TrustRadius Is a Valuable source of Information

We were looking for a modern tool to support advanced statistical analytics and data mining. This involved a ‘long list’ of potential software suppliers. Our task was to reduce this to a manageable number of potential suppliers. TrustRadius:

• Helped us with this initial selection
• Provided us with a rating of companies
• Gave us the initial questions to ask of the vendors

Vendors for the most part were honest and upfront with their pricing. In the rare cases where pricing seemed to be somewhat opaque, those vendors were dropped from our consideration. The biggest problem is that we struggled to get an ‘apples to apples’ comparison as some vendors charge by seat, there’s charge by modules, and others have a more complex pricing design.

TrustRadius is easier to use than some other sites. It is quicker to find what you ar looking for. In addition, and perhaps more importantly, TrustRadius has a very broad set of technologies under its umbrella. Finally, TrustRadius has a multi level comparison so one can look at an overview of the rating and then drill down into details.

In our review process we did use the Gartner Magic Quadrant as an evaluation tool. The advantage of the Magic Quadrant is that it makes it easy to compare product along the axis of the Quadrant. Additionally Gartne4 has a fairly comprehensive list of products. Finally, Gartner is the ‘gold standard’ for product review. The issue with Gartner is that occasionally products do not appear, or, versions are different. Finally, the way in which products are placed in the Quadrant is rather opaque,

Product rating or scores impact our initial consideration of a potential vendor. This gives us a direction to go in when creating a short list of potential product vendors. We do not always acquire products with the highest score (as there is an opacity associated with the scoring) but we do tend towards products in the highest scoring sector.

The biggest issues we faced in product evaluation were:

1. An ‘apples to apples’ price comparison
2. An evaluation of functionality (what is needed, what is nice and what are toys) against version
3. Ease of comparison of functionality (what does it take to actually do X)
4. Does the vendor offer what level of support and services and is there a third party infrastructure (consulting, etc.)