According to the Kuppinger Cole report: Hidden Gems are vendors which are (still) relatively small, less known then "the big ones", and which definitively offer innovative solutions that are worth considering. These vendors are not (yet) stars in the worldwide IAM, GRC, and Cloud markets.It is in the nature of grinding Hidden Gems that some will not become the sparkling diamonds we expect today. Some will become acquired. However, there are strong opportunities in selecting products and services of innovative, young vendors – of the Hidden Gems.The selected vendors are distributed into four categories. Besides GRC, categories include IAM, IT Security and Cloud.
You may recall that a few months ago we were also named “Cool vendor” by Gartner. The inclusion of our solution in the Kuppinger report reinforces the fact that we have a solution that is sound, distinct, concrete and able to solve customer problems and ensure success of business objectives.
But… but… as I already stated in my previous post, this is not enough! I don’t want to start the usual rail about the few “Ugly, Dirty and Bad” big companies again. It’s very frustrating to notice, however, that we always have to demonstrate or prove something, while just a few words and a PowerPoint presentation is enough for the “ big brand”.
This is a recent example: the prospective customer wants to implement a complete role-based Identity & Access Governance project by the end of 2010.
Our foe say “No problem”!
….. but wait a minute: the foe has also just affirmed that the roadmap for a new module - that is mandatory for the project – will not be integrated before October 2010, and on top of that the official timeline is CY2011!
How will they comply this to the project deadline, since lots of custom developments are required and the tools are not yet available? A mystery!
Alternatively, we humbly proposed a pitfall free solution with technical features that are at least ‘on par’ with the competitor’s. A solution with almost all functionalities natively available from our IDEAS platform without the need for further coding or custom developments… and obviously with the possibility to implement a POC in weeks.
The (ex) prospective customer verdict was: sorry, but we trust them and feel comfortable joining their grand vision”. No further explanations given!!
Is this a healthy competition?
Going back to the report spirit: Hidden Gems should mean that there are some fascinating less-known solutions on the market worthy of evaluation - including ones you possibly never knew existed!
The complete report is available to Kuppinger Cole clients here.
