Reports CTRM Vendor Perceptions 2018 | Page 4

CTRM Vendor Perceptions 2018 how well a vendor is known in the market and as to how it is viewed by those that are aware of it and its prod- ucts. However, vendor perceptions invariably lag cur- rent reality in that the opinions expressed in the data effectively represents views of past performance. This means that it is equally important to look at trends in vendor perception through time. We have done this by utilizing similar historical data collected and analyzed by ComTech and CommodityPoint over the last decade or so. This trend data is presented and discussed within this report. Finally, the last 12-months or so has been quite active in terms of major M&A activity in the space. Notably, ION A ComTechAdvisory Report acquired Aspect and Openlink, and Allegro acquired FEA. In analyzing the results, we have sometimes looked at the data in two ways - first, in terms of the names used by the respondents; and second, by rolling up the combined entities into a consolidated number. This allows us to thoroughly examine brand awareness and make past comparisons. As perceptions invariably lag current conditions, this re- port, representing vendor perceptions prior to mid-year 2018, should be but only one of many data points used by anyone looking for an ETRM or CTRM software solu- tion as things can and do change very rapidly in this software category.