London, Tuesday 5th December 2023. The Institute for Influencer and Industry Analyst Relations (IIAR>) announced its 2023 annual awards –as voted by industry analysts and analyst relations (AR) professionals, awarding the industry’s only independent recognitions for those technology industry professions.

The IIAR> surveyed analyst relations professionals globally and from diverse industries, predictably casting a wide net on coverage areas. The evaluation used the IIAR> SOSM methodology to reflect the best practice promoted within the IIAR> looking at perceived sales impact and strategic insights, resonance in the media, and ease of doing business with.

This year, analyst relations (AR) professionals from 17 countries have voted and provided clear insights both on the value they see from analysts, as well as how they perceive industry analyst firms’ value to them as clients. 56% of AR pros were from companies with +$1B in revenue and average team size of 13 and median team size of 5. They evaluated analyst firms on

• Quality of Analysts – the knowledge, quality and accessibility of analysts based on technology areas; industry insights and geo coverage
• Coverage Depth -the firm’s coverage of industry segment
• Content Quality – the quality and readability of research coverage for technology areas; industry insights and geo coverage
• Website and/or App – the ease of information access using the analyst firm website and / or App. The ease of booking enquiry and briefing calls with the analysts using the website
• Value for Money – the value for money with respect to the level of insight provided
• Client experience – experience taking into account the commercial aspect (sales helpfulness, flexibility, offerings transparency, etc)

The IIAR> also surveyed over 400 analysts from 61 analyst firms and 29 countries. The analysts covered diverse industries thus casting a wide net on coverage areas and AR professionals that they work with. The feedback we sought related directly to the IIAR>’s model of the 3Rs of Analyst Relations. Put simply; these are the defining three critical traits required for the job. While we’re sure everyone reading this is entirely fluent in the 3Rs, they can be summarised as follows:

• Responsiveness – analysts expect AR pros to revert to them in a timely fashion with the information required for their research.
• Relationships – analysts have many stakeholders; they rely on someone easy to deal with who always goes that extra mile.
• Results – can AR pros deliver results for their employers?

In 2023, we saw analysts prioritizing Results over Responsiveness and Relationships. Analysts see results where AR professionals help channel analyst insights in the organisation, ensuring the analyst community is able to advise buyers knowledgeably, delivering efficient marketing tactics using analysts, etc. This should result in better access and increased trust between the vendor and analyst. There were some interesting shifts in the 2023 results compared to prior years… read on to learn more! 

The IIAR> Analyst Awards 2023 winners

For the 15th year, AR professionals from 17 countries voted in the IIAR> Awards, to reward analysts who have made significant contributions to the community.

IIAR> Analyst of the Year 2023, Americas: Ed Anderson / Gartner

IIAR> Americas Analyst of the Year 2022: Ed Anderson / VP Distinguished Analyst, Gartner (LinkedIn).

Runner ups: Paul Greenberg / The 56 Group (LinkedIn, @pgreenbe) and David Menninger / Ventana Research (LinkedIn, @dmenningervr).

IIAR> Analyst of the Year 2023, EMEA: Maxine Holt / Omdia

IIAR> EMEA Analyst of the Year 2023: Maxine Holt / Senior Director, Cybersecurity, Omdia (LinkedIn, @maxineholt).

Runner ups: Cathy Tornbohm / Gartner (LinkedIn) and Bola Rotibi / CCS Insight (LinkedIn, @bolarotibi).

IIAR> Analyst of the Year 2023, APAC: Swapnil Bhatnagar / Avasant

IIAR> APAC Analyst of the Year 2023: Swapnil Bhatnagar / Senior Research Director, Avasant (LinkedIn, @swapnbha).

Runner ups: Mrinal Rai / ISG and Cathy Huang / IDC.

IIAR> Analyst Firm Of The Year 2023: IDC

For the fourth consecutive year, IDC has won the IIAR> Analyst Firm of the Year award based on the votes of the AR community, followed by Omdia and Gartner. Forrester and Nucleus rounded out the top five.

IIAR> New Analyst Of The Year 2023: Sudha Maheshwari / Forrester

IIAR> New Analyst of the Year 2023: Sudha Maheshwari / VP Research Director Business Insights, Forrester (LinkedIn, @sudham1107).

Runner ups: Alessandro Galimberti / Gartner (LinkedIn), Katelyn Johnson / Verdantix Research (LinkedIn) and Vijay Bhagavath / IDC (LinkedIn).

IIAR> Analyst Client Partner Of The Year 2023: Judith Justin / IDC

IIAR> Analyst Client Partner Of The Year 2023: Judith Justin / Senior Director, European Enterprise Sales, IDC (LinkedIn).

Runner ups: Alexis Pernet / Forrester (LinkedIn, @al_pernet), Sherrie King / Constellation Research (LinkedIn, @SherrieCR), Rocio Bustamante / PAC (LinkedIn) and Nikki Mason / Gartner (LinkedIn).

The IIAR> Analyst Relations Awards of the Year 2023 winners.

The IIAR>’s recognition of the capabilities of the analyst relations community is an important moment in our industry – not just because we celebrate the great work of our friends and peers – but also because it’s an opportunity to gain feedback from analysts themselves. And indeed, responses from analysts at over 60 firms are at the core of this methodology and the ensuring awards. They rated over 400 professionals, 85 AR agencies, nine megavendors and gave the IIAR> a comprehensive set of insights on best practices. 

Thanks to the analysts

We asked the analysts to be thorough in their critique. And as AR pros, having committed hours to the completion of numerous research responses, who wouldn’t want the chance to pose some questions back in the other direction?! Fortunately, the analyst community was very generous with its time and the depth of feedback. Our profuse thanks to everyone who participated and took time from the barrage of vendor briefings and research obligations to commit to the process.The feedback we sought related directly to the IIAR>’s model of the 3Rs of Analyst Relations. Put simply; these are the defining three critical traits required for the job. While we’re sure everyone reading this is entirely fluent in the 3Rs, they can be summarised as follows:

• Responsiveness – analysts expect AR pros to revert to them in a timely fashion with the information required for their research.
• Relationships – analysts have many stakeholders; they rely on someone easy to deal with who always goes that extra mile.
• Results – can AR pros deliver results for their employers?

IIAR> AR Professional of the Year 2023, Americas: Jessica Munoz / Veeam

IIAR> AR Professional of the Year 2023, Americas: Jessica Munoz / Senior Manager, Global Analyst Relations, Veeam (LinkedIn)

Runner ups: Patrick O’Rourke / Microsoft, Joely Urton/ Splunk.

The analysts also placed in our top 10 other practitioners from T-Mobile, SugarCRM, Google Cloud, Quantiphi, Oracle, Alteryx, Lenovo, UiPath.

 IIAR> AR Professional of the Year 2023, APAC: Orsi Sulyok/ HPE

IIAR> AR Professional of the Year 2023, APAC: Orsi Sulyok/ Strategic Marketing & Communications Leader, HPE (LinkedIn)

Runner ups: Daniel Anderson/ Rockwell Automation, Hardik Mehta/ Capgemini.

The analysts also placed in our top 10 other practitioners from AWS, PWC, IBM, NTT Data, ServiceNow, Google Cloud.

IIAR> AR Professional of the Year 2023, EMEA: Clare Flanagan/ Amdocs

IIAR> AR Professional of the Year 2023, EMEA: Clare Flanagan/ Analyst Relations, Amdocs (LinkedIn)

Runner ups: Michael Rennett/ Dell, Alexia O’Sullivan/ Capgemini.

The analysts also placed in our top 10 other practitioners from Sage, SoftwareOne, Nokia, Unisys, ServiceNow.

IIAR> AR Team of the Year 2023: Microsoft

In addition, analysts also voted Microsoft the best IIAR> AR Team of the Year. This category recognizes teams at Megavendors, defined as companies over USD 20 billion global annual revenues and providing a mix of three or more types the following: IT hardware; Networking equipment; Telecommunication services; Enterprise software; IT services and outsourcing; and Business consulting.

Microsoft  (up three places from last year’s place) was closely followed by IBM (same place as last year) and Amazon (down two places from last year) ;  Oracle, Cisco, Google, Dell, SAP, HPE, Salesforce all in this megavendors AR teams ranking.

IIAR> AR Agency of the Year 2023, Americas: Spotlight AR

IIAR> AR Agency of the Year 2023, EMEA: Starsight Communications

IIAR> AR Agency of the Year 2023, APAC: Actio

A category for agencies providing analyst relations services sees Spotlight AR, Actio, Starsight Communications in the top position in 2023 from Americas, APAC and EMEA respectively.  The IIAR> survey maps a deep field with 85 AR agencies identified by analysts, with a sizable spread between the top 30 agencies and the bottom 35 -all of the latter receiving negative scores. Large unspecialized agencies and PR freelancers were equally shunned by analysts, demonstrating the value of specialist AR skills and staff.

 Spotlight AR is followed by Waggener Edstrom and Zeno group in Americas,  Starsight Communications is followed by Loenberg AR and Dennington AR in EMEA.

See the list of IIAR> Member AR Agencies here.

“2023 saw the largest response from the analyst & AR community and the competition was fierce especially with analyst firm making strategic investments and acquisitions. Well done to everyone who claimed an award, and thanks for an ongoing commitment to best practices in analyst relations. We also appreciate the efforts of the analyst community to keep us informed and on our toes.”

Aniruddho Mukherjee / IIAR> Board Member (LinkedIn, @aniruddho).

The Institute for Influencer and Analyst Relations (IIAR>) is a not-for-profit member organisation established to raise awareness of analyst relations and the value of industry analysts, promote best practice amongst analyst relations professionals, enhance communication between analyst firms and vendors, and offer opportunities for AR practitioners to network with their industry peers.

Past IIAR> Awards

• The IIAR> AR Professional, Team and Agency of the Year
• The IIAR> Analyst and Firm Of The Year