Ovum, the quietly competent of ICT research industry?

Ovum Industry Congress #oic13If your research firm was a car manufacturer, which one would you be? In the early 20th century, there were hundreds of cars manufacturers and automobiles bought by nobility and industrialists. Fast forward to the present day: mass production has made them accessible to virtually all households and there are now fewer than 10 global car manufacturers. The story is much the same for IT, only on a 30-40 year time frame: just like Hispano-Suiza, few remember Prime Computers, and servers are now bought by business types rather than being operated by an army of lab coats. In other words, IT is becoming more normal from all aspects: financial, procurement, usage… yet more pervasive than ever. Just like you would not think of riding on horseback to fetch your loaf of bread, who could do without accessing email on their smartphone? (more…)

Analyst events- Is booze better than a booth? Financial Services- Why economic downturn is killing the City but not European FS industry analysts

Blog courtesy of: Simon Levin (IIAR Board Member), Managing Director at The Skills Connection
David Rossiter (IIAR UK Chapter), Director at Sunesis Analyst Relations

The IIAR held its latest London Forum at the UK HQ of the IT services giant Tata Consultancy Services last night. The event saw a turn-out of over 30 of UK’s leading AR and marketing professionals to have a discussion with fellow AR pros on sponsoring analyst events and listen to views of some of the best Analysts in the Financial Services sector. Participants included Dell, Symantec, Deloitte, BAE Systems Detica, Bearing Point, CognizantEdinburgh University and AGT International.

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The London Forum started with a best practices roundtable chaired by IIAR Board Member Caroline Dennington (@CDenningtonLinkedIn) and one of the IIAR UK Chapter Leads David Rossiter (@davidrossiterLinkedIn) on sponsoring analyst events.  One of the many issues covered circled around the ROI of sponsorship packages vs. simple hospitality. (more…)

IIAR London Forum on 7th March 2013 in London

The next IIAR London Forum will be held on March 7th at 1600 GMT in London (near Victoria)!

For this event we have two great topics on the agenda:

  1. Best Practice session on ‘Sponsoring and Exhibiting at Analyst Events’. Which events and sponsorship types work, what are some of the best practices to get the best value from your investment and which specific analyst events work (and which don’t). Led by a panel of expert AR professionals including Caroline Dennington (Symantec) and Julian Dobbins (Micro Focus).
  2. Analyst Roundtable on ‘Hot Buttons for Financial Services’. Where will the analysts be focusing their research in this sector in 2013 and how can you best position your company’s products and services as a result. Confirmed for this panel are Peter Redshaw (Gartner), Daniel Mayo (Ovum), Catherine Stagg-Macey (Celent), Alex Kwiatkowski (IDC Financial Insights) and Ralph Silva (SRN, HfS and often times the BBC) with Sally Yates (Metia) as chair.

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IIAR Christmas Networking Event concluded successfully!

Analysts and IIAR members alike had a lot of fun at this year’s Christmas party in London on 6th December 2012. More than 60 people came along.  With over 30 analysts attending from companies including Gartner, Forrester, IDC, Ovum, Frost & SullivanInforma, Celent,  CCS Insight, Creative Intellect Consulting, AMI PartnersEuroLAN ResearchFreeform DynamicsPAC UKPlum ConsultingRedMonkVerdantixAnalysys MasonBloor Research, it sure was a great opportunity for IIAR members (including people from MicrosoftAccentureBearingPoint, CSC, TCSSymantecAtosDeloitteDassault SystemesTietoAvaya) to network with their target analysts as well as peers. A big thanks to all those who were able to make it, we sure had a great time! (more…)

IIAR Christmas Networking Event on 6th Dec 2012

The IIAR Christmas Networking event is happening on 6th Dec 2012, 5 pm onward in Central London. This is an opportunity for analysts and AR peers to meet over informal drinks. We now have over 37 analysts from the following firms confirmed!

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IIAR Analyst of the Year 2012: Winners Announced!

IIAR Analyst of the Year logoThe IIAR is delighted to announce the winners of this year’s IIAR Analyst of the Year and Analyst Firm of the Year

AND THE WINNERS ARE…

  (more…)

IIAR US Teleconference with Ovum MD – Q&A session

This week on Thursday 26th July at 11am ET / 8am PT Ovum’s top management team will once again be making themselves available for your Q&A on the future of Ovum. This will be a similar session to the one run in the UK in May and is a chance for you to hear directly from those setting the company’s strategy and future road map.

There won’t be any presentations, just the chance for you to ask questions that matter to you and affect your AR program. This really is a unique opportunity and we hope as many of you as possible will join us, ready with lots of questions to ask the panel.

Ovum speakers:

If you would like to attend please email me asap to reserve your place on the call and get the dial-in details. This session is free for IIAR members and $25 for non-members.

[GUEST POST] Despite it all, Ovum is still a tier one analyst firm in Europe

Nice post on Ovum by the folks at Loudhouse Blog, reprinted here with their permission.  Of course, because it’s a Loudhouse post it’s not the official IIAR position, in case anyone thought otherwise.  See also the other Ovum posts on this blog, including the one on our recent IIAR London Forum featuring Ovum’s top management.

Ovum Logo

Ovum, which has been the leading European-headquartered analyst firm for around twenty years, has been going through a lot of change. That seems to be confusing both the vendor community and analyst relations professionals, who grilled the firm’s management recently. Vendors are questioning Ovum’s relevance now in way we have not seen before. The changes at Ovum are causing these confusions unintentionally but, despite that, the firm remains a key influencer in Europe. (more…)

Ovum lays out its strategy to the IIAR

Last week the IIAR was given an insight into the new strategy at Ovum in a one and a half hour Q&A session with four of the company’s top executives.

The in-person event in London saw Ovum’s MD (Brett Azuma), Global Director for IT (Ian Charlesworth), Global Director for Telecoms (Richard Mahony) and Chief Telecoms Analyst (Jan Dawson) all take time out of hectic schedules to personally answer IIAR members’ questions and provide an update on the company’s future direction.

(more…)

IIAR UK Forum reminder: Your chance to hear about the future of Ovum

Here’s a little reminder that on Wednesday 30th May at 4-6:30pm BST, the IIAR will be holding a Forum with three of the Ovum senior management team. If you didn’t get a chance to meet with Brett at the recent Ovum Industry Congress or would like to find out what you missed this is your opportunity! This will be a panel discussion allowing you to get your questions answered and will be moderated by Simon Levin (IIAR UK Co-Chapter Lead).

Ovum speakers:

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