"Last year, Gartner raked in $1.3 billion, so its services appear to be solidly in demand. But while Gartner's reports generate plenty of cash, the Magic Quadrant garners a huge amount of interest in the vendor community as well as the press. Companies clamor to raise their rankings and regularly trot out favorable results in their own press releases. Clearly, the clout of Gartner carries some weight. But is it weighted too heavily in favor of the mighty? If it does, Karp doesn't necessarily think this is the fault of the analyst firm.
""The Gartner MQ has tremendous value — as a marketing tool for Gartner Group," said Karp. "Many smaller companies lack the time, finances and marketing wherewithal to engage effectively with Gartner, and so get relatively little face time and no visibility with them. While addressing this situation is certainly something under Gartner's control, we can't really fault the company for wanting to spend its time where the potential revenue is."
