Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Wireless Email Market (Gartner Research, December 27, 2011) Gartner has positioned Microsoft in the Leaders Quadrant in the 2011 Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Wireless Email Market.

Magic Quadrant for Business Process Analysis Tools (Gartner Research, December 12, 2011) Gartner positions Microsoft in the Leaders Quadrant. The report says “Business process analysis tools continue to grow in importance as business managers, process architects and process analysts seek to better understand, streamline and automate their business processes, and to communicate their needs to IT professionals.”

Magic Quadrant for Unified Communications as a Service (Gartner Research, Dec. 7, 2011) Gartner places Microsoft in the Challengers Quadrant on the 2011 Magic Quadrant for Unified Communications as a Service, based on an evaluation of completeness of vision and ability to execute.

Magic Quadrant for Web Conferencing (Gartner Research, December 5, 2011). Gartner positions Microsoft in the Leaders Quadrant. Gartner believes the relevance of web conferencing continues to grow, noting “the primary justification for Web conferencing has been cost savings and other benefits arising from reductions in business travel. When meeting participants cannot travel because of security, environmental or other reasons, Web conferencing becomes a mission-critical capability.”

MarketScope for Enterprise Search (Gartner Research, November 18, 2011) Gartner ranks Microsoft ‘Strong Positive’ in the 2011 MarketScope for Enterprise Search.

The Forrester Wave™: Enterprise Content Management, Q4 2011 (Forrester Research, Inc., November 1, 2011) Forrester Research Inc., a leading independent research firm, recognized Microsoft SharePoint as a Leader in two technology areas in The Forrester Wave™: Enterprise Content Management, Q4 2011. According to Forrester, "SharePoint 2010 continues to grow in popularity, thanks to its blend of collaboration and content management support. SharePoint 2010’s ECM capabilities are much improved from the 2007 release, and Microsoft has focused on empowering the worker by delivering a better enterprise-ready solution."

Magic Quadrant for Horizontal Portals (Gartner Research, October 24, 2011) Gartner positions Microsoft in the Leaders Quadrant on the 2011 Magic Quadrant for Horizontal Portals based on an evaluation of completeness of vision and ability to execute.

Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Content Management (Gartner Research, October 13, 2011) Microsoft is placed in the Leaders Quadrant of this report, which looks at the enterprise content management market and how Gartner rates vendors and their packaged ECM products. According to Gartner “Changing delivery models, new value propositions, solution configurations and partner ecosystems make ECM relevant to every business.”

Gartner Magic Quadrant for Corporate Telephony, 2011 (Gartner Inc, September 15, 2011). Microsoft placed in the Visionaries Quadrant. Gartner notes “Companies are increasingly focusing their strategies and acquisition decisions around unified communications and collaboration (UCC) technology; it is supplanting the historic domain of corporate telephony.”

Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace (Gartner Research, August 25, 2011) Gartner positions Microsoft in the Leaders Quadrant in the 2011 Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace.

Magic Quadrant for Unified Communications, 2011 (Gartner Research, August 22, 2011) Microsoft is positioned in the Leaders Quadrant. According to Gartner, “the overall UC market has matured and evolved significantly in 2011. The most notable change has been the shift in emphasis from broad UC portfolios toward fuller UC suites.” This research reviews relevant technologies and vendor offerings that can assist in these goals.

Magic Quadrant Secure E-mail Gateways, 2011 (Gartner Research, August 10, 2011) Gartner positions Microsoft in the Leaders Quadrant in the 2011 Magic Quadrant for Secure E-mail Gateways.

Magic Quadrant for Sales Force Automation (Gartner, Inc., July 14, 2011) Microsoft is rated as a Leader for the on-premises version and as a Visionary for the online version of Dynamics CRM in the latest Gartner Sales Force Automation Magic Quadrant.

MarketScope for Enterprise Instant Messaging and Presence (Gartner Research, July 5, 2011). Microsoft is rated as Strong Positive in this MarketScope report. Gartner believes IM and presence platforms have become elements of core infrastructure for enterprises and the integration of presence information with email and other business applications is a central requirement that impacts workflow and collaborative decision making.

Magic Quadrant for x86 Server Virtualization Infrastructure (Gartner Research, June 30, 2011) Gartner positions Microsoft in the Leaders Quadrant in its x86 Server Virtualization Magic Quadrant. This Magic Quadrant assessment takes into account vendors' current product offerings and overall strategies, as well as their planned initiatives and product road maps.

MarketScope for Email Systems, 2011 (Gartner Research, June 22, 2011) Microsoft was rated Strong Positive in this report. Gartner emphasizes “Buyers should avoid the popular notion that email is a commodity, easily sourced from a variety of suppliers.”

MarketScope for Project and Portfolio Management Applications (Gartner Research, June 13, 2011) Microsoft earned a Strong Positive rating in the MarketScope for PPM Applications based on Project 2010.

E-Mail Maturity Model: Optimizing the Investment (Gartner Research, April 27, 2011) In this report, Gartner said “Most organizations will benefit from a careful analysis of the maturity of their e-mail system to uncover weaknesses. This exercise can lead to a substantial improvement in all aspects of the e-mail infrastructure. Ultimately, we believe e-mail — despite its reputation as a commodity — can offer substantial competitive advantage.”

Evaluating Microsoft Dynamics CRM (Gartner Research, April 25, 2011) This research provides an overview of Microsoft Dynamics CRM product offering and its applicability to sales force automation and customer-service-centric processes.

Hosting Service Providers — Cloud Partners Or Competitors? (Forrester Research, Inc., April 21, 2011) A lot of tech vendors — and channel partners — are struggling to define channel partner roles in the cloud services demand chain. On-premise technology variants are starting to lose traction in segments served mainly by channel partners, putting large numbers of channel partners — whose bread and butter is selling installations — at risk. In the software sector, that service provider is typically the software vendor. But not always — hosting service providers, or hosters, new types of partners dedicated to providing hosting services — now abound. And with advancements in hosting technology and hosters’ business models, application hosters are a major threat to those vendors that cling to the old school notion that channel partners are nothing more than resellers.

Magic Quadrant for CRM Customer Service Contact Centers (Gartner Research, April 15, 2011) This Magic Quadrant looks at CRM software for customer service representatives in the contact center. Social media trends, a strong application and technology refresh cycle, and a demand for analytics and business rules are driving changes in the industry.

Critical Capabilities for Unified Communications as a Service (Gartner Research, March 30, 2011) This research evaluates leading UCaaS portfolios in the North American market. It focuses on enterprise use cases and also considers hybrid, SMB and very large enterprise environments. Microsoft’s BPOS offering was given an overall score of 3.0 in use cases, with a Product Viability score of Excellent.

MarketScope for Ajax Technologies and RIA Platforms (Gartner Inc., March 29, 2011) Gartner positions Microsoft as “Positive” in the 2011 MarketScope for Ajax Technologies and RIA Platforms.

One Year In, and the Use Cases for Microsoft's SQL Azure are Becoming Clear (451 Group, February 11, 2011, .pdf file, 108 kb) The 451 Group assesses that “SQL Azure is a clear indication that Microsoft is prepared to listen to and respond to the demands of customers in providing a fully managed relational, scalable database service.”

The Forrester Wave™: Enterprise Data Warehousing Platforms, Q1 2011 (Forrester Research, Inc., February 10, 2011, .pdf file, 641 kb) Microsoft has launched cost-effective EDW appliances for midmarket and large enterprises. With an increased focus on massively parallel EDW scale-out, Microsoft positions its EDW offerings as the foundation for self-service BI for information workers who rely on SQL Server.

E-Mail Is a Commodity and Other Fairy Tales (Gartner Research, February 9, 2011) – Gartner’s report says “understanding the complex nature of e-mail systems will lead to more informed decisions about e-mail provisioning models.”

Exchange 2010 – An Upgrade Worth Considering (Forrester Research, Inc., January 27, 2010) According to this independent report, Forrester analysts believe “Microsoft’s recent release of Exchange Server 2010 has material benefits that should prompt some Exchange 2007 and many Exchange 2003 customers to consider an upgrade. Look for improvements in three areas: back-end improvements largely connected to storage; benefits to information workers; and built-in basic archiving capabilities.”