[GUEST POST] When Your Company Takes Out Your Favorite Analyst

Posted on Friday 3rd May 2013 by peggyoneilliiar

By Peggy O’Neill, AR Director / Informatica (LinkedIn).

It happens to the best of us. Your analyst relations program is humming along nicely – your analysts are behaving, your internal constituents under control – when one day, wham! You get a call from one of your SVPs sharing some exciting news! Joe Analyst, one of your company’s key advocates, has now joined your company.

AR managers will inevitably grapple with this scenario as analysts migrate to vendors often. Informatica took out two high profile analysts last year and I’ve experienced this at previous employers too. AR managers can expect certain behaviors when an analyst who used to cover your company comes inside, so your best bet is to prepare for when that day hits and take full advantage of the opportunity. (more…)

Filed under: AR Best practices, AR debates, Guest Post | Tagged: , , | 3 Comments »

IIAR Webinar with H&K on Influencer Survey – 19 March 2013, 1600 GMT

Posted on Wednesday 13th March 2013 by shiprakhanna
We are pleased to announce an IIAR Webinar with H&K to present their annual Influencer Survey on 19th March 2013 at 1600 GMT / 0900 PST.  The panel will include Joshua Reynolds (@techspinR, LinkedIn) and Tris Clark (@TrisClarkARGuy, LinkedIn) from H & K and will be hosted by Ludovic Leforestier from the IIAR board (@lludovic, LinkedIn). This survey is a great proof-point for AR folks to show the real influence of analysts.

Filed under: AR debates, H & K, IIAR, IIAR Webinar | Tagged: , , , | Leave a Comment »

[GUEST POST] A tale of two sales teams – an analysis of Gartner’s & Forrester’s 2012 financials

Posted on Sunday 17th February 2013 by carolinedennington

Dave Noble recently posted a good insight on his blog at http://intelligenAR.wordpress.com looking in to the financial results of Gartner and Forrester. To go directly to the article click the following link: http://intelligenar.wordpress.com/2013/02/14/a-tale-of-two-sales-teams-an-analysis-of-gartners-forresters-2012-financials/

Filed under: AR debates | Leave a Comment »

[Guest Post] Why IT Vendors Should Take Industry Analysts (More) Seriously

Posted on Wednesday 26th September 2012 by Neil Pollock

By: Dr Neil Pollock, University of Edinburgh Business School

After several years’ research on industry analysts and IT Research firms there are some interesting conclusions to be reached on how industry analyst firms are exerting influence on IT vendors and their product markets. This is just a snapshot of some of Dr. Pollock’s findings.

1. Industry Analysts Stifle Novelty

The first point shows how industry analysts are one of the new ‘institutions of information technology’ with the cognitive authority to shape technological fields. One common way they do this is through proposing names and definitions for emerging technological trends, an activity with positive and negative consequences. We saw, for instance, how this could stifle innovation. IT vendors offering new kinds of products were penalised if their technologies did not conform to standard product definitions. We observed how one seemingly novel solution belonging to a newcomer received a critical review, which led to its rejection from a major procurement contest, effectively calling into question the robustness of its solution. The suggestion here is that industry analysts can help but also hinder innovation. (more…)

Filed under: AR, AR debates, Guest Post, IIAR, IIAR Forum, MagicQuadrant | Tagged: , , , , , | 5 Comments »

[GUEST POST] Will the real leader please stand up?

Posted on Friday 13th July 2012 by St Cross Group

I know many of you are short of time so I will try to summarise my point here. In almost 20 years spent in the influencer relations world I can count the number of AR people achieving senior promotions to leadership roles on one hand. I’ve participated in many conversations over the years with AR professionals feeling left out of those promotion decisions, maybe it’s time to either accept that as the status quo or chose to do something about it. The rest of my post focuses on doing something about it.

If you’re like me you’ll have read or listened to discussions that, on reflection were just common sense or obvious, I’m increasingly concerned that common sense doesn’t prevail and there are times when you need a simple reminder that can act as a catalyst to help you take a decision or move forward in some way. I’m hoping that this post is one of those.. (more…)

Filed under: AR Best practices, AR debates, Guest Post | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

[GUEST POST] Big Dogs don’t yap: the secret ingredient for MQ success

Posted on Tuesday 3rd July 2012 by simonlevin

Blog courtesy of: Simon Levin (IIAR Board Member)

What is it that makes the difference when it comes to making the step up into the Leaders section of Gartner’s Magic Quadrant? Ever wondered what companies who gain recognition as Leaders have in common? Having seen four of our MQ Tune-Up clients gain Leaders status for the first time last quarter, I thought it might be interesting to go looking for some common themes or attributes.

And as it turned out, the exercise was well worth the effort, because it highlighted one key factor I’d never consciously identified before.

We’re calling it the Big Dog syndrome, and it’s all about looking the part, acting like a Leader right from the start, and, above all, believing that that top right quadrant is your rightful home.

There’s more about this idea on The Skills Connection’s blog but the essence of it is blindingly simple. For a company to be perceived as a Leader, it has to have a leaderly air about it. It has to radiate conviction, as well as competence. It needs to put its case across well, but without the yapping, snapping desperation that marks out those that try too hard. (more…)

Filed under: AR, AR Best practices, AR debates, Gartner, IT Analysis Firms, MagicQuadrant | Tagged: , , , , , , | 13 Comments »

[Guest Post] Does the consulting approach beat published research?

Posted on Monday 21st May 2012 by hlaceygutsell

By: Simon Levin, The Skills Connection / IIAR UK Co-Chapter Lead

We saw an interesting blogging spat last week between Stanton Jones of ISG and Lydia Leong at Gartner, with the flames fanned by tweeted comments from Phil Fersht of HfS. The row was centred on some research published recently by Lydia on managed hosting providers, but its ramifications are much wider.

For those who haven’t yet followed the Twitter feeds and blog links, let me try to summarise what’s going on.

Stanton’s charge is that Magic Quadrants serve a purpose by offering insight into vendors and products, but that the high-level nature of the analysis means they are poor primary tools for making choices. He emphasises the lack of nuance possible in a written article, compared with the detailed, customised insight that can be provided via a consulting engagement. And, of course, he is right. (more…)

Filed under: AR, AR Agencies, AR debates, Gartner, Horses for Sources, IT Analysis Firms | Tagged: , , , , , , | 4 Comments »

The hype cycle of Vendor Briefing Requests

Posted on Friday 18th May 2012 by Ludovic Leforestier

Have you ever submitted a vendor briefing request? For those of you who have, and for those who have yet to experience this joy, here’s a humorous and (perhaps only slightly) exaggerated description of the process and some insights into why AR people always seem to struggle with it.

What’s clear is that analysts and executives alike don’t know or care how complicated the process is and don’t appreciate AR folks sometimes …. especially when it goes wrong. I’m sure we all have stories of briefings going wrong before they have even started – because the dial-ins don’t work, or there’s a troublesome time-zone challenge, or because the IP-based telephone network decides to crash.
(more…)

Filed under: AR, AR Best practices, AR debates, Forrester, Gartner | Tagged: , , , | 9 Comments »

[GUEST POST] An Insider’s Guide to Technology Analysts

Posted on Thursday 3rd May 2012 by Ludovic Leforestier

Thanks a lot to ReadWriteWeb to allow reposting of this excellent entry by By Cormac Foster (LinkedIn, @cormacfoster).

The original post can be found here.

Gartner. Forrester. IDC. And lots of smaller fish, too. You can’t read a tech-industy news story, attend a conference or listen to a sales pitch without someone quoting an industry analyst. For tech companies, analysts are big news and big business, promising to help with transformation, monetization and a slew of other things ending in “-ation.”

But what do technology industry analysts really do? And how do you find the one that’s right for your company’s needs. Let me try to explain, from the inside. You see, from 1999 through 2001, I was an analyst at Jupiter Research, now part of Forrester Research.

Filed under: AR debates, Forrester, Gartner, IDC, IIAR, IT Analysis Firms | Tagged: , , , | 1 Comment »

Gartner gets the IDEAs from Forrester

Posted on Friday 20th April 2012 by Ludovic Leforestier

It seems Gene took Gartner‘s shopping trolley on a jumbo to Oz this week and a page from George‘s book: the research firm just announced it was buying Ideas International [ASX:IDE] was established in 1981 as a consultancy service and since 1986 has provided its special brand of research to IT users and vendors. This acquisition is still subject to regulatory and other approvals.

This move has a strong reminiscence from Forrester’s purchase of Springboard last year (read our post:Forrester joins the feeding frenzy, buys Springboard)

(more…)

Filed under: AR debates, Canalys, Forrester, Gartner, IDC, IDEAS, IT Analysis Firms, Springboard | Tagged: , , , , | 11 Comments »

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