eWEEK content and product recommendations are editorially independent. We may make money when you click on links to our partners. Learn More.
Nobody likes to waste anything–whether it’s leftover food, time sitting in traffic or, least of all, unused software sitting on a data center shelf.
With this thought comes the following data point, one that came to the fore this week: U.S. companies wasted a whopping $30 billion last year on software that went unused. That’s $259 annually per user, as calculated by 1E, a security consulting firm.
G2 Crowd, an online platform for users to share business software reviews in real time, has taken it as a personal challenge to stop–or at least curtail–the buying of software that will never get used in production. G2 Crowd’s first quarterly Momentum Grid Report, launched Aug. 15, is aimed to assist line-of-business buyers in selecting software packages that will meet their needs now and in the future. This new report series identifies trending products based on a proprietary algorithm to help buyers plan for the future, the Chicago-based company said.
Becoming More Knowledgeable About Software-Buying Decisions
With a little more guidance like this, enterprises ostensibly will become more knowledgeable about buying decisions, and thus save a ton of money on software planning and deployment.
The new report series showcases business solutions with the highest growth trajectory based on a proprietary algorithm that factors a product’s user satisfaction, online presence, and employee headcount growth over the last year, the company said.
The analytics-powered report will compete in the market with industry-standard research work from Gartner Research, Forrester Research, Constellation Research, The 451 Group and others.
Here are some key findings from G2’s first quarterly release:
- Video Conferencing: Watch out, Skype. Zoom is taking over.
- Business Intelligence Platforms: Oracle, Microsoft are getting beaten by the little guys.
- Project Management: Startups jostle for dominance in this crowded category.
- Core HR: If you aren’t using Justworks, you’re about to be left behind.
- Infrastructure as a Service: Amazon Web Services isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
- Low-Code Development Platforms: Outworks plows past the competition.
The Momentum Score is used to position products on the Momentum Grid, which measures Momentum on the Y-axis and User Satisfaction on the X-axis. Products included in the Momentum Grid must have received a minimum of ten reviews and one year of user data. These ratings could change as opinions change, vendors grow, and their products continue to develop. A new Momentum Grid will be issued for each category as significant insights are collected. Badges will be awarded to products with the top Momentum Grid Scores.
In addition to helping streamline the selection process for buyers, the Momentum Grid will provide vendors, investors, analysts, and the media with benchmarks they can use for comparing products and analyzing market trends.
475,000 User Reviews
G2 Crowd, deploys more than 475,000 user reviews that enable user to assess purchasing decisions. Business professionals, buyers, investors and analysts use the site to compare and select the best software and services based on peer reviews and synthesized social data.
Six-year-old G2 Crowd claims to have more than 1.5 million site visitors monthly. Co-founded by the founder and former executives of SaaS leaders such as BigMachines (acquired by Oracle) and SteelBrick (acquired by Salesforce) and backed by more than $45 million in capital, G2 Crowd aims to bring authenticity and transparency to the business marketplace.
For more information, go here.