Gartner Q1 FY08 Earnings – No decrease in research growth

logo-gartner.gifThis analysis does not look at areas of interest to investors, but seeks to pull out insights that are relevant to clients and prospects as well as communications and IT vendor analyst relations (AR) teams.

Press release summary: Gartner, Inc. (NYSE: IT) reported results for first quarter 2008. Contract value, a key leading indicator for Gartner’s Research segment, increased 17% year-over-year to a record level of $778.4 million, reflecting the successful execution of the Company’s strategy to accelerate the growth of its Research business. Total revenue for first quarter 2008 grew 10% year-over-year to $290.1 million, principally driven by strong, double-digit growth in the Company’s Research segment. Excluding the impact of foreign exchange, research contract value and total revenue increased 13% and 5%, respectively. (Revenue and earnings both beat Wall Street analyst consensus.) Client and wallet retention rates for first quarter 2008 were 82% and 100%. The full earnings press release can be found here.

Notes from the conference call:

  • As always, a call that was consistent with previous quarterly calls. Under promise and over deliver.
  • No change in strategy, however belt tightening across the board due to economic uncertainty
  • 5th straight quarter of research contract value (CV) increase in […]

AR–Sales Partnership [part 4]: Take baby steps by rolling out a small pilot phase

icon-dollar-euro.jpgAR teams can impact company revenues directly through assisting sales representatives, either to overcome negative – or leverage positive – analyst commentary and research to close deals. However, AR managers often shy away from supporting Sales because they fear it will ‘open the floodgates’ to hundreds or thousands of requests. To prevent this deluge, AR can take a phased approach, rolling out a pilot project as the first step.

AR can gather needed expertise and information working with a pilot group of sales representatives (10-20), either as part of a larger AR-Sales Partnership initiative (if has Sales leadership support) or as a skunkworks project (to build the business case for AR Sales support).

Operational Objectives of a Pilot Sales Support Program

AR team members can leverage the skills and processes they use to assist analysts with information requests as a way to support Sales. To effectively […]