Month: January 2008

IDC’s Henry Morris on three things AR teams should be doing to be more effective

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photo-idc-henry-morris-final.jpgSageCircle’s Dave Eckert and Carter Lusher recently spoke with IDC’s Henry Morris, SVP, in charge of Integration, Development & Applications Strategies (IDeAS) Solutions Research and Services Research. The occasion was last Wednesday’s IDC “Software Predictions 2008 – Beyond Consolidation” breakfast briefing in Burlingame, California. Of course we had to ask Henry a question about how vendor AR teams can be more effective. Dr. Morris did not disappoint with three good suggestions:

#1 – With all the consolidation happening in the software market there are more […]

Analysts don’t know? Ask them to ask around. [Inquiry]

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icon-phone-headset.jpgDespite Myth #1 (The analysts know everything), there are times when clients, end users or vendors, can stump the analysts with a question. While some analysts will use a great question as a trigger to do research and come up with an answer, others distracted by deadlines or travel won’t think to pursue your issue. Obviously if the question is very company specific you might need to commission special research.  However, if the issue is of general enough concern to multiple vendors, other clients, or the market in general it is up to you to make sure […]

Interview with AMR CEO Tony Friscia and VP Jonathan Yarmis on AMR’s new “emerging and disruptive technologies” service

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logo-amr-research.gifAMR announced in November 2007 that it had hired Jonathan Yarmis as the new VP covering advanced, emerging, and disruptive technologies such as social networks, mobility, and location-based technologies. Jon brings a long industry background to AMR, including 10 years at Gartner and stints as a VP at Hill and Knowlton and Waggener Edstrom.

Because it is unusual in the analyst industry to have a dedicated service focused on emerging technologies, we decided it would be interesting to interview Tony and Jonatan about their plans. The interview was conducted by Carter Lusher.

Question:  AMR is known for its focus on supply chain and back office enterprise applications, why the move into “emerging and disruptive technologies”?

We have always believed that as many emerging technologies get past the toy phase, they become powerful business tools that are potentially transforming. As an example, AMR started tracking Internet developments in the mid ‘90s because we understood that it would ultimately be the vehicle for inter-enterprise (i.e. value chain) commerce.  In the current case, there are several factors at work that we believe […]

Will the analysts drive down IT spending? Not if you talk to them.

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In Saturday’s New York Times Business Day section there was a reassuring article by Steve Lohr called Belt-Tightening, but No Collapse, Is Forecast in Technology Spending. Reassuring because the IT executives and industry analysts interviewed all indicated that there was less likelihood that IT spending was going to be slashed like during the 2001 recession. Whew, it looks like the IT market will dodge the bullet this time! However this relief could be short lived if the IT analysts turn negative and start counseling their IT buyer clients to be conservative and cut spending.

What could turn the IT analysts negative on spending? The analysts could flip their opinion if all they hear are the concerns and fears of budget cuts from nervous IT executives. As explained […]

How end user revolts impact startups’ analyst lists [Startup Saturday]

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rocket-for-startups.jpgBack in the 90’s I used the concept of “end user revolts” extensively when doing speeches at Gartner events. The idea always got approving nods of the head from the throngs of IT managers in the audience because most thought that end users were pretty revolting. However, I pretty much stopped using the talking point after leaving Gartner for KCG and then launching SageCircle.

Fast forward to today and it is apparent that the end user revolt is a critical concept that applies very much to vendor AR teams trying to build analysts lists. The group of vendors most impacted by these revolts is startups. Startups should be paying closest attention to revolts because […]

For PR — Analysts can be a great sounding board for your PR campaigns

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A good PR campaign consumes significant resources in time, money, and creative energy.  With today’s limited resources it makes a lot of sense to test out a campaign early in the process to ensure that it will meet its goals.

Analysts have a unique ear to the market, your customers, and your competitors.  They have seen the hype, FUD, programs, practices and other campaigns that work and those that fail. Frequently they have strong relationships with the press as go-to resources for quotes and story background.  Given a strong personal relationship with your AR managers they can […]

Do your customers assume that Gartner or other analysts have done all the due diligence? [for Vendor Sales]

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icon-dollar-euro.jpgAn analyst relations (AR) manager gave me a call this week with an interesting tid-bit that completely reinforces the recent postings about vendor sales reps asking about analyst usage, analyst myth #1  and how IT managers should use Waves and Magic Quadrants.
 
The AR manager was recently at their software company’s annual sales kick off meeting. There was a customer panel taking questions from a moderator and the sales reps in the audience. One question was “How or do you use the analyst firms to make decisions?” One customer said that […]

Now that is not the way to exploit an expensive Magic Quadrant reprint

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socialtext-open-link-to-a-gartner-mq.jpgI accidently came across an unsecured link to a PDF of Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Team Collaboration and Social Software, 2007 courtesy of (vendor). This was a nice little treat because I was about ready to chat with one of (vendor)’s competitors and it good to see what Gartner had to say.

For (vendor), it is a classic mistake to not require someone who wants a copy to register so that the company can capture the potential prospect’s contact information for later use. Furthermore, Socialtext could be giving their competitors’ a free ride off their expensive reprint, because […]