, and innovation goals.

According to Gartner, Enterprise Architecture tools provide a means to model the business and IT aspects of the enterprise in support of business outcome delivery. In doing so, architects should collaborate with multiple stakeholders across the organization — each playing a different role at a different time.

In summary, Enterprise Architects should keep the following things in mind:

• Ultimately, in 2023 and beyond, EA tools should support the delivery of business outcomes
• You should look for tools that offer the means to model both the business and the IT aspects of the enterprise — and perform this modeling with a central repository
• Since EA tools should facilitate "collaboration between a diverse group of stakeholders across the organization, right from business strategy to IT", look for tools that deliver value for a variety of users, across strategic planning, roadmapping, and execution.

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