And the IIAR Analyst of the Year 2011 is…

For the fourth year running, AR professionals have been polled to select the analyst and firms they consider the best best for thought leadership, ease to do business with, influence and value for money.

The IIAR is delighted to announce that this year’s IIAR Analyst of the Year 2011 goes to…

Phil Fersht, HfS Research. It was a resounding win with a huge majority vote. This is the second consecutive year in which Phil has won the award and we would like to extend our congratulations to him on behalf of the IIAR. Reasons people gave for Phil’s nomination include; an innovative approach to research, honesty and extensive relationships in the industry. Accessibility proved a big selling point, combined with Phil’s use of social media in research and his deep industry knowledge.

IIAR Analyst of the Year 2011Award Winners

IIAR Analyst of the Year 2011

• 1st: Phil Fersht / HfS Research (@pfersht)
• 2nd: Zeus Kerravala / Yankee Group (@zkerravala)
• 3rd: Mark Smith / Ventana (@marksmithvr)

IIAR Analyst Firm of the Year 2011

• 1st: Gartner (@gartner_inc)
• 2nd: Forrester (@forrester)
• 3rd: HfS Research (@Horses4Sources)

IIAR  New Analyst Firm of the Year 2011

• 1st: Constellation (@constellationrg)

 

The results by areas for both firms and individual analysts are as follow:

• Software: Gartner ; Mark Smith / Ventana
• Services: Gartner, Phil Fresht / HfS Research
• Outsourcing/BPO/Maintenance: HfS ; Phil Fresht / HfS Research
• Telecoms: Yankee ; Zeus Kerravala / Yankee
• Developpers/IT department: Gartner ; James Governor / Redmonk
• Green IT/sustainability: Gartner ; Stephen Stokes / Gartner
• Social media: Altimeter ; Charlene Li / Altimeter

 

HfS Research was voted third in the IIAR Analyst Firm of the Year, which is a great accolade given the company is just entering its third year of operations. Success factors include, “intelligent people with common sense” said one participant, “Research that is always compelling to read – and our clients like it” said another. One participant went further saying of HfS, “They are the heartbeat in the world of outsourcing and shared services”.

“At HfS, we have always refused to hide our research behind expensive firewalls and have aggressively sought to place our global analyst teams’ insights onto the desks of today’s corporate decision makers. This award is testament to the staying power of our philosophy to change the way research is developed and channelled to market. I thank the IIAR and its wonderful members for recognizing us,” commented Mr. Fersht.

Gartner was nominated as IIAR Analyst Firm of the Year and also won the award for best analyst firm in six of the nine individual technology categories including: hardware, software, services and green IT. They remain one of the most popular analyst firms in the business and this award further endorses their market leading reputation. Reasons given for their nomination included the company’s standing in the market and wide coverage area. One participant commented, “Gartner sets the standards by which everyone else plays”.

This year the IIAR introduced a new category IIAR New Analyst Firm of the Year to reflect the changing market and growth in new analyst start-up companies. In this category the clear winner was Constellation Research.

“We’re quite honored and humbled!  More importantly, we are thankful to our first 100 customers and the influencer relations community for their feedback and support,” commented Ray Wang (@rwang0), Principal Analyst & CEO, Constellation Research.

Ray went on to say, “When we formed Constellation, we set out to build research on disruptive technologies.  Our charter sell-side clients expected us to be visible in the media, create thought leadership, and take a buy side view.  As we celebrate our first year and our charter innovation summit, we’ll be working with our community for new ideas and new ways to deliver research and insights“.

Interestingly, the major players dominated the stakes on analyst firm of the year but within the analyst of the year category, it was the analysts from smaller companies who dominated the top three places.

Over 260 analyst and influencer relations specialists took part in this year’s survey – by far the greatest number to date – and we are very grateful to all those who took the time to participate. A big thank you also goes to Jonny Bentwood, and IIAR co-founder (see previous posts) for all his time and effort in leading this survey.

Links:

• The IIAR Analyst of the Year 2010
• Ray Wang named IIAR Analyst of the Year 2009
• The IIAR Analyst of the Year survey — and the winner is….

A copy of the results will be sent to all participants in due course and IIAR members will be able to read a more in-depth analysis of the survey results on huddle; please watch your emails for notification of when this is made available.