The IIAR’s developing discussion on the crisis in AR (reflected by analysts’ declining comfort in recommending solutions) took interesting turn recently. In the the institute’s second conference call on the topic, I was asked to spell out suggestions for how analysts can reverse the falling quality of information sharing by vendors, which is the root cause of analysts’ lowering confidence. These are my four suggestions.
A New Approach to Market Analysis for the Evolving Mobile Communications Industry An argument in favour of multi-disciplinary analysts By: Saverio Romeo, Frost The mobile communications industry has been infrastructure-centric for a long time. The core has been the network. The value added has been the services offered on this network. For many years, voice …
[GUEST POST] An Analyst’s Take on the Crisis in AR by Saverio Romeo / Frost & Sullivan Read More »
After more than a decade consulting to analyst relations teams, and some year before as an analyst, I’m seeing a deep, and deepening, crisis in analyst relations.
Recently, the IIAR held a discussion group on AR careers following a series of blog posts by Marc Duke on this topic.
AR still suffers from being in the shadow of PR and like Marc, most of those taking part in the call had fallen into AR careers by accident. What can we do, as an industry, to spread the word?
In the second of his series of guest posts on AR careers, @marcduke looks at the skills required to succeed in AR and how to keep them in good shape.
I first encountered the heady world of AR in 1997 as a lowly account executive. The PR agency I worked for, Text 100, was the main agency for Microsoft in Europe. It had a very, very small AR programme which was passed around and found its way to me. That’s where my AR journey began. As the AR profession has matured, the question of where AR as a career is going is a serious one that merits consideration.
A Glimpse into Peer Connect Every AR person knows that many of the most influential analysts in the information technology industry work at Gartner. But analysts are not the most influential influencers out there, peers are – IT buyers and practitioners most trust the insights of other IT buyers and practitioners who have been through …
Gartner Wields the Most Influential Influencers, Peers, Not Analysts Read More »
In this post, Curt Monash of Monash research discusses the link between vendor patronage and bias -a fascinating and must read for any AR person!
The Bottom Line: Influencers Who Adopt Multiple Influencer Types Emerge As Market Makers
Market makers create tremendous influence in the market. Today’s savvy influencers adopt multiple influencer types to gain market maker status. A true market maker will master at least four influencer types. For example, some industry analysts earn market maker status by authoring books, writing for media publications, facilitating peer to peer sessions, delivering training, advising clients via consulting, keynoting events, and partnering with academia. Management consultants who author books, gain a column on a blog such as Forbes, and run focused events achieve market maker status. Blogger media moguls who write industry analyst reports, lead training sessions, and speak at events gain market maker status. Expect legacy models to be blown up as new firms of market makers emerge and continue the disinter-mediation of the influencer market.
Following some debate on Quora ( How much does it cost to be included in Gartner Magic Quadrant?, do make sure you check Nancy Erskine’s answer), Lydia Leong from Gartner did publish a very useful blog post on The process of a Magic Quadrant.
What is an IT analyst? Write an answer on Quora What is an IT analyst? 12/1 update: some great answers and also a fascinating discussion How relevant will Analyst Firms like Gartner (with its MQ) and Forrester be in the next 10 year?
AR is an art and science; if you measure everything you take the art out of it. Social media and marketing measurement software is starting to provide the data, but there must always be a place for intuition and personal relationships.
Read on this guest post from Fred McClimmands on when and why are outsourcing and insourcing of AR viable options.
Social media is a conversation accelerator, allowing AR pros to follow more analysts and interact with them in a more timely and proactive fashion.
I was reading Merv’s post on Analysts Don’t List Themselves on Social Media « Merv’s Market Strategies for IT Suppliers and it coiincidentally resonated with a conversation I was having this week with an account manager at an IT analysis research form. Merv’s point that twitter handles and blogs are not listed on analyst bios raises …
Proteiform Analystus -the multichannel dilemna for IT analysis firms in the socmed era Read More »
Josh50_2Josh Bernoff, yes as in Josh Groundswell Bernoff, from Forrester posted recently a great post on what analysts actually do. Now, it’s not a new subject but it’s still pretty difficult to explain to your mother. Joes does it elegantly and kindly accepted my request to reblog it here.
Level 3 part 1: How Vendors Leverage Analyst Subscriptions
EFFECTIVE ANALYST RELATIONS REQUIRES SUBSCRIPTIONS. There, I’ve said it. In capitals. Feel free to disagree with me, but please allow me to explain where I’m coming from…
In the world of ICT, analysts are a unique influencer, not only do they interact with multiple audiences, but also, in many cases, it is possible to pay to have access to their research and, with certain firms to the analysts themselves, through an analyst subscription.
One in-house AR who used to work in PR pointed out yesterday that for some IT firms, even getting on the radar of the industry analysts is of value, so perhaps I was a little harsh. While I accept his point, I contend that unless the initial awareness-raising is followed up with a systematic engagement programme, even a light one, it’s of very little real value in the longer term. Which leads me nicely into today’s topic: Level 2: AR as a Two-Way Conversation.
Where I’d like to leave you for now (and that’s a great start for the comment thread) is that it seems that at the large firms have lost some of thinking agility while growing up but they are still the influence kings when it comes to influencing deals.
On the other side, there are lots of very talented thinkers in the ecosystem but precisely because they are a lot, they don’t have the same brand and influence.
