The IIAR Analyst of the Year survey — and the winner is….

Over the past few months, the IIAR have been running a survey to identify who AR practitioners believe should win the award of ‘analyst of the year’. With over 116 respondents from around the world, the number of firms and individuals that people wanted to recognise was extraordinary (191 different analyst names and 103 separate houses).

For an analyst or their company to have made the top 10 is a truly remarkable achievement and my congratulations go to them. Specifically though a few individuals and companies should be highlighted:

Ray Wang, Principal Analyst with Forrester Research, Inc., is the analyst of the year. Respondents praised his insight, depth of industry knowledge, and independent voice. Runners up for the title

were David Mitchell of Ovum and James Governor of RedMonk.

Ray was also named Analyst of the Year for the Americas, while David Mitchell of Ovum was voted the EMEA Analyst of the Year.

Forrester was highly regarded by respondents in all regions, and was voted the Analyst Firm of the Year. It was commended for the strength of its analyst team, the quality of its client services and its ability to spot new trends. Gartner and IDC came second and third, respectively.

Not only have the traditional global analyst firms done well in this year’s survey, but the smaller, boutique consultancies also scored highly. Freeform Dynamics and MWD came in the top five in EMEA with RedMonk in the top three in the Americas, and a number of other firms also received honourable mentions. Respondents liked their honesty, ability to innovate, the quality of their research and use of new media channels.

What came out clearly from the survey was that integrity, independence and market knowledge are the analyst qualities that are most highly valued by AR professionals. It demonstrates very positively how much the IT research industry has matured.

The results below have been split into several segments to reward those whose specialty in niche areas should be recognised.

A full copy of all the results can be downloaded here

	Analyst of the Year	1		Analyst Firm of the Year
1	Ray Wang, Forrester	1	1	Forrester
2	David Mitchell, Ovum	1	2	Gartner
3	James Governor, RedMonk	1	3	IDC
4	Ed Thompson, Gartner	1	4	RedMonk
5	Michael Cote, RedMonk	1	5	AMR
6	Jeffrey Hammond, Forrester	1	6	Freeform Dynamics
7	Dale Vile, Freeform Dynamics	1	7	Ovum
8	Bola Rotibi, Ovum (now MWD)	1	8	MWD
9	Massimo Pezzini, Gartner	1	9	Enterprise Strategy Group
10	Brian Babineau, ESG	1	10	CCS Insight

EMEA Focus:

	EMEA Analyst of the Year	1	1	EMEA Analyst Firm of the Year
1	David Mitchell, Ovum		1	Gartner
2	Dale Vile, Freeform Dynamics		2	Forrester
3	Ed Thompson, Gartner		3	Ovum
4	Philip Dawson, Gartner		4	Freeform Dynamics
5	Neil Rickard, Gartner		5	MWD

US Focus:

	US Analyst of the Year			US Analyst Firm of the Year
1	Ray Wang, Forrester		1	Forrester
2	David Mitchell, Ovum		2	Gartner
3	Michael Cote, RedMonk		3	RedMonk
4	Jeffrey Hammond, Forrester		4	Enterprise Strategy Group
5	James Governor, RedMonk		5	AMR

Communications & networking Focus:

	Comms & Networking Analyst of the Year			Comms & Networking Analyst Firm of the Year
1	Neil Rickard, Gartner		1	Forrester
2	Ben Wood, CCS Insight		2	Gartner
3	Nick Jones, Gartner		3	Ovum
4	Zeus Kerravala, Yankee Group		4	IDC
5	Danille Levitas, IDC		5	Yankee Group

Software Focus:

	Software Analyst of the Year			Software Analyst Firm of the Year
1	Ray Wang, Forrester		1	Forrester
2	David Mitchell, Ovum		2	Gartner
3	Ed Thompson, Gartner		3	AMR
4	Jeffrey Hammond, Forrester		4	RedMonk
5	Michael Cote, RedMonk		5	MWD

Services Focus:

	Services Analyst of the Year			Services Analyst Firm of the Year
1	Pascal Matzke, Forrester		1	Forrester
2	Stephanie Moore, Forrester		2	Gartner
3	Paul Roehrig, Forrester		3	IDC
4	Michael von Uechtritz, Gartner		4	Ovum
5	Dane Anderson, Gartner		5	NelsonHall

Importance vs. Relevance: Analyst Firm of the Year:

	Most Relevant Analyst Firm of the Year	1		Most Important Analyst Firm of the Year
1	Forrester		1	Gartner
2	IDC		2	Forrester
3	Freeform Dynamics		3	IDC
4	Burton		4	Ovum
5	RedMonk		5	AMR
6	AMR		6	Redmonk
7	Ovum		7	Enterprise Strategy Group
8	MWD		8	Freeform Dynamics
9	451 Group		9	Current Analysis
10	Gartner		10	TowerGroup

EMEA:

	Most Relevant Analyst Firm of the Year	1		Most Important Analyst Firm of the Year
1	Gartner		1	Gartner
2	Freeform Dynamics		2	Forrester
3	Forrester		3	Ovum
4	Ovum		4	IDC
5	MWD		5	Freeform Dynamics

US:

	Most Relevant Analyst Firm of the Year	1		Most Important Analyst Firm of the Year
1	Forrester		1	Forrester
2	Burton		2	Gartner
3	IDC		3	IDC
4	Ovum		4	RedMonk
5	RedMonk		5	AMR

Commenting on his award, Ray Wang said:

I’m very pleased to receive this distinction. AR professionals represent the critical link between an analyst’s perception and the company’s reality. Because the AR profession is not only a science but also an art, good AR professionals build the relationships from a position of trust which drive the foundation for all interactions. I’m thankful to have worked with so many true professionals.

David Mitchell, ranked first in EMEA commented:

Analyst relations professionals are playing an increasingly important and influential role in the ICT (Information Communication Technology) industry, both when working directly for companies and when working as third party advisors to those customers. As such, it’s a great honour to be recognised by the IIAR.

One of the interesting results from the survey is the distinction made between relevant and important analyst firms. From my perspective it appears that people made the recognised tier 1’s (Gartner, Forrester, IDC) as the most important as they realise that these companies have a strong impact on sales due to their customer base and research viability. However, relevant firms did not necessarily map on to these same firms and the ones ranked most highly tended to have a greater focus on bespoke advice (largely gained through inquiry time).

When we run this survey next year we would be delighted to hear suggestions regarding how this can be improved. For your benefit I have listed below a brief summary of the methodology used.

Methodology

1) Entrants:

This survey was open to anyone who works in analyst relations in any country, either in-house or at an agency/consultancy. In order for someone’s entry to be validated, they had to submit their email address and company name to verify they not an impostor trying to distort the results. This personal information will not be distributed or used beyond sending copies of the results to all participant. The survey was open for specific period of time and IP addresses were taken to ensure that someone could not vote twice.

2) Questions:

The survey specifically focused on an individual’s perception of the analyst world in 2007. All questions were free text to ensure that results could not be biased by presenting a pre-made list of companies or analysts. The result of this was extraordinary with 191 different analyst names being submitted as ‘analyst of the year’ and 103 different firms listed for the ‘analyst house of the year’.

3) Segmentation:

Respondents were asked to specify their submissions based upon geography (US, EMEA, AsiaPac, Global) and segment (Software, Hardware, Services, Communications and Networking). Based upon these criteria further analysis could be made of the results to identify specific regional or segment champions.

If you have any questions or comments about this survey please contact either myself or Hannah Kirkman