You can be a market leader even if you lack broad recognition.
This is evident in digital employee experience (DEX) management solutions—at least according to the framework Gartner provides within its Magic Quadrant.
Riverbed is among the vendors under consideration. Although placed in the leading group, it suffers from limited visibility, a result of marketing that tends to umbrella adjacent segments. At Lakeside Software and Omnissa, by contrast, the messaging is narrower, focusing on IT use cases.
15 vendors, 7 “Leaders”
HP also suffers from limited notoriety. Analysts and buyers mention it infrequently compared with its competitors. That hasn’t stopped Gartner from classing it among the “Leaders” in DEX. It joins, in this category, six vendors that were already there last year: ControlUp, Lakeside Software, Nextthink, Omnissa, Riverbed and TeamViewer.
The Magic Quadrant is structured along two axes. One, called “Execution,” captures the ability to meet demand (customer experience, pricing, quality of products/services…). The other, called “Vision,” reflects strategies (business model, partnerships, innovation…).
The situation on the “Execution” axis :
| Rank | Vendor | Annual Change |
| 1 | Nextthink | = |
| 2 | ControlUp | + 1 |
| 3 | Riverbed | + 1 |
| 4 | TeamViewer | – 2 |
| 5 | Lakeside Software | = |
| 6 | HP Inc. | + 1 |
| 7 | Omnissa | – 1 |
| 8 | ServiceNow | + 3 |
| 9 | Tanium | – 1 |
| 10 | Ivanti | – 1 |
| 11 | Nanoheal | – 1 |
| 12 | ManageEngine | new entrant |
| 13 | Flexxible | = |
| 14 | Progressive Techserve | = |
| 15 | HCLSoftware | – 3 |
On the axis: “Vision” :
| Rank | Vendor | Annual Change |
| 1 | Nextthink | = |
| 2 | Riverbed | + 1 |
| 3 | ControlUp | – 1 |
| 4 | ServiceNow | + 6 |
| 5 | Lakeside Software | + 2 |
| 6 | HP Inc. | = |
| 7 | TeamViewer | – 3 |
| 8 | Omnissa | – 3 |
| 9 | Tanium | – 1 |
| 10 | Ivanti | – 1 |
| 11 | Nanoheal | = |
| 12 | ManageEngine | new entrant |
| 13 | Progressive Techserve | = |
| 14 | HCLSoftware | – 2 |
| 15 | Flexxible | – 1 |
From administration to self-service troubleshooting, ControlUp has advanced on AI…
Last year, Gartner praised the rising use of AI inside ControlUp, along with the ongoing move toward autonomous endpoint management. This year, the analyst firm focuses more specifically on the AI building blocks for administration and self-service troubleshooting. It adds progress on Android and unified communications, respectively through partnerships with Telchemy and B2M Solutions.
Beyond its financials, scale of operations, and adaptability to market changes, ControlUp clearly articulates its value proposition.
… but mapping offerings to use cases remains challenging
Compared with last year, the notoriety issue is no longer the main concern. Yet marketing still tends to center on products or features. It also differentiates little the value by user profiles or by maturity levels.
Regionally, the channel varies in depth, as do go-to-market approaches and pricing. More generally, tying offerings to use cases and adjusting total cost of ownership remains difficult. Gartner notes a less favorable view than in 2025 (which had emphasized packaging simplification).
HP leverages regional nuances…
Because of its global footprint, HP has the ability to understand regional specifics and to tailor its features, sales, and marketing accordingly. This history also lets it capitalize on hardware and technology services contracts. The road map is clear and the delivery cadence, Gartner says, is appropriate.
… but it lacks maturity in DEX
Despite multi-channel investments, HP’s notoriety in DEX remains limited, as noted above. Its offering, GA for barely two years, is less mature than that of the leading competitors. It also lacks a robust set of customer stories and specific DEX partners.
Lakeside Software grows through its channel…
Last year, Gartner praised ControlUp for aligning its DEX with market needs. This year, it highlights, in particular, its adaptation to IT use cases.
Year over year, the feedback remains positive regarding data collection and retention capabilities. Those capabilities fuel AI feature development and also support root-cause analysis.
Another strength noted in 2025 and again now: the inclusion of customer-success services in the base license. Gartner also highlights the channel strategy, which gives ControlUp scale beyond its internal headcount.
… but rebuilding in-house
The installed base remains smaller than that of competitors. Employee satisfaction remains mixed. ControlUp—whose leadership team changed in 2025, beginning with the return of the founder—also has yet to reach profitability.
The marketing team has also been rebuilt. The narrative, focused on IT use cases, risks alienating some buyers. Be mindful, in parallel, of licensing, which toggles between per-device and per-user pricing.
Nextthink keeps a step ahead…
As last year, Nextthink is praised for the extensions it has added to virtualization experience management. This year, Android management (beta) and an AI agent for employees are on the docket. Gartner no longer notes a narrower range of endpoints compared with competitors.
Another recurring finding: Nextthink’s marketing effectiveness. Through conferences and podcasts, Nextthink is the DEX vendor most often mentioned by both buyers and competitors. The platform’s extensibility continues to earn praise, in terms of the number of endpoints a client can manage and data localization options (wherever AWS has datacenters).
… but it comes at a price
Last year, Gartner noted that the full bundle tended to be more expensive than most DEX tools. This year, pricing is described as more generic—and higher than many others. Nextthink has also introduced usage-based charges, with new discount structures.
As is often the case with a change of ownership, Gartner notes uncertainty around the roadmap, pricing, and support. Nextthink indeed fell under the umbrella of investment firm Vista Equity Partners.
Omnissa, effective on GenAI…
Last year, Omnissa earned praise for its effective use of GenAI. It benefits again this year, particularly in anomaly detection and generation of scripts and sensors, as well as assisting end users in Teams and Slack.
Beyond geographic presence and the partner network, Gartner adds revenue and headcount growth, signaling ongoing innovation, support, and channel expansion. It again commends Omnissa’s integration of its DEX with other products (Workspace ONE UEM, Horizon, Freestyle Orchestrator…).
… but traction remains elusive
Potentially reflecting its IT use-case–oriented value proposition, Omnissa’s client base is growing more slowly than the market average. It gains few customers from competitors. Like HP, it lacks user stories—and lacks Gartner Peer Insights reviews.
Riverbed, distinguished by its observability approach…
Riverbed also earns credit for a roadmap aligned with market needs. Gartner notes a tripling of its DEX workforce and an expanded partner network. It also highlights its distinct observability approach that connects DEX to network and application monitoring.
Another strength: agent-based capabilities that tailor insights, investigations, and actions to user profiles. In this regard, mentions include:
- Pulse (observability flows with reinforcement learning)
- Aternity Replay (session replay)
- Skills publishable on Copilot Studio (for self-service on Teams)
… but less on ease of use
Beyond the notoriety issue noted earlier, Riverbed reports ARR growth below the market average. Like Omnissa, it recovers few customers from competitors (its solutions tend to complement other tools rather than replace them).
Customer-success services are limited to a subset of accounts, Gartner noted last year. This time, it explains that the “advanced” services offered can vary by account size. It also flags the usability complexity reported by some users.
Services, support, and SLAs, regionally matched at TeamViewer…
TeamViewer’s DEX elasticity, highlighted last year, remains true this year. Notably, it cites a client with 600,000 active agents.
TeamViewer is one of the few “Leaders” praised for its marketing (increased headcount, higher investments, publication of a book, sports sponsorship…). It is also recognized for the uniformity of services and support—and SLAs—across geographic regions.
… struggling to digest 1E
TeamViewer derives only a small portion of its revenue from the DEX, a segment whose ARR is retreating. Like Lakeside Software, employee sentiment is mixed.
The 1E acquisition, which Gartner had highlighted last year as a cross-selling opportunity and a route to scale, has led to turnover. Coupled with government-related spending variability (a key customer), it has weakened TeamViewer’s competitive position. It also implies a UX unification effort not yet completed (there’s also the Exposure acquisition to integrate—bolstering monitoring).
