Gartner Announces New Market Leader; WeDo overtakes Subex

To be honest, I have long lost interest in what Gartner says about anything. It is my understanding that Gartner’s customers buy research because they want information that will help them make better decisions. If so, they need to make better decisions than wasting their money on Gartner’s ‘research’, which mostly involves repeating whatever hearsay they were told down the pub, over a couple of beers, by somebody who paid for the beers. Actually, that is not fair. You would learn much more valuable information whilst down the pub. At the rate Gartner are going, we will soon find more reliable research in the daily horoscope…

Sagittarius. Today you will meet an old friend with some unexpected news. A chance encounter with a woman will lead you to reconsider your options. Also, the leaders in supplying enterprise Governance Risk and Compliance (GRC) software have evolved into providing fully-functional Enterprise Governance Risk and Compliance (EGRC) solutions. If in doubt, buy IBM.

Nevertheless, it is of passing interest that Gartner has finally woken up to what the smarter analysts have been saying for a while now: WeDo has overtaken Subex to become the global market share leader in revenue assurance and fraud management. And when I say smarter analysts, I mean people like me; see here and here. WeDo’s press release provides more details.

This is yet more bad news for Subex’s beleaguered management team. Subex used to be the clear market leaders across the combined space of RA and FMS systems. Less than two months ago, Subex were trying to distract attention from their woeful financial results by issuing a press release saying they were still the market leaders. Now even that fig leaf has been rudely ripped away.

So, back in May, which idiot research company were Subex quoting, reporting they still had the most sales compared to rivals? They were quoting Gartner. So Subex must have been citing a different Gartner report, covering a different year, or a different definition of products? No. Both Subex and WeDo have cited the same report, for the same products, for the same year. Incredibly, just a few months after it came out, Gartner has issued a revised version of their report on Market Share: Telecom Operations Management Systems (BSS, OSS and SDP), Worldwide, 2011-2012. In March it said Subex sold more RA and FMS than anyone else. In July, it was revised, and said WeDo sold more RA and FMS than anyone else. I must admit, I am curious to know what Gartner learned during the months of April, May and June 2013, and how it changed their opinion about sales made in the year 2012. I would have thought that if you cannot gather reliable information about 2012 sales by the end of March 2013, then you probably never will. However, my curiosity to learn about Gartner’s mistakes does not motivate me to buy a copy of their USD10,000 report. I am not even clear if chumps customers who bought the original report will get an updated version for free. And if anyone, during the months of April to June, was stupid enough to make a decision based on Gartner’s research, then it is tough luck for them…

Eric Priezkalns
Eric Priezkalnshttp://revenueprotect.com

Eric is the Editor of Commsrisk. Look here for more about the history of Commsrisk and the role played by Eric.

Eric is also the Chief Executive of the Risk & Assurance Group (RAG), an association of professionals working in risk management and business assurance for communications providers. RAG was founded in 2003 and Eric was appointed CEO in 2016.

Previously Eric was Director of Risk Management for Qatar Telecom and he has worked with Cable & Wireless, T‑Mobile, Sky, Worldcom and other telcos. He was lead author of Revenue Assurance: Expert Opinions for Communications Providers, published by CRC Press.

Related Articles

Get Our Weekly Newsletter by Email