娇色导航

Keith Shaw: Hi, everybody. Welcome to DEMO, the show where companies come in and show us their latest products and platforms. Today, I'm joined by Jim Spare. He is the Chief Product Officer at IDC. Welcome to the show, Jim. Jim Spare: Yeah, thank you very much.

Keith: IDC — we used to be connected to you guys as well — and IDC is known as an analyst firm. You're not really known for products. So why are you here on DEMO? What are you going to show us today?

Jim: Well, as a global market research firm, we have worldwide coverage of technology markets, products, and vendors. And as a market intelligence company, we’re constantly looking at new and better ways to serve our customers.

One of those ways is to serve them in a more interactive and digital format. So we’re building digital platforms that take advantage of artificial intelligence and enable us to harness all our knowledge and deliver it to customers in a customized digital form.

The name of this is IDC TechMatch. Keith: So who is IDC TechMatch designed for? Is it everyone within the enterprise, or is there a specific role within a company that’s really going to benefit from this?

Jim: Yeah, we focus IDC TechMatch — a platform that enables IT leaders to make decisions quickly and confidently when picking the right software for their business purpose.

Typically, that’s the CIO, head of enterprise applications, head of procurement, or even the CFO’s office — people who typically get involved in software sourcing and selection decisions. That’s who the platform is targeted at. Keith: What’s the main problem you’re solving for these groups of people?

Jim: Today, the way most organizations source and select software is long, complex, and frustrating for everyone involved. These processes can take up to six months to make a decision on the right software.

So we’re offering these organizations an opportunity to accelerate that software sourcing process while also accessing world-class market intelligence so IT executives can make confident decisions. Keith: And what would companies be doing without this?

I always think of that infomercial with someone struggling in black and white, and then the world of color opens up. It sounds like without this, companies would be doing a lot of searching, using tabs and spreadsheets... Jim: Yeah — spreadsheets, endless lists of requirements, some web research.

And of course now, LLMs can help, but where do they collect the data from? There’s a lot of internal work and unscientific, hamster-wheel-type efforts to figure out what software is right for business purposes.

Keith: What I like about this is you’re collecting information from your research and analysts, so the data is probably more trusted than what you’d get from a Google search. Sometimes people manipulate those results with money, etc. Can you guarantee that this is trusted information? Jim: Yes, absolutely.

The information in the IDC TechMatch platform has been collected through a vetted, objective research methodology driven by over 1,000 global analysts with decades of experience in markets, vendors, and products. The data TechMatch provides is based on an unbiased source and a rich corpus of information and experience.

Keith: Very cool. Let’s see the demo. Jim: All right. So this is the opening screen for IDC TechMatch. Let’s say we’re a 娇色导航or head of enterprise apps looking for new financial applications. And let’s say we’re a retailer of widgets.

I just start here — enter my project name and description. I can search through dozens of software markets. I’ll start typing “financial apps,” and I see “financial applications” appear. I click, and boom — start a new project. Now we’re on the dashboard.

You see some info about this sourcing project, and we’ll go into more detail. First, you see the IDC MarketScape. That’s a research document providing a detailed understanding of the players in a market segment.

All of the information in TechMatch is based on data collected via IDC’s MarketScape process, which includes talking to both vendors and their customers, so we really understand market perceptions.

Keith: So you get a quick view of the players in a market. Jim: Yes. And you also see a short list starting to populate — all the vendors initially in the MarketScape. As you go through the sourcing and selection process, the first question is: What are your requirements?

Many software categories involve hundreds of requirements. We can auto-generate those. I click the button and, using our knowledge, the platform generates common requirements for this type of software. Now I can select which are critical — like AP, document management, approval workflows.

Of the 16 vendors, 13 match those requirements and 3 do not.

Jim: So now I’m seeing exactly how my requirements match marketplace functionality. I can then view the short list — see who's in and who's out. Click into a vendor, like Oracle, and get more info: strengths, challenges, when to consider it, etc.

I can also see who's missing — like Certinia or FreshBooks — and click to see which unmet requirements excluded them. Keith: So you're not deleting them — you’re explaining why they didn’t make the cut. Jim: Exactly. Not “deleted,” just off the short list.

Keith: That’s a great segue into the AI component. That’s a requirement for being on this show.

Jim: Or for living these days! This AI is special because it’s pointed at all of IDC’s proprietary information. I can ask, “Which vendors have a connector to ERP?” and it will search vetted data and give a tailored response.

I can also ask things like, “Why isn’t FreshBooks on my short list?” and it gives context-specific info. This is a great example of a solution with a traditional workflow component and a powerful AI-based interface that lets us ask natural language questions to refine results.

I can then compare vendors in detail and see side-by-side comparisons. When I’m ready, I generate an executive summary to share with leadership or the sourcing team. I pick the vendors, hit download, and it creates an editable PowerPoint presentation.

Lastly, we can generate a custom RFP based on the software category and the requirements we’ve defined. It gives me a Word doc using IDC’s best practices. Let’s open it — it’s comprehensive and editable. Again, all informed by IDC’s research. Keith: That’s really cool.

We had Marci Maddox on Today in Tech, and she mentioned how long and frustrating sourcing and procurement can be. The goal here is to shrink that time, right? Jim: Exactly. CIOs consistently tell us that software sourcing is one of their top three pain points.

Even with a short list of 16 vendors, no one wants to go through all of that manually.

And in today’s environment — where decision-making is democratized — there are dozens of people involved. The process can take six months. With TechMatch, we can cut that to six weeks, and maybe eventually six days.

We can transform what’s often a frustrating, political, biased process into one collaborative digital platform — driving alignment and visibility for all stakeholders. Keith: I know you have many more features, but where can people go to learn more or try it out? Jim: Check it out at idc.com/techmatch.

Keith: All right, that’s where you can go if you want to accelerate your software sourcing decision-making process and do so with greater confidence. Jim Spare from IDC, thanks again for joining us on the show and showing us TechMatch. Jim: Thank you.

Keith: That’s going to do it for this week’s show. Be sure to like the video, subscribe to the channel, and add your thoughts below. Join us every week for new episodes of DEMO. I'm Keith Shaw — thanks for watching! ?