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

SageCircle’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 [...]

Reading List for January 30, 2008

At Technobabble 2.0 Jonny Bentwood posted Aberdeen Group - guns for hire? as a response to a Wall Street Journal article questioning Aberdeen’s business model. Interesting comments including one from Aberdeen’s CEO.
Barbara and I are debating the coverage of emerging technologies in the Tekrati Keeping Tabs post Gartner is not the only analyst on emerging tech [...]

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

Despite 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. [...]

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

AMR 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 [...]

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

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. [...]

Kudos to Forrester for having bloggers that post frequently and share the “good stuff”

Seeing how I threw brickbats at Forrester in Will established analyst firms become dinosaurs to the new media-oriented analysts? it is only fair that I throw a bouquet as well.
All of the Forrester blogs (see the “Firm or Analyst Blogs I Read” list on the right) are consistently active with good content. These are not teases [...]

Thanks for raising awareness about SageCircle

Back in December when we announced the launch of SageCircle, I was so busy that I did not say “thanks” to the bloggers who noted the event. So here is a belated thanks to all.
Duncan Chapple at Analyst Equity SageCircle relaunches
Jim Zimmerman at Analyst Perspectives New AR Firm Launched - SageCircle
ARonaut at Armageddon “Carter reincarnates [...]

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

Back 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 [...]

Three changes to the AR Job Listings

Cisco contacted SageCircle today to let us know about the new “Sr. Manager, Analyst Relations, Software & Integrated Applications” (R827699) position. This is a plum gig as it reports to Skip MacAskill, one of the top AR executives and bloggers in the IT industry. 
Waggener Edstrom updated SageCircle about two changes. The “Senior Account Executive” position (3050) [...]

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

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 [...]

Reading List for January 24, 2008 – Social Media Index, transparency, too cool for school

On my personal blog, Food Notebook, I use to have a regular feature every Wednesday that highlighted interesting items from various sources (for example Media Roundup - 8/22/07). I always had lots of content to pull from and it was fun to do. I anticipated doing the something similar here on the SageCircle blog. Alas, [...]

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

An 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. [...]

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

I 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 [...]

For IT managers — It’s “Praise Your Vendor” Inquiry Day

Now for something completely different… offering the analysts a vendor compliment in lieu of a complaint. Advisory analysts at major firms build their opinions based more on client feedback than on research evaluations. They generally do not do lab analysis or specific competitive research.  That means that the perceptions they have of the products may be more [...]

New VMware job opening — AR Manager

I just got an e-mail from Michael O’Malley (VMware’s Director, Analyst Relations and Executive Communications) that the AR Specialist job is no longer available. However, he let me know that a new position has been posted: Analyst Relations Manager. 
Employers, please drop info [at] sagecircle dot com a note with any AR, market research or analyst [...]

M&A events should send vendor AR teams into overdrive

Too often only the vendors involved in a merger and acquisition (M&A) event interact with the industry analysts, and frequently that is only to do a quick briefing is that long on high level talking points and short on substance. What should be happening is that all the vendors in an affected market respond rapidly [...]

Jeremiah Owyang interviews SageCircle’s Carter Lusher

Forrester analyst and Web Strategy blogger extraordinaire Jeremiah Owyang interviewed your humble correspondent at Buck’s of Woodside on the topic of the industry analysts and social media. Here is the video, but you should also visit the post for the commentary and comments.
 Video: Why Social Media scares the Analyst Industry (3 min with Carter Lusher) [...]

Why startups have their briefing requests turned down [Startup Saturday]

Marketing managers at startups and intrapreneurs (functions like an entrepreneur but within large companies) often get frustrated because their requests to brief an analyst are often turned down. They then start thinking it’s because they don’t have a contract with the firm (see Should tech startups invest in analyst relations?). Alas, the problem of getting a briefing accepted [...]

AR teams should ask their analysts about their uses of social media

In Why social media scares the analyst firms and vendor AR teams, we pointed out that social media was here to stay and that analysts and AR can’t hope for it fade away as a fad. In fact, AR teams that have yet to start experimenting with social media (e.g., blogs, social networks, microblogging, et cetera) [...]

Q4 2007 Forrester Research Earnings Conference Call on February 6th

This call starts at 11 am US Eastern Time (listen via webcast, link found on Forrester’s IR page).  This will be a similar situation as the Gartner earnings call as I’ll be Twittering live commentary and looking for the same types of insights that will be useful for AR and research consumers. 
In addition, Forrester also announced its participation [...]

You need a strong ARM to help you lift your AR program

Managing relationships with your IT Industry Analysts is not unlike salespeople managing their customer relationships. Therefore it is surprising that so many AR teams do not employ a CRM-style system tailored to analysts. An Analyst Relationship Manager (ARM) system can greatly improve group collaboration and efficiency while maintaining a corporate history of analyst interactions. A [...]

Gartner to Report Fourth Quarter 2007 Financial Results on February 7, 2008

The conference call is at 7 am US Pacific Time. I will be on Twitter giving a running commentary. My Twitter address is http://twitter.com/carterlusher
I don’t listen to the Gartner and Forrester earnings calls with the same mindset as a financial analyst. What I listen for are clues to

IT managers, it’s never, ever only about the upper right dot when it comes to Forrester Waves or Gartner Magic Quadrants

One of the things that drives vendors - and even some Gartner and Forrester analysts - crazy is when an IT buyer zeros in on the vendors in the upper right hand corner of a Forrester Wave or Magic Quadrant to the exclusion of all other vendors. It is human nature to go for those [...]

Seven new AR job openings posted today

Some are pure AR, while others wears multiple hats like PR and executive communicaitons.
Employers don’t forget to send us your job openings and we’ll post them for free. info [at] sagecircle dot com

Forrester AR Council members — make sure you vote on your topics

Several people have let me know that the Forrester AR Council is looking for input on its content agenda. So council members, look for that e-mail and vote early and often! Here is a topic to add to the bucket: “How influential are the analyst firms like Gartner and Forrester and whether that influence is [...]