The Forrester Wave™: Market And Competitive Intelligence Platforms, Q2 2023

Market and Competitive Intelligence Platforms Vendor Product Comparisons 2023

Key features and pros and cons of top Market and Competitive Intelligence Platforms products:

AlphaSense - Leaders

Pros:

Proprietary intelligence with financial disclosures and hundreds of paywalled news sources
More than 1,300 exclusive brokerage reports through partnerships with leading brokers
Library of more than 25,000 expert interview transcripts from acquisition of Stream
Advanced AI engine enables accurate search results, clustering of topics, and summarizations of single or multiple documents
Semantic search tool ranks content by matching content topics with search terms, quality of source, recency, and past user behavior
Positive or negative sentiment analysis applied to earnings calls and other reports
Adopted by majority of S&P 100 companies making it the largest player in this market
Broad set of information and proprietary sources available on platform

Cons:

No newsletters or deliverables available
Few integrations to collaboration or CRM tools limit access to insights by broader set of users
Less applicability for product-oriented roles, better suited for strategy, finance, or investor-relations roles

M-Brain - Leaders

Pros:

Proprietary generative AI capabilities trained on database of 20 million human-created summaries from business-related articles
Collects information from more than 200,000 media sources including 280 paywalled sources spanning over 70 languages
Only vendor in the wave to offer natural language query capability
Automatic English summary generation across all languages
Global delivery capabilities across 12 offices in Europe, North America, and Asia
AI engine generates summaries for all news and content with positive and negative sentiment included
Robust product roadmap built out through 2024 focusing on AI engine, chat, visualizations, and integrations
High customer praise for services, willingness to customize deployment, and rapid response to requests

Cons:

Visualization capabilities are good but a more robust set would help users understand large quantities of information better

Wide Narrow - Leaders

Pros:

Well-rounded solution with host of templates and integrations
Broad set of standard templates for strategy work (landscapes, SWOT analyses, trends) and product-focused work (battlecards, product comparisons)
Easy to create and deploy dashboards and newsletters to distribute to broader set of users
Platform more widely adopted within organizations than competitor offerings
Multiple integrations help stakeholders get information in tools where they work and in format they can use
Generative AI used to summarize individual and multiple pieces of content
Translation to and from any language available
Includes widgets for charts, graphs, and other features
Rigorously developed roadmap includes increasing automation of analyses and building industry-specific ML models
Thoughtful approach to AI and savvy updates to user interface praised by customers

Cons:

Platform does not support transcriptions or tagging of audio or video files
Web page tracking requires a Visualping account

Comintelli - Strong Performers

Pros:

Comprehensive and well-thought-out intelligence platform
Pricing model allows unlimited end users and consumption
Strong partner ecosystem to support clients who need additional research or analysis support
Comprehensive paywalled news sources with translations into more than 100 languages
Intuitive search interface using topic clusters that summarize large volumes of content
Multiple report types (SWOT analyses, Four Corners) and competitor profiles
Generative AI provides bulleted summaries of single and multiple articles
Strong AI analytics and workflow tools
Top-notch service and responsiveness valued by customers

Cons:

Lack of OOTB and two-way integrations with CRM, collaboration, and other platforms limits user adoption

Course5 Intelligence - Strong Performers

Pros:

Cutting-edge ML system and language models that find patterns and anomalies
Detects positive or negative sentiments even across audio or video files
High-touch services model with high level of analyst support
High retention and Net Promotor Scores
Global delivery supported by more than 15 locations around the world
Differentiated roadmap focuses on ease of consumption and adoption by users
Leveraging ChatGPT for auto summaries, autopopulation of newsletters and battlecards, and conversational AI
Firm's expertise, support, and tools rated highly by customers

Cons:

Lack of deep or two-way integrations with enterprise systems (CRM, collaboration solutions)
Few standard templates or deliverables reflected in low adoption rates among current customers
Platform could be easier to implement and offer more standard templates
Overly complex pricing model results in significantly larger average deal sizes
Current customer base is small and found mostly in manufacturing

Evalueserve - Strong Performers

Pros:

Platform can ingest variety of public and proprietary sources and incorporate internal sources better than most
Native audio and video transcriptions produce files one-third the length of originals with digestible chapters
Strong list of templates and deliverables
Strong publishing workflow ensures version control and updates for final deliverables
Broad set of domain experts scattered around the globe work closely with customers
White glove approach with multilayered pricing model applicable to larger firms solving complex problems
Templates for sector and topic-specific taxonomies with domain expert assistance in customization

Cons:

Platform relies on domain experts for more complex tasks (trend spotting, uncovering new competitors) rather than AI
High-touch solution with accompanying high-ticket price
Some customer support challenges due to time zone issues
Internal source integrations carry additional fees

Crayon - Strong Performers

Pros:

Two-way integrations with CRM, sales content, conversational intelligence, and collaboration tools
Automates insights and deliverable distribution while providing inputs back into platform
Robust set of usage and adoption metrics including influenced revenue based on battlecard usage
Advanced web page monitoring capabilities (including images) to track competitive changes
Ease-of-use and impact metrics highlighted by customers
Good customer service
Extensive external partner ecosystem providing access to research or analytics firms

Cons:

Lags in market intelligence - does not offer OOTB proprietary sources
Lacks advanced AI and search capabilities requiring continual filtering of search results
Focused primarily on US technology firms
Lacks full global delivery as most customer and support teams operate on Eastern time
Platform sends too many unimportant alerts according to some customers

Klue - Strong Performers

Pros:

Good set of publicly available sources and 10 additional paywalled sources
Native before-and-after web page tracking
Excels at battlecard adoption and tracking win rate metrics when integrated with CRM
Recently acquired DoubleCheck for win/loss interviews and analysis
Zealous integration with other platforms (CRM, collaboration, data visualization, sales content, learning management)
Broad set of service partners to help with market and competitive research and analysis
Market vision and very good customer support

Cons:

Limited deliverables beyond battlecards and competitive newsletter inhibits ability to serve teams outside enablement functions
NLP works only on English characters with no language translation
Prebuilt taxonomies not as comprehensive as other vendors
Audio and video transcriptions processed for a fee
Pricing model based on number of users, integrations, and published deliverables may limit usage

Northern Light - Strong Performers

Pros:

Comprehensive and well-honed set of public and paywalled sources
Ability to transcribe audio, video, and images
AI indexing works for dozens of languages with translations available for 133 languages
High search result accuracy informed by past user behavior along with 40 OOTB taxonomies
Better visualization capabilities than most vendors
Platform ability to scale with unlimited users
Extremely good customer support
High user adoption rates
Over 25 years of operations with multiple innovation awards

Cons:

Market share and presence getting squeezed by newer players with strong marketing abilities
Steers away from most user review sites and applies sentiment analysis only to social
Longer implementations noted by customers
Customers would like autogenerated content in deliverables
Pricing at enterprise level with additional fees for specific content sets

CompeteIQ - Contenders

Pros:

Summarization of articles that autopopulate information into deliverables such as sales battlecards
Deep two-way integration with Salesforce allows battlecards to be available with latest content updates
Extensive list of deliverables including side-by-side product feature comparisons that are dynamically generated
Pricing model enables adoption with no coverage limitations and all seat licenses priced the same
Intuitive user interface
Vendor flexibility and support rated highly by customers
Cost-effective yet advanced solution

Cons:

Public sources limited to English-only news aggregation engines
No proprietary sources offered OOTB
Internal sources (beyond Salesforce data) require manual uploads
Taxonomies are custom-built based on just four dimensions
Lack of funding and small size have stalled advancement in market, product, and customer modules
Lacks resources for global delivery

Contify - Contenders

Pros:

Deep expertise aggregating website information from wide array of sources
API-based feeds sold to news aggregators
Prebuilt yet customizable taxonomies and ML-based tagging with curator checks to maintain accuracy
Ease of use and deployment
Outstanding customer support
Broad base of large clients with offices in US, UK, and India
Low average deal size with slightly complex pricing

Cons:

Relevancy scoring based on entire account, not individual users
No ability to provide feedback on search results
Lacks unsupervised ML and generative AI capabilities
Translations outsourced with a fee and no transcriptions of audio or video available
Low user adoption indicating focus on analysts rather than end users

Kompyte - Contenders

Pros:

Strong visualizations, workflow, metrics, and integrations with enterprise systems
Sales battlecards dynamically flow to Salesforce or HubSpot for just-in-time access by sellers
Salesforce integration pulls win/loss information and shows how battlecard consumption improves win rates
Text analytics work in multiple languages
Strong publishing workflow and good visualizations for product comparisons, SEO analysis, and hiring trends
Platform flexibility, fair pricing, and first-class support
Purchased by Semrush with new resources for R&D and innovation

Cons:

Does not come with any paywalled sources
Challenge to incorporate existing customer subscriptions
Searches require multiple attempts to filter with no topic summaries to distinguish long list of content
Narrow focus with low adoption across customer organizations
Pricing based on three tiers accounting for number of users and competitors tracked

Aurora WDC - Contenders

Pros:

User adoption rates above those of other vendors with platform used for different use cases
Average number of users in the thousands with commensurate average deal size
Customizable dashboards and battlecards using drag-and-drop widgets
Advanced publishing workflow with multiple states of actions and alerts
Comprehensive OOTB sources
Virtual analysts assist in ongoing creation of feeds and creation of newsletters
High-touch experience with training and support available

Cons:

Lacks industry-specific taxonomies making implementations highly customized
Does not offer full AI capabilities, lacking both sentiment analysis and unsupervised ML
Search requires Boolean logic statements
Innovations and enhancements focused mainly on client demands rather than broader market trends
Platform functions mostly as customized enterprise solution

Sindup - Challengers

Pros:

Captures information from broad variety of sources including TV and radio with transcription capabilities
Easy-to-use search interface is one of the best
Creation of numerous graphical summaries of search results by timeframe, geography, topic, and people without complex Boolean statements
Semantic AI analysis available in French or English
Good fit for firms targeting engineering, insurance, and utilities

Cons:

Low adoption as platform is not available to end users
No APIs for incorporating internal sources
No OOTB taxonomies to help customers get started
Advanced AI features such as sentiment analysis and auto-summarization are lacking
Small size and budget
Currently developing end-user portal to address adoption shortcoming

FAQs

Q: Which vendors are Leaders in 2023?

A: AlphaSense, M-Brain, Wide Narrow

Q: What does "Leader" mean in Forrester Wave terms?

A: Leaders in the Forrester Wave represent vendors that have the strongest current offering and strategy in the market and competitive intelligence platforms space for B2B companies.

Q: How do I interpret a Forrester Wave?

A: https://www.forrester.com/policies/forrester-wave-methodology/

Report:

Top Vendor Products for Market and Competitive Intelligence Platforms in 2023

Market and Competitive Intelligence Platforms Vendor Product Comparisons 2023

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FAQs

Q: Which vendors are Leaders in 2023?

Q: What does "Leader" mean in Forrester Wave terms?

Q: How do I interpret a Forrester Wave?

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