Ardoq is making big strides in the IT architecture field, the latest of which involves the launch of Ardoq Labs. We wanted to learn more about what the company calls its “innovative hub,” so we reached out to Ian Stendera, the company’s Vice President of Product.
Question: What is Ardoq Labs and why should IT Architects care?
Answer: Customers have always been an important part of product development, but with Ardoq Labs we are seeking to formalize that even more. IT architects that use Ardoq can influence both new features and our priorities, essentially impacting how their everyday user experience will be going forward.
Q: Why the emphasis on AI in the first round of features?
A: We are not implementing AI just to check that off our list. We are implementing it to ease our customers’ workflow and help them succeed in their work. That said, I think solutions in this field that are not leveraging AI will fall behind fast, simply because the enhancements it can bring to enterprise architecture are enormous. Smart features in the solutions can free up time to work more strategically, underpinning the already clear trend of EAs no longer being just gatekeepers of information, but essential in decision making.
Q: How does the product(s) offered by Ardoq differ from the product of several years ago?
A; Ardoq has had a pretty consistent mission since the founding and our product has followed that. The progression over the last few years has been on breaking down the industry trend of having critical data locked away in the EA teams minds and tools. We have invested heavily in socializing this data by bringing it to the rest of the organization in a manner that is timely, relevant to the consumer, accessible and understandable. This has been highlighted by our intelligent workflows in “Broadcasts”, consumer friendly UIs with “Discover” and simplified data contribution with “Surveys”.
Q: How will the cap raise by Ardoq impact the company and by extension its customers?\
A: The cap raise we did last year has already enabled us to hire more people and speed up product development. Customers will notice this in our investments in design and UX, the continuous deployments and the ability to adapt fast in accordance with other technology developments, such as AI.
Q: Why is being a leader in the Gartner MQ critical and how does that impact your strategy?
A: Becoming a leader, especially given our size and age, was a critical step in validating our strategy and vision. We see this market evolving rapidly over the coming year(s) and so do the analysts. Making the quadrant has opened up new doors to partner with ever more complex and demanding customers which has amplified our urgency and focus on delivering on our strategy.
There is no doubt that the introduction of enterprise-ready b2b AI capabilities will continue to drive the disruption of the market and evolve the needs of the enterprises as the scope of the possible expands dramatically. We see this new focus in redefining the role, value and future or EA in the literature coming from the analyst community as well as the evaluation criteria from our most progressive customers.