xMatters, inc., a global leader in enabling business processes with communications, today announced it has been positioned by Gartner, Inc. in the "Leaders" quadrant of the 2014 "U.S. Emergency/Mass Notification Services" report.[1] Recognizing vendors focused on the activation and management of crisis communications and notifications, this report assesses a vendor's completeness of vision and the ability to execute that vision. This is the first time xMatters has been included in this prestigious evaluation with its debut in the leaders quadrant.

The Magic Quadrant for U.S. Emergency/Mass Notification Services (EMNS), available for purchase, categorized the top 11 vendors in this space on a range of criteria, including product road map, industry support, end-user interface usability, endpoint support, mobile device application support, message management, trusted date/time source, data center operations, pricing model and customer reference feedback.

"We're pleased to be making our debut on Gartner's Magic Quadrant as a leader. We believe this position validates our proven track record and vision for the emergency and mass notification market," said Troy McAlpin, CEO of xMatters. "With the rise of mobile devices and overall communication channels, the possibility for instantaneous, targeted communications becomes both possible and expected; that's what we're enabling at xMatters. Our product team is constantly rolling out new and exciting features and we look forward to continuing to offer the market a leading notification solution with efficient enterprise-grade scaling and delivery during time-sensitive events."

According to Gartner, "The first few hours after a business disruption are the most critical for an organization. Its response can greatly affect the event's scope and impact. A crisis/incident management plan can contain and prevent further damage, and guide the decision of ‘if and when' recovery plans should be invoked."[2]

The EMNS report includes an overview of the different types of critical incidents, which range "from localized events, such as a shooter on a campus, or a fire or power outage, to regional and catastrophic disasters, such as earthquakes (as in Chile, Haiti and Japan), hurricanes/tsunamis (as in the New York City metropolitan area, Indonesia and Japan) and terrorist attacks."

"We see this recognition by Gartner stressing the continued fusion of informational technology and business continuity management to solve the ever-complex communication problems businesses face today," said Randi Barshack, CMO of xMatters.

[1] Gartner, Magic Quadrant for U.S. Emergency/Mass Notification Services, Roberta J. Witty, John Girard, Catherine H. Goldstein, 31 March 2014
[2] Gartner, How Gartner Defines Crisis/Incident Management, Roberta J. Witty, 18 November 2013