What it Means to be a Niche Player

Back in May, we announced that Targetprocess had been recognized as a niche player by Gartner’s first ever Magic Quadrant report for Enterprise Agile Planning Tools vendors.

Niche player. What does that mean?

For us, it’s a good thing. Our tool has always been a niche option for Agile teams. Now that Agile has become the norm for enterprise companies, it seems we’ve become a niche option for enterprise Agile as well. We’re comfortable in this sector. We may not have the market presence of Atlassian, but we’re able to pay attention to each of our customers, and talk to people. We prefer it that way.

In Gartner’s words: “Targetprocess is positioned as a Niche Player, and would be a good fit for those looking for adoption that extends beyond IT. Targetprocess offers a straightforward agile planning and management tool with an effective user experience. It will appeal to organizations getting started with or maturing their agile capability. Targetprocess appears to have grown its support capabilities as necessary to satisfy users, and both its roadmap and history show consistent direction. Integration with other tools is not comprehensive, so prospects should ensure that other products they own are supported.”

Not bad—especially that bit about extending adoption beyond IT.  That’s a sector of the market you can expect to see huge growth in.

Targetprocess has been active in the project management market for over 13 years now. We’ve made mistakes, seen competitors come and go, and even shared a joke or two. Through it all, we haven’t lost our vision of creating the perfect software for helping people to get shit done. And we’re getting really good at it.

Years ago, we were once called “anklebiters” by a larger competitor. There’s no quadrant for that in Gartner’s report, but it seems that anklebiters can become niche players. With all the change coming to the project management domain, I don’t see any reason why niche players can’t become industry leaders.