IDC Research Types
Analyst
Analyst Profile
Provides complete background information on an IDC analyst. Each profile provides a biography, a notable quotation, a frequently asked question relevant to the particular analyst's focus, and a list of research authored by that analyst.
Team Profile
Lists the analyst members of a topical team. Outlines general areas of coverage and any specialties.
Briefs
Vendor Profile
Provides a concise, hard-hitting profile of an emerging vendor. A profile will highlight new players and technologies and the potential paradigm shifts or disruptions a vendor represents.
IDC Perspective
The IDC Perspective is a flexible doc that seeks to help business and tech buyers assess their business and IT strategy and/or associated business processes, especially as it relates to the use of technology. The document can be used in areas such as:
- Strategy and planning
- Trends and observations
- IT spending and investment
- Vendor conferences and announcements
IDC TechBrief
The IDC TechBrief helps the technology or business executive get smart about a single technology in the context of the business by answering 6 business critical questions about the technology:
- What is the technology?
- When should I adopt it?
- What can it do for my business?
- What are the critical success factors?
- What are the risks?
- Who are the suppliers?
Market Note
The Market Note is a flexible doc that provides IDC analysis and point of view on an industry event, new product or service, or a company announcement or development or fast breaking news.
Market Perspective
The Market Perspective is a flexible doc that analyzes key changes and developments happening in the market. This flexible research type can be used to analyze areas such as:
- Competitive Environment
- Innovation & Market Opportunity
- New Business Models
- Partner & Channel Strategy
- Enterprise Strategies (targeted to supplier)
- Regulation
- Socioeconomics
Event Proceedings
Event Proceeding
Provides published slides, audio, and other materials from IDC and Insights Web conferences, briefings, forums, or other events.
Events
Conference
Delivers dependable, relevant, and high-impact data and insight to help organizations make sound business and technology decisions. eBusiness executives, IT professionals, IT suppliers, and services suppliers benefit from the strategic insight and networking opportunities IDC conferences offer. Generally, all presentation slides are available online, and for most conferences, streaming audio of key discussions is available as well.
Web Conference
Focuses on significant trends and paradigm shifts. Each Web conference will provide attendees with leading-edge market information that will enable them to make smart business decisions. For those unable to attend in person or those wishing to review the content presented, these synchronized multimedia presentations are available online.
IDC DecisionScapes
IDC FutureScape
Serves as a framework for IT/tech professionals' IT strategy and planning for the next one to three years. It lists IDC's top 10 worldwide technology trends for the coming one to three years in a given research area and includes related drivers, projected IT/business strategy impact, and guidance.
IDC MarketScape
Helps IT/tech professionals develop a short list of suitable suppliers when selecting a vendor. Provides an unbiased assessment of tech suppliers in terms of offerings, strategy, capabilities, and other important factors in a given technology area.
IDC MaturityScape
Describes five stages of "maturity" or capability for a particular technology area, helps IT/tech professionals understand where their organizations fit within those stages, and provides guidance on key components for planning successful improvements to a tech initiative.
IDC MaturityScape Benchmark
Helps IT/tech professionals to benchmark their maturity against peers, develop a business case for a tech initiative, and build consensus about where critical IT investments should be made. Presents quantitative research results that show the market distribution for a given tech initiative across the five stages of maturity presented in the related IDC MaturityScape. Shows the results and components of particularly successful initiatives.
IDC PeerScape
Gives IT/tech professionals insight into best practices (and practices to avoid) by providing specific use case examples implemented by peers. Identifies practices that have the most impact on the success of a tech or business initiative, and provides actionable guidance for each practice.
IDC PlanScape
Helps IT/tech professionals to justify and plan a business and/or technology investment or opportunity by exploring why, what, who, and how (these are also the main section headings). Presents key players, critical success factors, risks, and actions to consider for a designated technology and/or business management area.
IDC TechScape
Helps IT/tech professionals with developing IT strategic plans and evaluating emerging technologies in terms of their risk to the business. Shows the adoption curve and risk levels over time for a specific emerging technology. Sorts technologies into three "adoption model" categories (transformational, incremental, opportunistic) to help tech leaders determine the potential impact for their organization.
IDC Links
IDC Link
Provides timely context and insight around important market trends and events in a short opinion piece. IDC Links provide IDC's point of view on:
- Financial announcements
- Product announcements
- Mergers and acquisitions or divestitures
- Events
- Response to news
IDC Blink
IDC Blink
Provides timely context and insight around important market trends and events in a short opinion piece with a 2-minute audio clip. IDC Blinks provide IDC's point of view on:
- Financial announcements
- Product announcements
- Mergers and acquisitions or divestitures
- Events
- Response to news
Pivot Tables
Pivot Table
Presents an interactive spreadsheet tool for analyzing trends and activities in a specific market segment. These tables are available only through an annual subscription service.
Presentations
IDC Survey
Presents a hypothesis about what is happening in the market backed by the results of a demand-side or supply-side survey. The focus is on interpreting and analyzing the survey results and providing a strong point of view along with actionable advice.
IDC Survey Spotlight
Answers a timely question and provides a strong opinion backed by IDC survey data. This is a quick nugget of information that is presented in two concise PowerPoint slides.
Market Presentation
Provides an easy-to-use format to post on the Web presentations that were previously delivered at public forums (such as conferences and events) or for internal client meetings and client presentations. It may not come as part of a consulting/custom engagement.
Market Analysis Perspective
Delivers a concise current state view of a market and insight into the impact of future trends. Business executives, product managers, and MI/AR professionals can use this information when looking to understand buyers' perspectives and market impacts.
Tech Buyer Presentation
Provides an easy-to-use format to post on the Web presentations that were previously delivered at public forums (such as conferences and events) or for internal client meetings and client presentations. It may not come as part of a consulting/custom engagement.
IDC Market Glance
Provides a look at the landscape of a tech market, including competitive positioning, adjacent segments, and potential partner opportunities.
Press Releases
Press Release
Announces significant corporate news, such as key hirings or promotions, performance milestones, event highlights, or speaking engagements.
Product Information
Fact Sheet
Describes a research product. Usually details the major areas of coverage and deliverables, and outlines key questions and competitive market conditions that the research will address. Includes links to all published research for a research product.
Studies
Industry Developments and Models
Provides a detailed assessment of a specific target market's expansion pattern. This analysis helps clients develop and deploy the right mix of value-add products, programs, or services to support their sales and/or partnering efforts.
Market Forecast
Provides the future of a single market or a group of related markets. It presents a new or updated market forecast, including key drivers and assumptions used in the forecast.
Market Share
Provides data on market size, regional allocations, and platform splits as well as a summary of vendor shares for the most recently completed period (year, quarter).
Special Study
Provides a one-time study produced by a research group that is not published as a deliverable under a subscription service.
Taxonomy
Highlights and emphasizes how IDC tracks the market while also making it easier for customers to find and identify IDC Taxonomy documents.
Technology Assessment
Provides an analysis of the intricacies of an emerging or established technology or the technologies contained within a specific product.
IDC Innovators
IDC Innovators is aimed at informing IT buyers about emerging vendors with an innovative new technology or ground-breaking business model. Vendors identified in the document as innovators are linked together within a specific market area and around solving or alleviating a common business problem. Vendors included have annual revenue under $100 million at the time of selection.
Technology Segment
The IDC Technology Segment offers CEMA clients a comprehensive view of a technology segment in one country or subregion and provides a market view and forecast and/or market share and vendor profiles, including performances and strategies. It is specifically intended to serve smaller country markets and subregions.
This IDC Survey Spotlight outlines the key business motivations driving global manufacturers' investments in AI/GenAI to support customer experience initiatives. The presentation contains data from IDC's January 2024 Future Enterprise ...
This IDC PeerScape outlines three practices to enhance sales efficiency and improve the customer experience in the aerospace industry:
- Leverage industry-specific marketplaces to enhance transparency, sales efficiency and CX
- Use ...
This IDC Market Note discusses the recently announced partnership between Siemens and Salesforce to integrate functionalities of their respective product life-cycle management (PLM) and customer relationship management (CRM) systems to drive ...
This IDC Perspective analyzes how key transformative trends in manufacturing are shaping digital commerce and customer experience (CX) priorities.
"In a rapidly changing market driven by technological advancements and evolving customer ...
This IDC MarketScape assesses smart manufacturing service providers that support asset management projects in production.
"Increasing the availability of intelligent sensors onboard equipment and production assets enables real-time ...
This IDC MarketScape assesses smart manufacturing service providers that support production management projects.
"Manufacturers worldwide are busy implementing what IDC calls the 'Global Plant Floor' concept; this requires achieving ...
This IDC MarketScape provides an assessment of smart manufacturing service providers supporting quality management projects.
“Quality management is critical in this environment. For manufacturers, meeting or failing to meet quality ...
This IDC MarketScape provides an assessment of smart manufacturing strategy service providers and discusses the criteria companies should consider when selecting a vendor.
“Today, companies are going through a massive cultural change, ...
This IDC Innovators study profiles three emerging technology vendors that focus on the food value chain — OneThird, Wiliot, and xFarm — and leverage technologies to achieve efficiency and environment-driven outcomes.
"FAO Strategy ...
This IDC PeerScape describes practices to drive sustainability in the automotive sector with digital technologies. This document outlines three practices:
- Leveraging distributed ledger technologies (i.e., blockchain) and product ...
This IDC Spotlight analyzes worker perceptions on how technology impacts workplace experience in the manufacturing industry.
"The manufacturing industry is undergoing dynamic transformation, driven by the rapid adoption of digital ...
This IDC Survey Spotlight highlights the critical barriers and challenges faced by manufacturers in implementing customer experience (CX) initiatives. It analyzes data from IDC's 2023 Global Manufacturing Survey.
This IDC Tech Buyer Presentation analyzes the key drivers for customer experience initiatives and outlines the main trends and focus areas of manufacturers across the globe.
This IDC Market Perspective outlines the common types of marketplaces that are relevant for B2B manufacturers, the key drivers for their adoption, challenges to address, and key recommendations for technology providers.
"B2B manufacturers ...
This IDC study provides manufacturers with the top 10 predictions and underlying drivers that we expect to impact manufacturers' IT investments in 2024 and beyond.
According to Simon Ellis, group vice president, U.S. Manufacturing ...
This IDC Perspective analyzes the key drivers, potential use cases, and challenges in the use of generative AI for B2B customer engagement in manufacturing organizations.
"B2B customer engagement in manufacturing is complex and goes ...
This IDC Survey Spotlight provides insights into the main technologies and applications that manufacturers are using or planning to use to support customer experience (CX) initiatives. It contains data from IDC's 2023 Global Manufacturing ...
This IDC Market Perspective analyzes the maturity levels, investment drivers, trends, and challenges around B2B digital commerce in industrial manufacturing.
"At a time of accelerated disruption and intense competition, manufacturers ...
This IDC MarketScape includes software providers in the manufacturing execution system (MES) market serving engineering-intensive manufacturing subindustries, namely aerospace and defense, naval and shipbuilding, train and locomotives, and ...
This IDC MarketScape examines software providers in the MES market for high-tech and electronics manufacturing subindustries, namely semiconductors, electronic components, and high-tech OEMs. This document is part of a four-report series ...
This IDC Market Presentation provides technology vendors with an overview of key business trends shaping the European manufacturing industry in 2023. It offers a foundation of industry knowledge to help technology vendors develop a compelling ...
This IDC MarketScape uses the IDC MarketScape model to provide an assessment of 15 solution providers participating in the Asia/Pacific manufacturing execution system (MES) market. This document is an evaluation based on a comprehensive ...
This IDC MarketScape examines software providers in the MES market serving the discrete manufacturing industry, which includes industrial machinery and equipment (MTS, MTO), automotive and tier 1 suppliers, medical devices, and metal fabrication ...
This IDC MarketScape includes software providers in the MES market serving process manufacturing subindustries, which includes chemicals; rubber & plastics; pulp & paper; metals & materials; food, beverage, & tobacco; and ...
This IDC Survey Spotlight outlines the key drivers affecting European manufacturers' sustainability-related investments. The presentation contains data from IDC's 2023 Global Manufacturing Survey.