The value to team collaboration – The ROI of an Analyst Relationship Management System [part four]

This is the fourth in a series of posts that will explore the resources required and the advantages gained in using a formal analyst relationship management (ARM) system.  In this post we investigate how these systems can enhance collaboration.  Other posts will explore metrics and look at the values that can be obtained.  Your comments are encouraged.

It is 11 PM, do you know where your analyst is?

AR teams should know the perception of analysts long before the curfew of a Magic Quadrant.  Getting blindsided by a presentation, or knowing you have been dropped from a short list is never fun.  There are many ways to determine current analyst perception – but one not to be overlooked is simple team collaboration.  This becomes especially true with larger AR teams, or those that are organizationally or geographically distributed.

Tracking your AR activities and the perceptions that analysts have about your company is not an individual effort, but requires teamwork.  Methods that promote easy sharing of information can greatly enhance your AR program.  A key is to make the information available 24/7 without depending on requesting and getting responses from other team members.

Tracking Interactions

As we discussed in a previous post, a good ARM system will promote fast and easy entry of information about each analyst interaction and provide a way to assess perception.  By making timely entries into a shared system team members can create a background repository for their common analysts.  It is then an easy task to go see what you and other team members have done recently – assess needs and potential follow up – or plan future interactions. 

Before contacting an analyst an AR manager can review recent activity and prepare for potential questions, update their spokesperson, or check to be sure that follow-up actions were completed. 

Good analysts also look for second opinions.  A common practice is for an analyst to contact more than one AR manager in a large organization asking the same question of each.  A shareable data system will identify multiple requests and help you provide consistent responses.

Running a regular report of activites with your key analysts will highlight potential problems, analysts who are being overlooked, or people who need follow up.

Future plans

SageCircle also suggests that planned analyst activities should be entered into an ARM system.  A simple entry indicating a future briefing, inquiry, or event will alert other team members to possible duplication.  Once the activity happens the entry can then be easily edited to provide results information.

If your ARM has a calendar function you should also link future interactions into a shared calendar.  This calendar should match your team’s interactions plan.  A quick review of the calendar will then allow team members to understand the planned workload and any possible conflicts.

It should also be possible to create recurring reports that provide a summary of recent and planned activity for your key analysts.  Staff members can use this to quickly see overlaps with key analysts.  Managers can use this for metrics and staff planning.

SageCircle Technique:

• Teams should set expectations for entering current and forward-looking data
• Future interactions should be linked with calendars
• Create reports to summarize recent and future activities for key analysts

Question:  AR Teams – How does your ARM promote collaboration?  What is the most valuable data that is entered?

This post is part of a series about building the strong ARM (analyst relationship management applications) of AR.

1. Definition and basic characteristics – The ROI of ARM (part one)
2. Commercially available systems – The ROI of an ARM (part two)
3. Getting value out requires putting effort in – The ROI of an ARM (part three)
4. The value to team collaboration – The ROI of an ARM (part four)
5. Metrics for success – The ROI of an ARM (part five)
6. The overall ROI – The ROI of an ARM (part six)

Bottom Line: One of the easiest ways to improve the effectiveness of an AR program is to enhance the collaboration between team members. ARM applications can be a valuable tool for making team collaboration a reality.

SageCircle

Since 2000, SageCircle has helped analyst relations teams to focus on business value by encouraging innovative thinking that leverages insights and drives revenue.