Today we ask our infamous ten probing questions to Peyman Mestchian (LinkedIn) from Chartis Research.
1. What are your coverage areas?
I cover risk and compliance technology or “RiskTech” for short. This is a relatively broad market sector. Sub-segments of our coverage include financial risk (market, credit, liquidity), operational risk, financial crime risk and energy trading risk. Fundamentally we look at the role of technology as an enabler for enterprise risk management across financial and non-financial sectors.
2. What are your opinions of the IT Analysis Marketplace and where do you see it going?
Before becoming an Analyst, I used to be a client of most of the leading Analyst firms (all the usual global brands) in financial technology. I very quickly realized that very few had the required domain knowledge or practitioner level insight to be able to give me the detailed level market intelligence that I was looking for (e.g. regarding product or technology strategy or regarding expenditure priorities etc.). Our success at Chartis is based on Practitioner level expertise and detailed assessment of market requirements and vendor capabilities. I think the future is all about focus and specialisation.
3. What’s your typical day like?
No typical day in my job – typical year involves co-developing the research strategy for Chartis, managing strategic client relationships, many many interviews and briefing sessions with risk technology users and vendors, strategy workshops, system selection projects/RFPs and speaking at conferences and Board Level advisory projects.
4. Now, c’mon, tell me an AR horror story?
This one comes from my time as a client to a “leading” Analyst firm. After spending a day with their Senior Analyst and briefing him on our product capabilities and setting up multiple client/case-study interviews (and paying $15K plus expenses for the privilege!) –I saw a write-up in a report that showed that the Analyst had totally misunderstood our product functionality, client requirements resulting in my firm being put in a wring industry category – clearly the Analysts published profile did not match his actual knowledge of our industry
5. How do you position your firm? What is your business model?
Deep subject matter expertise, total focus on risk and compliance technology, Practitioner level knowledge (not Journalists)- value for money advisory and research offering
6. What is your research methodology?
- Primary research focusing on demand-side surveys, interviews and project
- Primary research focusing on supply-side (vendor) surveys and briefings (we give a higher weighting to the demand-side information)
- Primary research based on interviews with leading industry experts, consulting firms and professional bodies to validate and refine or analysis emanating from 1 and 2 above
7. Tell us about one good AR practice you’ve experienced or one good AR event you’ve attended.
I always like being invited to sit at Panel Discussions at Vendor User Forums. This has a number of attractions for a Chartis Analyst:
- It gives us an opportunity to interact and exchange views with the “users” of risk technology and not just the vendors
- During the breaks and informal gatherings I get additional “off-the-record” market intelligence
- It demonstrates true confidence by the Vendor to allow and specialist/Analysts to mingle amongst its clients and gather positive and negative feedback
8. What are your offerings and key deliverables?
- Deep industry analysis presented in our comprehensive and detailed industry reports(typically 50-70 pages and incorporating our proprietary RiskTech QuadrantTM vendor landscape methodology
- Custom Research and thought-leadership papers supported by promotion of the research through key media channels with strategic partnerships with Chartis (e.g. http://www.risktech-forum.com, GARP (Global Association of Risk Professionals) and Incisive Media
- Strategic Advisory Services in the form of Strategy Workshop and Consulting Projects- recent engagements have included system selection and RFP project for risk technology buyers, go-to-market plans for risk technology vendors, Merger & Acquisition advisory and due-diligence
9. Is there another analyst whose work you rate highly?
Alexander Dorfmann who is a Research Director at Chartis Research – he illustrates what Chartis is all about – he is an ex CRO (Chief Risk Officer) and Risk Manager working at a number of leading banks in Europe – he has also worked as a product strategist and developer for a number of global risk technology vendors- this gives him deep understanding of both the demand-side and supply-side of the risk technology market- a true Practitioner, which makes him a great Analyst and Advisor
10. Nine great answers this time.
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Care to share your end user client count and segmentation – particularly FSIB versus non FSIB? E-mail me if you’d prefer a private conversation. KCG receives 5-10 firm profile requests from vendors per week.