DCIG creates Buyer’s Guides in order to help end users jump-start the product research and decision-making process. We do this by providing an informed, third party evaluation of products that scores their features from an end user viewpoint. DCIG’s product rankings dashboards and standardized one-page data sheets enable “at-a-glance” comparisons that help organizations to quickly get to a short list of products that may warrant a closer look.
DCIG Buyer’s Guides accelerate the product research and selection process—driving time and cost out of the research process while simultaneously increasing confidence in the results. The purpose of a Buyer’s Guide is NOT to tell users exactly which product(s) to purchase. Rather, it is to help guide them in coming up with a short list of competitive products that have comparable features and that meet their specific needs.
A DCIG Buyer’s Guide drives time and cost out of finding answers to the following four key product research questions:
- What products are available that address this purchase decision?
- What are the key capabilities available in these products?
- Does a particular product have the required features?
- How do this product’s features compare to competing products?
The analysts who create our Buyer’s Guides accelerate end user product research by:
- Conducting an environmental scan to identify vendors and products
- Sorting through the features supported by the products and standardizing sometimes complex terminology as a foundation for apples-to-apples comparisons
- Gathering the required data from publicly available sources and directly from vendors
- Scoring and ranking the products based on features that matter most to end users.
- Creating a standardized easy-to-read one-page data sheet for each product that summarizes the key features that differentiate products from one another
- Providing analysis that briefly explains key concepts and product differentiators.
DCIG Buyer’s Guides are intended to provide a snapshot of the products that are available at a particular point in time, and of the features they support. DCIG Buyer’s Guides are sometimes criticized for not actually testing the products or conducting interviews with current customers to validate vendor claims. Even if we could persuade every vendor to let us test their products–something that would never happen–by the time the testing was completed many of the products would have been replaced by upgraded models.
DCIG Buyer’s Guides are not intended to be a substitute for bringing individual products in-house and testing them with specific applications and data center environments. A proof of concept (PoC) implementation in a business’s own data center is an important part of validating a vendor’s claims and how well a product implements the features that are important to a particular business.
As a supplement to the downloadable Buyer’s Guides, DCIG makes all the data collected for the Buyer’s Guides available in the DCIG Analysis Portal. This powerful online data visualization tool enables subscribers to quickly develop side-by-side comparisons of the products and the specific features that matter most to them.
We at DCIG hope you find our Buyer’s Guides fulfill their intended purpose in your environment. Some frequently asked questions about our buyer’s guides are addressed in our Buyer’s Guide FAQ.