New tool connects the dots between vendors -- visually
Looking to see which companies compete directly with IBM or Microsoft? Or with more specialized vendors such as SOA Software or EMC?
Accenture Technology Labs has released a new online service called Sector Explorer, which enables one to identify vendors that are operating in related markets. This is a great tool for decision makers seeking to find the range of vendor choices in a easy-to-spot, visual way. It also provides a quick look at the vendor's size and connections with the rest of a particular market.
Accenture calls it the "company genome project." For example, if you enter "SOA," the following vendors come up, shown as connected to "SOA Software," in size order (which is configurable by employee count, funding, and estimated revenue). The visual output is also shown in the screen capture, below:
- IBM
- Oracle
- Microsoft
- Software AG
- Tibco
A search for another player in the service technology space, Red Hat, brings up 11 players in the same space, including the following:
- IBM
- Oracle
- Microsoft
- Dell
- SAP
- Cisco
- EMC
The visualization is made possible through metrics derived by DataFox. "Their algorithms aggregate and analyze millions of data points to track, score, and rank over 350,000 private and public companies, allowing users to discover new investment opportunities, maintain a real-time understanding of prospective and current portfolio companies, and identify industry trends and patterns, " according to Accenture Labs.