Magic Quadrant meets Enterprise 2.0
The new 'Magic Quadrant for Team Collaboration & Social Software' was released earlier this week from Gartner. Socialtext is positioned in the Visionaries Quadrant. Additionally, Socialtext provides the best-of-breed wiki for the Intel-led SuiteTwo bundle …
Context & Ripple Effects
Enterprise Web 2.0 has spent two years earning its keep in the blogosphere — from the best Web 2.0 software of 2005 roundups through last year's best of Office 2.0 list — but analyst validation was the missing credential. Gartner's new Magic Quadrant for Team Collaboration & Social Software changes that: the category now exists as a formal procurement artifact, with Socialtext slotted into the Visionaries quadrant.
The timing is pointed. Days before the quadrant dropped, Microsoft moved to absorb the wiki world into SharePoint by partnering with Atlassian and NewsGator, meaning incumbents are no longer ignoring this space — they are bundling against it. Socialtext's position rests partly on its best-of-breed wiki slot in Intel-led SuiteTwo, which gives the startup an enterprise distribution channel beyond direct sales.
First-order effects
- Socialtext now carries a Gartner quadrant placement into enterprise sales cycles, where shortlists are routinely built from Magic Quadrants — a concrete credibility asset against larger suite vendors.
Second-order effects
- SuiteTwo's Intel-led bundle gains a validated component at exactly the moment Microsoft's Atlassian/NewsGater partnerships make SharePoint-plus-wiki the default alternative, sharpening the bundled-suite-versus-point-tool contest for corporate buyers.
Third-order effects
- With Gartner formally rating the category, enterprise social software shifts from enthusiast adoption to checkbox procurement, pressuring Visionaries like Socialtext to prove completeness of offering or be absorbed into incumbent platforms.
The trend: Enterprise 2.0 is crossing over from blogger acclaim to institutionalized IT purchasing, with analyst quadrants and incumbent bundling setting the gate.