Adobe Named a Leader in Gartner’s 2020 Magic Quadrant for Digital Experience Platforms

Gartner published their third Magic Quadrant for Digital Experience Platforms (DXP) on January 29, 2020. This year, like every year so far, Adobe was positioned not only as a Leader, but as the vendor farthest to the right on the “completeness of vision” axis. Adobe also had the second highest placement from the top for “ability to execute.”

A DXP Platform, according to Gartner, is an integrated set of technologies, based on a common platform, that provides a broad range of audiences with consistent, secure and personalized access to information and applications across many digital touchpoints.

Competitors come and go. We pioneered the Marketing Cloud category, we are a leader in the Digital Experience Platforms category, we have made Customer Experience Management our raison d’etre, and we have planted the flag for the future.

Adobe defines Customer Experience Management (CXM), as “orchestrating and personalizing the entire end-to-end customer experience, moment to moment.” CXM means leveraging creative agility to create and deliver these customer experiences at every touch point, across channels, at scale.

What we are doing is hard

There were 14 vendors in all that were evaluated in the Magic Quadrant. Adobe believes there has been some attrition as Gartner has more strictly defined the requirements and criteria for a vendor to be included as a Digital Experience Platform. This business isn’t for everyone. CXM is not just hard, it is daunting. But as hard and daunting as it is, CXM is also an absolute imperative. Get it right and thrive. Ignore it or get it wrong, and slowly (or quickly) fade out of relevance.

Customer Experience Management is a category of categories. It combines major investments in personalization, data management, cross channel campaign management, orchestration, email, content management, and dozens of other categories into one mega category.

We believe Adobe is the category, industry, and market leader. Adobe is the leading technology provider and thought leader facilitating the digital transformation required to enable and execute Customer Experience Management. Adobe Experience Cloud, built on Adobe Experience Platform and powered by Adobe Sensei, enables businesses to deliver exceptional, personalized customer experiences across channels and industries – to businesses and consumers alike.

Adobe is your CXM partner

In short, Adobe is the best technology available. And while we understand that Adobe Experience Cloud (AEC) requires a significant investment for our customers, we also know that the ROI is even more significant. For example, according to a recent study, the average 3 year ROI for investing in AEC is 242%. Think about that—over 3 years, companies that invest in Adobe Experience Cloud get an average ROI of almost 2.5X. They don’t break even and get some mindshare, they don’t lose a little to make a lot. They invest in CXM and Adobe, and they more than double their money.

And it’s not only about tech. Sometimes it’s about who you know. Experience Cloud and Experience Platform are open, extensible, and accessible to the entire ecosystem from Service and Support to Loyalty and Advocacy. True CXM is vast, and no single vendor will do it all. No single vendor will be able to deliver each and every piece of software or functionality required to enable great customer experiences.

Companies select Adobe because we have a platform with open API’s that enable ISVs and developers to customize and integrate with Adobe’s products. This approach ensures that companies have access to the latest and greatest tech, with each investment benefiting from the rich data, content and insights found within Experience Cloud. Additionally, Adobe enables our SI & Agency partners to implement, integrate and operate our applications profitably and successfully.

And we have deep and successful partnerships and integrations with Microsoft through the Open Data Initiative, and with ServiceNow to extend the breadth, depth, and reach of Adobe Experience Cloud.

Each Experience Cloud application, application service, and Adobe Experience Platform has its own value proposition and delivers incredible results on their own. But together, Adobe makes it possible for any business to deliver an ongoing, personalized customer experience to every customer. The integrated applications and services in Adobe Experience Cloud are purpose-built specifically for customer experience management (CXM), making it the most comprehensive solution for planning, executing, and optimizing customer experiences that attract and retain loyal customers and drive tangible business results.

Vision and execution

Gartner Magic Quadrants measure two key areas: completeness of vision and ability to execute. Out of 17 vendors evaluated in the DXP Magic Quadrant, Adobe was positioned farthest to the right for completeness of vision. We believe our vision for the Experience Business, Customer Experience Management, and “Changing the World Through Digital Experiences” clearly plants the flag for CXM.

We believe that Adobe continues to be the thought leader in the industry. Gartner positions Adobe second highest in ability to execute in the Magic Quadrant. We continue to integrate commerce leader Magento and B2B marketing automation leader Marketo into Experience Cloud. And with Adobe Experience Platform, we believe that no other vendor comes close to the depth and breadth of offering an integrated data and content platform that Adobe offers.

Adobe’s leadership

Experience Cloud enables marketers to develop a unified view of customers, deliver personalized and connected experiences at scale, and convert those experiences into revenue. Unlike other CXM vendors with disjointed products that are focused on narrow aspects of CXM, Adobe combines content and data with intelligent, integrated solutions to enable creative agility for content velocity, experience delivery, and real-time insights to optimize experiences that drive loyalty and ROI.

And for CIOs looking to power their digital businesses to deliver exceptional customer experiences, Experience Cloud, built on Experience Platform, is the experience data management solution that easily integrates with existing tech stacks and allows IT departments to securely ingest, store, unify, and govern experience data from all sources, and activate it throughout their business in real time. Unlike other data management technologies that lack real-time optimization capabilities and have limited data ingestion options that require complex integrations, Experience Cloud simplifies data and technology integration and is open, secure, and flexible enough to grow with their business.

Adobe has a unique heritage in enabling brands to create and manage rich and engaging content and experiences. Building upon that heritage, Adobe has brought together the most complete and integrated set of intelligent applications and services dedicated to orchestrating and delivering experiences across channels in real-time.

Sensei, Adobe’s AI technology, fuels the unified profile and empowers our platform to process data, distribute insights, infer intent, and fill in missing information faster & more effectively than any other system. No one else has the breadth of assets, the quality of data, and the targeted AI capabilities that Adobe has to make Experience Business a reality.

When you consider that no other vendor in the world has this creative legacy, AI and ML expertise, and marketing DNA that Adobe has, there really is no contest. We look forward to engaging with you.

To learn more, download the full report, Gartner 2020 Magic Quadrant for Digital Experience Platforms by Gene Phifer, Irena Guseva, and Mike Lowndes.

Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.