Our Take on the Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ and Critical Capabilities

What is a Magic Quadrant™?

Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ research provides a graphical competitive positioning of technology providers in fast-growing markets. Offering an authoritative view on the landscape, a Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ identifies leaders, visionaries, niche players, and challengers in a technology landscape which considers how well technology providers are executing against their current vision and how well they’re positioned for tomorrow.

Leaders execute are those at the top of the range in doing just that. Visionaries understand where the market is going or have a vision for changing market rules, but do not yet execute very well. Niche Players focus successfully on a small segment, or are unfocused and do not out-innovate or outperform others. Finally, Challengers execute well today or may dominate a large segment, but do not demonstrate a thorough understanding of market direction. Vendors are assessed based on the quality and efficiency of their execution as a provider and their success in achieving their vision.

What is the 2024 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Intranet Packaged Solutions?

This sophomore report for our market applies a uniform and robust set of evaluation criteria to vendors within the Intranet Packaged Solutions space, offering extensive analysis across fifteen vendors, surfacing key insights to inform decision-makers.

The vendors Gartner assess must be delivering several capabilities across employee engagement, employee services, application portals, knowledge services, work management, and frontline worker support. The solution they provide must be a cohesive and integrated product, and should be comprised of standalone technology.

Complex, large-scale enterprises are under increasing pressure to accelerate organizational velocity, driving employee enablement, engagement, and retention. The establishment of a Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for our space, and the subsequent publication of a second, updated report this year, recognizes the hastening growth and development within our market.

The research encourages application leaders to examine intranet packaged solutions for their ability to support employees with a single pane of glass experience and intuitive workflow to combat digital friction and catalyst faster time to value.

Why is this important?

In the era of employee experience, Gartner’s continued investment in analyzing our space marks the importance of enhancing employee experience. We think this report will continue to elevate the role of the intranet in employee experience, providing an invaluable source for those currently managing or looking to improve their intranet, or those seeking a best-in-breed solution for their needs.

We envisage that prospective customers in the market will use the Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ to get quickly acquainted with our market’s competing technology providers and their ability to deliver on what end users require. We also believe they’ll consult it to understand how our market’s technology providers are competitively positioned, compare strengths and challenges, and evaluate the strategies they are using to compete in this fast-growing market.

Our take: What does it mean for intranets in 2024?

Intranets have a renewed level of interest

The profile of the importance of employee experience is rising again, Gartner noted, as enterprises recognize the impact it can have on their smooth operations. Intranet packaged solutions are a logical way to advance digital workplace initiatives, whether modernizing, redesigning, or re-platforming.

Looking across six use cases and evaluating thirteen critical capabilities, the 2024 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Intranet Packaged Solutions reaffirmed that a breadth of capability is required to meet the needs of modern, complex enterprises.

This research conveys the vital importance of assembling a broad set of capabilities to meet the growing needs of the modern and varied workforce. Best-in-breed solutions will meet this growing demand. There is a growing urgency and a growing appreciation for better informing, engaging and supporting employees across the workplace.

GenAI is here to transform the employee experience

Alongside a broad set of fundamental and extended capabilities, this research noted the potential for GenAI tooling to run broad and deep in meeting the challenges of the modern workforce. As intranets incorporate a broad array of capabilities for diverse use cases, the possibilities are endless. Soon, the value cutting edge AI and superapp capabilities will be able to provide will outstrip that of traditional intranet solutions if used in isolation.

Gartner defines the market today as an “innovation race to harness GenAI for unique differentiation”. The best solutions in the market will enable both end users and business stakeholders, fostering the achievement of personal and business goals.

Frontline workers are a bigger priority

Lately, the needs of deskless employees are a leading factor in the decision-making of IPS buyers. Enterprises are realizing that frontline workers have the same employee experience requirements as their office-based counterparts, and in some industries they have unique needs that should be catered for through a modernized intranet solution.

Vendors in the space have recognized this opportunity, but the ways in which they’re seeking to solve frontline worker needs are at varying degrees of maturity, especially as it pertains to different industries. Gartner believes that superapps may hold the answer to nudge vendors into more operational areas.

Vertical specialization and geographical footprint matters

Gartner believes that organizations in different verticals have different goals for employee experience, and their customers often want assurance that an IPS provider has experience in their specific industry. Whilst some organizations in regions lesser served may deem local solutions adequate for their needs, presence in North America and Western Europe is the standard for many IPS vendors.

Intranet Packaged Solutions to optimize employee experiences

With the dawn of GenAI and the evolution of Intranet Packaged Solutions to suit frontline needs, we believe that it’s an exciting time for our market, and looking ahead, standards will continue to be elevated to cultivate organizational velocity across the most demanding enterprises.

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Gartner, Critical Capabilities for Intranet Packaged Solutions, Mike Gotta, Priyanka Singh, Gavin Tay, Larry Cannell, 16 December 2024

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Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s Research & Advisory organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

These graphics were published by Gartner, Inc. as part of a larger research document and should be evaluated in the context of the entire document. The Gartner document is available upon request from Unily.