Welcome to the KuppingerCole Analyst Chat. I'm your host. My name is Matthias Reinwarth. I'm an analyst and advisor with KuppingerCole Analysts. My guest today is Jonathan Care, and he is the newly announced practice lead for AI. So he's just finding his way in this role. But today we want to talk about something different, something we have not yet talked at all in any of the episodes of this podcast. We want to talk about a KuppingerCole product with a kind of behind-the-scenes perspective. But first of all, hi Jonathan, good to have you. Hi Matthias, and thank you for the warm welcome.
It's really great to have you, and I know that you spent quite some time and some effort in creating this new product, or should I say type of product, or series of products. So we want to learn more about that, and we really want to make sure this is not marketing stuff. We want to tell you why this is there, what role it fulfills, or what gap it fills, and what role it is and how maybe also the work of advisors and analysts are changing over time and to accommodate that.
So Matthias, what I want to do is to actually give you and the audience a little insight into how we develop new products and services in KuppingerCole. And the product I'm particularly interested in talking to you about, because I actually think it's quite special, is something we've called the Product Value Navigator, in line with our other themes of Nautical, you know, compasses, navigator, and so on. And what we saw when we were looking at this was that enterprise technology buying is broken, and it's broken in a very specific way. Buyers have more research than ever.
There are comparison grids, analyst rankings, vendor demos, and so on and so forth. But one question, despite all that, keeps going unanswered, which is what will this actually be worth to my organization? And of course, ROI clients from vendors are everywhere, but they're not independent. Vendor telling you their product delivers 300% ROI is like asking a chef to review their own restaurant. And that gap between this product is technically good. And this product will deliver measurable value for you is exactly what the Product Value Navigator was built to close.
KuppingerCole, of course, has always been about independent research. The PVN is us applying that independence to the one dimension that ultimately drives every purchasing decision, which is economic value. So the concept sounds interesting, but what is what the customer actually gets? What is the Product Value Navigator actually like?
Well, at its core, the PVN is a structured, independently produced economic validation of enterprise technology products. It's not a marketing document. It's a research document. It combines three things that have traditionally been kept separate. Kuppinger's own deep technical and market research, structured interviews with real customers, and rigorous financial modeling. The output is a clear, quantified picture of what a product actually delivers. Things like ROI, payback period, total cost of ownership, and the harder to quantify benefits like reduced operational burden or risk reduction.
Our first published PVN assessed ManageEngine PAM360, a privileged access management platform, and found enterprises can achieve a 219% ROI. And that's not a vendor claim. That's independently validated from our analysts. So as you said, these are topics that are in research somewhere, but they are not combined. Is this what makes it different from what already exists?
Well, I think so. I think there are plenty of, as you say, analyst research formats out there. We have our leadership compasses. We have our white papers, other analyst firms use magic quadrants, wave reports. And of course, they are great for understanding where a vendor sits competitively. But they do not tell you what the product will be worth to your business. And of course, there are also ROI calculators. Any of us who've been through that procurement loop knows that a vendor provides a tool. You can fill in with your assumptions and get out a number.
And of course, the problem is those assumptions are often optimistic, to put it mildly. Certainly, the methodology is not transparent, and there's no independent voice behind it.
Now, we set out to build the PVN to be neither of those things. It's not a ranking. It's not a vendor tool. It is an analyst-led, methodology-driven research process that produces a third-party economic evidence base. So just think of it, Matthias. What happens? You take the rigor of a cup-and-gold leadership compass and apply it not to product capabilities, but to product value delivery.
Yeah, that sounds good, because this is what, actually, decision makers are looking for when they maybe even already have a short list or have understood where they want to go to. But does it actually deliver that value? I think that's really important. The question is, how do we do that? How did you do that for Manager Engine? And how do you get to this information so that, yeah, of course, the information is as reliable as possible?
Well, this is where I think I'll, as I say, take you behind the curtain a little bit. And of course, the process starts with Cup-and-Cold's existing research base. We don't come to a PVM cold. We already have deep knowledge of the market segment, the competitive landscape, and what looks good technically. Then we layer on top structured interviews with actual customers of the product. Not cherry-picked references, but a systematic sample designed to capture real-world deployment scenarios. And that qualitative insight feeds into a financial modeling framework where we build out the economics.
What did implementation cost? What did it replace? What productivity or risk benefits accrued? And over what time frame? And we make sure the result is independently reviewable. We show our working. So that transparency is central to what makes it credible. For every product, every marketer for a product says, who is this for? Who is the target audience for that? I think I have an idea from whom it is. But let me ask the question and really explain whom are you targeting with that document, with that product?
Well, of course, there's a couple of different viewpoints here. On the buyer side, we want to serve CISOs, IT leaders, and procurement teams who are under pressure to justify technology spend to CFOs and boards. And the PVN gives them that independent evidence base that they need. It's not a vendor deck, but it does support their business case that they're trying to make. Looking at it from the vendor standpoint, it's an opportunity to have your product's economic value validated by a trusted, independent party.
In a world where trust but verify is the default, that independent stamp matters enormously. And we take pride in the fact that we're able to deliver that.
Of course, the timing is significant. Enterprise technology spend is under more scrutiny than it's been in years, more than ever before. Finance teams are now asking the harder questions. The days of buying on capability alone.
Hey, this product can do this, that, and the other are largely over. Value proof is now a procurement requirement. And the PVN is built for exactly that.
Yes, so the question is, we are working in the analyst industry. We're looking at a technology market, at a buyer's market that is looking into these products. Where does this product, this PVN, actually fit in this industry?
Yeah, where does it fit in? Which role does it play? Does it replace others? What is your notion here?
Well, I think we're seeing a broader shift into how enterprise technology is evaluated. We're moving away from feature checklists and towards outcome-based purchasing. And the PVN is Kapplinger-Kohl's answer to that shift. It also reflects something important about the role of independent analysts in the current landscape. As AI-generated content and vendor-funded research proliferates, the premium on truly independent methodology-backed research goes up. That's our position, and the PVN doubles down on it.
Longer term, we'd like to see the PVN as a format that can be applied across a full breadth of Kapplinger-Kohl coverage areas, from IBM to cybersecurity to cloud, and indeed to the intersection of AI and cybersecurity, which, as Matthias said, is my particular interest. We'd like to give buyers an economic evidence base to sit alongside our technical research. So you're countering the increasing amount of AI-produced stuff and lower quality with high quality and substance? I think that's a great argument for this product.
So we are at the end already of our session because we just wanted to give a short introduction of what this actually is. Because it's new for us, we're test driving that. We think it drives well. So the question is, what should our listeners take away from that?
Well, I think if you're a buyer and if you're evaluating enterprise technology, you should ask vendors whether their product has been independently economically validated. You can demand the evidence, not just the claim. If you're a vendor, then think about what it means to have your ROI story told by an independent third party. In a trust-scarce environment, and we know that cybersecurity and IAM is definitely that, that is a competitive differentiator. And of course, for us in Kappenger Coal, the PVN is a natural evolution of what we do. It's rigorous, independent, trusted research.
And if there's one thing I want everyone to take away from this podcast, we're answering that question that matters most at the end of every buying cycle. Was it worth it?
Now, I'm happy to say that the Manage Engine report is actually live now on our website and member subscribers are welcome to log in and view it. And it's a strong first example of what the format can do. And there's a lot more to come. So that it will be an ongoing production of this product. So there will be more. And I think there's really a huge interest in exactly that value calculation being made by a trusted third party and who is better equipped to provide such an analysis other than a neutral analyst company.
So that I think this is where actually also, yeah, we can really shine and this product can really shine and add more value to the research formats that we already have that don't go away. It's an addition, it adds a different perspective. Final words from your side before we close down, what is the next thing to expect from the Product Value Navigator? More of the same, but in a good way?
Well, I think there are several things on our roadmap, but yeah, just to name a quick sneak peek behind the curtain, I'd like to see an increased and more flexible financial modeling section. So myself in conduction with our dev team, we're looking at how we can provide a tool that allows you to do financial modeling based on the data that we've gathered and then allows you to fit the PVN to your own economic circumstances. I think other things we're looking at as well as that, then we are looking at, well, how do we get even more corroboration of our results?
So clearly right now, we use a number of open intelligence sources, including J. Edgar, if it's a American publicly listed company, equivalent sources in Europe. We look at the certifications that a company has and we get those independently verified. But what I'd like to see is where we're actually drawing even more financial data, more from these established reference engines like Statistica, Dow Jones, and so forth.
And of course, then the final thing, I think, and something that we are looking at is how can we then do some competitive analysis in depth, extending what we already provide, but actually going and saying, well, in this sector, this is how it rates against some other products. There's already so much value in this product value navigator, but this sounds like there will be even more coming up in the next months and years to evolve this product. So thank you very much, Jonathan, for being my guest today, for giving that look behind the curtain, the sneak peek into the future.
And the future is already here because the product value navigator is live in its first incarnation. So as you said, everybody's welcome to have a look at that. And the subscribers, our registered users are invited to have a look at that. So thank you and looking forward to having you soon again here. We're planning episodes on AI and identity very soon. So that will be our next stop. And I think there will be a nice conversation also coming up with Martin Kupinger around that topic. And there you will join me as well. So looking forward to that.
Up until then, thank you very much, Jonathan, for being my guest today. Thank you, Matthias. Thank you.
