Methodology: CloudRatingsCategoryReportprocesscombinesprivatevendorresponsestoour RequestForInformation(RFI)withpubliclyvisiblemeasuresofmarketadoptionand customersatisfaction. All vendors are presented with the opportunity to complete the RFI. TheCloudRatingsRFIfocusesonmeasuresof: ● CustomerSatisfaction:GreatestweightisgiventointernalNetPromoterScore (NPS)data.Why?Certainsoftwarevendorsareskilledatdriving(andoften incentivizing) happy customers to submit reviews to popular software directories. This can lead to situations where publicly observable vendor reviews are more favorable than the “silent majority” of customers that do not submit to software reviewplatforms.Assuch,CloudRatings’useofprivateNPSdataprovidesamore holistic view of customer experiences. To measure adoption and implementation risk, significant consideration is also given to vendor responses regarding severely negativecustomeroutcomesandretentionrates. ● MarketAdoption:TheRFIcoversarangeoftractionmetrics,includingbutnot limited to revenue, revenue growth, and the current number of customers. Why? Vendorscanappeartohaveanartificiallyhighmarketsharethroughaggressive marketingspend,publicrelations,andskillfulsolicitationofreviewstosoftware directories. Accordingly, Cloud Ratings’ use of RFI-derived information helps provide softwarebuyerswithamorerealisticviewofmarketadoption. 9