Jupitermedia Announces the Launch of Jupiter Constellation, the First Technology Vendor Selection Tool for Business Executives

Business Wire, Dec 12, 2002

Business Editors & High-Tech Writers

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 12, 2002

Jupiter Research, a division of Jupitermedia Corporation (Nasdaq: JUPM), today announced the launch of a new technology vendor selection tool - the first vendor selection tool aimed at business executives rather than technology executives.

This new tool, Jupiter Constellation, is easy to use and focuses on the criteria most important to business executives - overall business value and vendor market suitability - equipping them to play their role in the technology selection process.

"As businesses become increasingly dependent on technology, non-IT executives are more frequently making or influencing technology decisions. Business executives need a framework for selecting vendors that is tuned to their needs, not just the needs of technology executives," stated Alan M. Meckler, Chairman and CEO of Jupitermedia Corporation. "To balance the technology-focused approach of IT evaluators, business managers need a selection framework that focuses on business value and vendor market suitability. Jupiter Constellation is the first tool of its kind created to help business executives in their technology vendor selection initiatives."

Jupiter Constellation is a simple but powerful framework designed to assist business managers in technology vendor selection. Jupiter Constellation assesses specific technology segments and helps business managers evaluate vendors and products in the market by focusing on the overlooked dimensions that Jupiter Research believes most important to business managers: overall business value and vendor market suitability.

Jupiter Constellation presents a grid, with each vendor plotted along those two dimensions. Business managers can use the tool to identify short-list vendors based on their relative positions along the two key dimensions. For example, aggressive companies may focus on vendors whose products are unusually advanced or that otherwise provide high business value regardless of the market suitability rating of the vendor. (Startups or financially unstable companies rate lower on market suitability.) Conservative companies, on the other hand, may give priority to vendors with high market suitability even if their products rank only medium on the business value scale.

Key findings in the research behind the launch of Jupiter Constellation, which include an executive survey, are:

- 65% of non-IT executives report that they rely most heavily on word-of-mouth when selecting technology vendors. They need a more rigorous approach.

- 46% of executives say that their company projects are generally initiated by business executives, with support from their company's IT departments, while 38% say most projects are jointly initiated. Even if the business executive is technically the decision maker, the IT department often plays an equal role.

- 39% of respondents say their company's technology selection process has suffered because either the business executives or IT department dominated the process at the expense of the interests of the other.

In the coming months, Jupiter Research will conduct studies of an array of vendor categories and will publish the findings as Jupiter Constellations. Some of the planned categories include:

- Enterprise portals

- Enterprise and Web site search

- Content management systems

- Web site analytics

- E-mail automation

- Predictive modeling technologies

For additional information on Jupiter Constellation please visit http://www.jupiterresearch.com.

About Jupitermedia Corporation

Jupitermedia Corporation (Nasdaq: JUPM), (http://www.jupitermedia.com) headquartered in Darien, CT, is a leading provider of global real-time news, information, research and media resources for information technology and Internet industry professionals. Jupitermedia includes the internet.com and EarthWeb.com Network of over 150 Web sites and 175 e-mail newsletters that generate over 200 million page views monthly. Jupitermedia also includes Jupiter Research, a leading international research advisory organization specializing in business and technology market research in 18 business areas and 10 vertical markets. In addition, Jupiter Events include nearly 40 offline conferences and trade shows focused on IT and business-specific topics.

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