Many companies start out with a vision of how they might deliver a product or service that makes a difference or improves the world in which we live. Yet out of those thousands, hundreds of thousands or even millions of companies, very few manage to bring together that special combination of the right product, skill sets, timing, hard work and perseverance to actually turn that vision into a reality. Today, DCIG reached an important milestone in its growth by being recognized as just such a company by officially joining the Dell Founders 50 Fall 2014 class.
DCIG was founded in 2007 with a mission statement that seemed very simple – provide organizations of all sizes the data they need to evaluate multiple competing technology products and then present the information and persuasive buying recommendations to executive management. In other words, empower the IT industry with actionable analysis.
As a former system administrator and engineer who has worked at small, midsize and large enterprise companies, I understood the two fundamental challenges that organizations of all sizes had in common.
- IT staff in every organization needs to aggregate data on all of the different technology products available on the market and then digest and understand it so they can create buying recommendations
- Once a recommendation was determined, they then needed to present the information in a format that it could be easily and quickly comprehended by and justified to the individuals on the business side of the house as they were typically the ones who controlled the checkbook.
The inability to effectively deliver on these two challenges does more than delay organizations from making buying decisions, it can often cripple them. IT staff end up having to spend days, weeks or even months researching new technologies to try to find the most appropriate product fit for their environment.
Even if they do identify the right technology for their needs, they still need to build the business case to bring it in-house. This skill of articulately and artfully presenting the information in a manner that is easily understood is hard to master. This results is many technologies never seeing the light of day, products are acquired that are the wrong fit or companies simply buy the products that are most heavily marketed.
DCIG addresses these critical challenges that every business faces today. By aggregating the information about the technology products that organizations are most interested in buying and then presenting that information in formats that are most appropriate for the intended audience (business or technical staff members), organizations can largely eliminate all of the time they spend trying to figure out what products to buy and instead begin implementing new solutions and taking advantage of the benefits they have to offer.
Unlike other analyst firms that subjectively move around dots on a chart or focus on what trend to catch or criteria evaluation matters most, DCIG provides its opinion about features supported on each product and clearly outlines its findings. While this approach is viewed as controversial by some, this is the exact type of opinion that organizations want and need to end their analysis paralysis. Companies want an analyst opinion that will help them authoritatively and confidently move forward and make the right buying decision for their environment. This is what DCIG provides through its Buyer’s Guide, DCIG Analyst Portal and Competitive Advantage Reports.
As DCIG continues to grow, DCIG is thrilled to join the Dell Founders 50. The Dell Founders 50 gives DCIG access to many of the resources that DCIG needs to reach new customers including access to technology, capital, marketing, sales enablement and networking resources.
DCIG started out in 2007 looking to change how analysis was delivered. In order to achieve that objective, DCIG had to take a different route than other analyst firms by implementing and delivering an online, cloud-based business-intelligence solution that anyone could access. The results of that decision are now clear for anyone to see as DCIG is excited to embark on the next step of its journey with Dell and continue to deliver the analyst products and solutions that are making a difference.