IDC Launches Company Lens to Empower ICT Suppliers at a Country Level

IDC announced Company Lens, a groundbreaking data service designed to provide a competitive edge to ICT suppliers aiming to expand market share

On Aug 15, International Data Corporation (IDC) announced Company Lens, a groundbreaking data service designed to provide a competitive edge to ICT suppliers aiming to expand market share. Company Lens delivers essential information on the main players – vendors, buyers, partners – shaping any given technology market. The new service will provide invaluable data for competitor benchmarking and analysis, buyer spending levels for account planning, and reviewing channel partners for getting products to market.

According to IDC Group Vice President & General Manager of Data & Analytics Monika Kumar, "To win a market, you need to the know the players. In this respect, Company Lens will be a game changer, especially for country-level teams aiming to expand their share. It consolidates vast amounts of market data into actionable intelligence, making it readily accessible to teams that should be using market data to make decisions but too often lack access, such as sales, marketing, channel teams, and business unit leaders."

Dissecting competitor performance is a core Company Lens use case. Sales and marketing teams can check the share and growth of more than 2,400 ICT vendors across more than 100 technology areas to identify the firms that own a country market. It can help them identify the fastest growing companies that may threaten their share. "Both of these pieces of information are fundamental to competitive positioning," added Kumar. "You also need to know who the biggest players are to craft core messages and refine your approach. You need to know the fastest growing players to analyze what they are doing right and how to take them on."

It is also critical to know the buyers in a market. Company Lens includes country-level spending on more than 100 technologies for roughly 100,000 companies. By analyzing purchasing patterns and vertical trends, sales teams and business unit leaders can cluster prospects, set targets, and estimate their share of wallet. "Savvy sales executives will also use Company Lens data to drive discussions," said Kumar. "They can check the spending level of a given prospect's competitors and also get a clear sense of the upsell and cross sell opportunities."

A strong partner network can radically improve an ICT vendor's chances of tapping an opportunity. Company Lens's data on 230,000 partnerships enables ICT suppliers to check their partner networks against other vendors. They can use Company Lens to identify areas of potential competition and collaboration. "Finding the right partners to expand market reach can be a real challenge, especially if the partner is working with your main competitors," Kumar noted. "Company Lens can accelerate vendor understanding of partner networks, proving a foundation for determining which ones to focus on."

Company Lens is now live on IDC's Knowledge Platform. "Successful decision making requires deep insights derived from reliable, reconciled, and actionable data," said Kumar. "By offering a comprehensive company intelligence solution, we aim to help our clients be ready to seize opportunities, mitigate risks, and stay ahead of their competitors."