For much of the last decade, traditional tech analyst firms have ignored the Digital Asset Management (DAM) marketplace. Since first publishing RSG's DAM vendor evaluation research in 2008, we've been struck by the comparative inattention to a technology that's clearly rising in importance across enterprise marketing stacks.

Recently, however, both Forrester and Gartner have published their quadrants or list of "Top DAM vendors" for 2018. For buyers' sake, I wish they had continued to ignore the space entirely.

Both the reports offer some good points, but are critically flawed in ways I fear could sway buyers into making poor purchase decisions.

I'll save all the gory details for research subscribers who inquire. But in general, I think it's a disservice to potential DAM buyers when a major analyst report:

• Omits the DAM vendor that appears on nearly every Fortune 50 shortlist, but has historically resisted paying off analyst firms


• Positions a long-failing technology as "leading" or "top" after a former analyst colleague begins to work for the vendor


• Includes — and sometimes lauds — vendors that don't even sell fully functional DAMs, but do have a chunk of VC money allocated for a huge public relations / analyst relations splash

As an alternative to looking for "leaders" or "top" vendors we always recommend you build your shortlist based on which solutions best fit your usage scenarios and strategic business objectives.

This is why we created the RealQuadrant Shortlist Builder for RSG subscribers to create custom shortlists based on their individual scenarios and weightings, rather than generic snapshots of a marketplace.

Of course we’re not perfect. But, as a non-traditional analyst firm, I can assure you that we will never be influenced by vendors in our quest to help you find the best DAM for your needs.