Crisp Research confirms position as rising star on the European AR scene with arrival of top analyst Stefan Ried

After spending the last couple of years working for a vendor, Dr. Stefan Ried is to rejoin the ranks of the industry analyst community – arriving in April as Principal Analyst and Practice Lead for IoT at German analyst and consultancy outfit Crisp Research. 

Crisp, founded by former Experton analysts Dr Carlo Velten and Steve Janata, now boasts 20 analysts and consultants. Offering a hybrid mix of research and consulting, the firm is considered by AR professionals to be a rising star on the German analyst scene, thanks in part to its accessibility and willingness to work with vendors.

By the time he left Forrester at the end of 2014, where he was a VP and Principal Analyst, Stefan Ried had spent seven years covering cloud computing strategy – watching the industry grow from its early days. At Crisp, he’ll lead a new Internet of Things (IoT) practice.

Ried’s arrival marks international growth aspirations for privately-held Crisp, headquartered in Kassel (mid-way between Frankfurt and Hanover). According to founder and COO Steve Janata, Ried will also “offer advisory services regarding architecture design and provider selection for user companies. This includes Blueprints, Best Practices and ‘hands-on’ Transformation Services along with large scale IoT-projects and new products.”

According to Ried, his reasons for returning to the analyst community include the job being “basically done” at vendor Unify, now the company is “stable, profitable, extremely innovative, sold & integrated into the larger ATOS group”. On joining Crisp, he says: “I need the challenge and love turning change into momentum.”

While criticizing his former employer Forrester and fellow “gorilla” Gartner for “missing the chance to reinvent their own business model”, Ried says of his new employer: “Crisp managed to build an appealing open content model and is really the place where vendors and users find research and advisory to CHANGE, INNOVATE and DISRUPT their industry.”

He adds: “Crisp Research is the ideal environment for me to provide these European companies and their global technology suppliers with the best research and advice on re-inventing their core business.” 

For AR professionals who don’t already have Crisp on their radar, this would be a good time to take a look – and start by lining up a vendor briefing. You’ll have to get in line though. Welcome back, Stefan. Your absence has been noted.