The IIAR> Institute of Influencer & Analyst Relations / Who is the IIAR Analyst of the Year 2017?

The temperature may be dropping, but things have been heating up in the analyst community. Yes, it’s that time of year when we ask you to put the analysts themselves under the spotlight.

The 2017 IIAR Analyst of the Year Award nominations saw some hot competition, but inevitably there can be only one winner (well, actually we have three, but more about that shortly). Announced at the IIAR Christmas Party, kindly sponsored by Criteo, we celebrated the successes of some of the industry’s favourite thinkers and most serious strategists.

Recognising the voice of the analyst relations community

With the ever-diversifying tech landscape, the expertise and consultancy delivered by industry analysts gains a new stature. And so we spared no expense in interrogating the global analyst relations community as to the practitioners they most respect in their field.

We had responses from 13 countries, encompassing contributions from businesses under $50m right through to $multi-billion organisations. And as a result a wide array of analysts were recognised within the survey.

Drumroll please…

Prizes were awarded for the highest overall impact and relevance for the industry, whilst recognising how easy these analysts are to work with. The evaluation used the IIAR SOSM methodology, to reflect the best practice promoted within the IIAR. So with this context covered, we can get down to the nitty gritty and announce the winners…

This year’s winner of IIAR Analyst of the Year 2017 for Hardware is:

Jon Oltsik / ESG (LinkedIn, @joltsik)

Our winner of the IIAR Analyst of the Year 2017 for Software is:

Jost Hoppermann / Forrester (LinkedIn)

And the winner of IIAR Analyst of the Year 2017 in Services is:

Bill Martorelli / Forrester (LinkedIn, @BillMartorelli)

With this esteemed line up commended, it’s time to announce the overall Analyst of the Year Award for 2017. Recognised for his combination of strategic input to business outcomes, expertise in his field and overall quality of experience in working with him, we’re pleased to announce the winner of…

IIAR Analyst of the Year 2017 Overall

Bill Martorelli / Forrester

Huge congratulations Bill and well done on all the excellent work you’ve done with the IIAR community.

Recognising the evolving industry

IIAR members were also asked to identify fresh talent within the analyst community. We asked you to call out your ‘New Entrant of the Year’ nominations, and the response was so strong that we actually wanted to celebrate all of the nominees. So we’re delighted to commend the following analysts for making a great impact to our profession:

Mila D’Antonio / Ovum
Amanda LeClair / Forrester
Fernando Montenegro / 451 Research
Simon Abrahams / PAC
Meghna Mukerjee / Aite Group
Kiel Carlsson / Forrester

Sharing in success

Further to the individual analyst of the year, we also have our analyst firm of the year. This was a close-run competition, but in the end there was one that stood out.

This year’s IIAR Analyst Firm of the Year 2017 is

Gartner

Well done to all of the Gartner team and thanks to Nick Jones for collecting the award.

Helping us create business value

This year we added a new category, to celebrate professionals also adding incredible value to AR. We’re delighted to announce that the inaugural

IIAR 2017 Analyst Client Partner of the Year award goes to:

Anne Stevenson / IDC

Partnerships between AR professionals and the analyst firms with whom they work are a key part of our sector – in fact it can be the critical factor in creating business value. So well done to Anne for your contributions.

With that we come to a close for this year. Congratulations to everyone who has been recognised within the awards – and thanks to the AR professionals for taking the time to vote. Here’s to another great year in 2018.

By Tom Buttle (LinkedIn, @Tom_Buttle) and Aniruddho Mukherjee (@aniruddho, LinkedIn)

IIAR AOTY Working Group