Four Winds Gets “Cool Vendor” Nod From Gartner

May 30, 2015 by Dave Haynes

Denver-based signage software firm Four Winds Interactive got a nice little nod recently from the tech-centric market analysis firm Gartner, listing it among a tight selection of Cool Vendors for Content Management for 2015.

The April report by Gartner evaluated content management vendors that “provide IT leaders, HR and marketing strategists with innovative solutions to help them share, deliver, manage and archive content.”

“We are honored to be designated as a Cool Vendor by Gartner,” says David Levin, President and CEO of Four Winds Interactive, in a news release. “We believe it confirms our commitment to providing the most powerful software platform available to help organizations connect data and content from any source and display it on any screen.” 

The back story here is that Gartner had previously been looking at Digital OOH among the many things it tracks, but has now started looking at digital signage content management platforms that add a visual layer to businesses. This is the first time Gartner’s  analysts have, I’m told, have really even noticed digital signage software platforms.

Unlike some of the dubious “awards” you can pretty much purchase from market analysis firms, a nod from Gartner isn’t pay to play and in this case, isn’t an an award. Analyst teams get the opportunity to call out a short list of vendors from the categories they cover, and in this case FWI got a nod from the big Enterprise Content Management group. 

Gartner, if this is not ringing a bell, is the large firm that does the Hype Cycle charts that do a graphic representation of the maturity and adoption of technologies and applications, from their introduction, ascent, disillusionment and evolution.