Report:
The Forrester Wave™: Market And Competitive Intelligence Platforms, Q4 2024
How does Forrester define the Market And Competitive Intelligence Platforms market in 2024?
Market and competitive intelligence (M&CI) platforms are becoming mission-critical to B2B organizations as they face increased market volatility and rapid technological change. These platforms automate the delivery of up-to-date market and competitor news and insights, enabling a small team of analysts to curate and tailor intelligence for hundreds or thousands of users across functions—from C-suite executives to product management teams. By leveraging search, AI, and other tools to aggregate information from diverse sources (news, websites, trade publications, patents, regulatory sites, social media, user reviews), M&CI platforms radically change the economics of staying competitive, helping organizations make better decisions daily without requiring extensive research teams.
Key Facts for The Forrester Wave™: Market And Competitive Intelligence Platforms, Q4 2024 in 2024
- Publication Date: 13-Dec-2024
- Document ID:
- Summary: In our evaluation of market and competitive intelligence (M&CI) platform providers, we identified the most significant ones and researched, analyzed, and scored them. This report shows how each provider measures up and helps you select the right one for your needs.
- Authors: Beth Caplow, Amy Hayes, Angela Lozada, Drew Zalucky
How did the Market And Competitive Intelligence Platforms market evolve in 2024?
- M&CI platforms are becoming mission-critical to B2B organizations
- Platforms automate up-to-date market and competitor news and insights into a one-stop shop
- A handful of analysts can curate and tailor specific intelligence for individual teams or functions across hundreds or thousands of users
- Average companies need extensive researchers or analysts to understand market complexities and swings
- M&CI platforms radically change the economics by automating intelligence gathering
- Platforms help everyone from C-suite executives to product management teams make better decisions on a daily basis
- 11 providers were evaluated in this Forrester Wave
- GenAI can usher in new levels of self-service for users
- Broad up-to-date sources of information are critical for competitive advantage
- Distribution of intelligence across the organization is a key requirement for most buyers
What product features are required to be included in this year's evaluation?
- Promotes the offering as an M&CI platform. The core offering is built to gain external insights about markets, competitors, and customers from external sources, with connections to internal sources pulled in for additional purposes (e.g., CRM, win/loss data) or insights (sales conversations or input). The offering is not just a knowledge management tool that pulls information from internal sources.
- Focuses on more than one sector or use case. The focus of the offering spans beyond one sector (e.g., healthcare) or use case (e.g., patent tracking) to provide a broad set of sources and capabilities that provide market, competitor, and customer intelligence across markets, industries, and regions.
- Serves enterprise B2B customers. Over 50% of the revenue from the offering should come from B2B organizations. The organization should have case studies and references from B2B organizations and capabilities that serve B2B customers.
What are the common features of top products in the Market And Competitive Intelligence Platforms space?
No common features specified.
Scope Exclusions
- Knowledge management tools that only pull information from internal sources
- Single-sector or single-use-case platforms (e.g., healthcare-only or patent tracking-only solutions)
- Platforms serving primarily B2C customers or with less than 50% B2B revenue
Inclusion Criteria
Vendors must, among other requirements:
- Promotes the offering as an M&CI platform with core focus on external insights about markets, competitors, and customers
- Focuses on more than one sector or use case, providing broad sources and capabilities across markets, industries, and regions
- Serves enterprise B2B customers with over 50% of revenue from B2B organizations
Offering Strengths — Relative Weighting
- Publicly available data sources — 4%
- Proprietary, paywalled sources — 4%
- Internal sources — 4%
- Additional sourcing capabilities — 4%
- Taxonomy setup and change — 4%
- Tagging accuracy and automation — 4%
- Search — 4%
- Search results and filtering — 4%
- Generative AI capabilities — 4%
- Advanced generative AI — 4%
- Other AI capabilities — 4%
- Knowledge capture — 4%
- Visualization — 4%
- Market and competitive analyses — 4%
- Use cases — 4%
- Information sharing via integrations — 4%
- User authorizations and information security — 4%
- Insights dissemination — 4%
- Ease of use — 4%
- Workflow and information monitoring — 4%
- Success metrics — 4%
- Implementation — 4%
- Customer success and support — 4%
- Additional services — 4%
- Global reach and delivery — 4%
Strategy Strength — Relative Weighting
- Vision — 14%
- Innovation — 30%
- Roadmap — 14%
- Partner ecosystem — 14%
- Adoption — 14%
- Pricing flexibility and transparency — 14%
FAQs
Q: What does this research cover?
A: This research evaluates 11 market and competitive intelligence (M&CI) platform providers across current offering capabilities and strategic vision. It covers platform features including data sources (public and paywalled), search capabilities, AI and generative AI features, visualization tools, knowledge capture, integration capabilities, ease of use, and information sharing. The evaluation also assesses vendor strategy including vision, innovation, roadmap, partner ecosystem, adoption, and pricing models.
Q: Who should use this research?
A: M&CI platform customers should use this evaluation to inform purchase decisions by considering: 1) The need for broad up-to-date sources of information including news, websites, trade publications, patents, regulatory sites, social media, and user reviews; 2) Requirements for distributing intelligence across the organization through newsletters, dashboards, battlecards, and integrations with solutions like Salesforce, Slack, or Teams; 3) The readiness for and vendor capabilities in generative AI to enable conversational queries and self-service while maintaining accuracy through curated and trusted sources.
Q: What are the mandatory features of vendors included in this market?
A: To be included in this evaluation, vendors must: 1) Promote their offering as an M&CI platform built to gain external insights about markets, competitors, and customers from external sources (not just a knowledge management tool for internal sources), 2) Focus on more than one sector or use case to provide broad sources and capabilities across markets, industries, and regions, and 3) Serve enterprise B2B customers with over 50% of revenue from B2B organizations, including B2B case studies, references, and capabilities.
Q: What are some reasons for not being included in this report?
A:
- Platforms that function primarily as knowledge management tools pulling only from internal sources
- Solutions focused on a single sector (e.g., only healthcare) or single use case (e.g., only patent tracking)
- Vendors serving primarily B2C markets or generating less than 50% of revenue from B2B organizations
- Lack of B2B case studies, references, or capabilities designed for B2B customers
- Platforms that don't provide market, competitor, and customer intelligence across diverse markets, industries, and regions
Q: What should buyers consider when evaluating products in this market?
A:
- Broad up-to-date sources of information are critical—platforms need access to diverse sources including news, websites, trade publications, patents, regulatory sites, social media, user reviews, forums, and industry-specific or proprietary content
- The need for distribution of intelligence across the organization—look for platforms enabling analysts to easily create newsletters, dashboards, battlecards, and other assets, with integrations to Salesforce, Slack, or Teams
- Generative AI capabilities for enhanced self-service—well-designed genAI allows users to ask about markets, topics, or competitors and receive summarized answers with source links, significantly enhancing productivity when based on curated and trusted sources
Q: How has the Market And Competitive Intelligence Platforms market evolved in 2024?
A:
- Increased market volatility and pace of change in technology and business making it difficult for B2B organizations to stay abreast of market shifts and competitor moves
- M&CI platforms radically changing economics by automating market and competitor intelligence into a one-stop shop accessible by small analyst teams
- Generative AI ushering in new levels of self-service, replacing complex keyword searches with conversational queries that provide summarized answers
- Growing need for distribution of intelligence across organizations beyond just corporate strategy teams
- Integration with collaboration tools (Salesforce, Slack, Teams) to meet people where they work and expand reach of market intelligence
- Shift from primarily analyst-driven research to broader user adoption through improved AI capabilities and ease of use
Q: What differentiates Strength of Offering vs. Strength of Strategy?
A: Strength of Offering evaluates current product capabilities across 25 criteria (each weighted at 4%), focusing on data sources, AI capabilities, search functionality, integrations, visualization, security, and ease of use. Strength of Strategy evaluates six forward-looking criteria with varying weights (Innovation at 30% being highest), assessing the vendor's vision, innovation capability, product roadmap, partner ecosystem, market adoption, and pricing approach. Offering measures what exists today; Strategy measures the vendor's ability to evolve and compete in the future.
Reference
- Forrester, The Forrester Wave™: Market And Competitive Intelligence Platforms, Q4 2024, 13-Dec-2024, ID
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