Analysts on the Move – Andrew Jaquith to Forrester

Andrew Jaquith (Twitter handle, bio tba) has joined Forrester covering data security. Formerly Kent was an analyst with Yankee Group.
Please join us in congratulating Andrew and wishing him great success in his new position.
 
 
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Are you or someone you know on the move in the analyst community? Please let us know and

Stealth analyst firm reorganizations trigger the need for analyst list maintenance

Analyst firms are no different from any other company in that they go through periodic reorganizations. There are many reasons why firms reorganization, such as: 

Changes in the tech marketplace which causes changes in analyst research coverage assignments as emerging technologies are added while declining/consolidating markets are dropped
Acquisitions (e.g., Forrester buying JupiterResearch) that bring in new [...]

People on the Move in Analyst Relations – Kent Cook to Microsoft

Kent Cook has joined Microsoft as Director, Corporate Analyst Relations. Formerly Kent was an AR manager with Dell and Intel.
Please join us in congratulating Kent and wishing him great success in his new position.
 
 
 
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Are you or someone you know on the move? Please let us know and

The Volume of Analyst Publishing and Quotes

In the “Metrics – Written Word Audits” section of the Online SageContentTM Library we recommended that AR establish a multi-faceted program to capture and analyze analyst opinions – in as near real-time as practical. This is easier said than done because the sheer volume of research and quotes being generated is growing as new forms [...]

The Size of the AR Team [AR practitioner question]

Inquiry: SageCircle received the following inquiry via e-mail: “I have a question that I hope you can answer.  Roughly, how many people do you think a company like ours (around $250 million/year) should have dedicated to AR?”
 SageCircle receives questions of this type of question a lot.  While you might want us to provide a simple rule-of-thumb [...]

If analysts do not get their impact, do your executives?

Awhile back, I heard an interesting comment from a former advisory analyst who is now the director of AR at a software company. She said that when she was an analyst it was her opinion that vendors were crazy to think that analysts have a large impact on sales. However, now that she is at [...]

Defining “Analyst Relations”

When you meet someone new in a social setting the topic often turns to “so where do you work? What do you do?”  Do you struggle with explaining Analyst Relations?
Many AR programs cannot give an “elevator pitch” on AR. You should have this available for not only those social settings, but also to explain your [...]

People on the Move in Analyst Relations – Robert De Souza to HCL Europe

Robert De Souza has joined HCL Europe as Associate Director – Analyst Relations. Formerly Robert was a principal research analyst at Gartner, focusing on outsourcing and IT services.
Please join us in congratulating Robert and wishing him great success in his new position.

 
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Are you or someone you

Earnings calls are scheduled – Forrester on October 29th and Gartner on October 30th

Forrester is on October 29th at 11 am ET. Gartner is on October 30th at 10 am ET. Both earnings calls are webcasts that you can find on each firm’s investor relations webpage.
I don’t listen to the Gartner and Forrester earnings calls with the same mindset as a financial analyst. What I listen for are [...]

Directories Updates – Gartner Blog Network, Twitter and Contractors

There have been some updates to the various directories that SageCircle maintains for the analyst ecosystem. 

Analyst Twitter Directory – 14 new entries
AR Contractors Directory – Three new entries
AR Twitter Directory – 13 new entries and one update
Gartner Blog Network Directory – New temporary directory

SageCircle Technique:

Keep SageCircle up-to-date on changes to any of the directories

65% of analysts think that social media can be useful for AR and analysts

This was another of many surprises for us from our survey of analyst about social media. That only 6% of analysts said “No” (n=257) was interesting because most of the text comments left for this question were negative. So the analysts who do not like the idea of interacting using social media really don’t like [...]

Your analyst list is likely wrong – half the analysts should not be on it, half that should are not

Having reviewed many analyst lists over the years, it never ceases to amazes us how such a very high percentage of them are wrong. The analyst relations (AR) team’s analyst list(s) are a critical success factor. Having a poorly constructed list means that AR professionals are missing important analysts and wasting time with non-relevant analysts. [...]

Gartner relaunches Office of Ombudsman presence on web

After at least 23 months of total inactivity and rare activity before that, Gartner’s Ombudsman Nancy Erskine (Twitter, blog) has relaunched the webpage and blog associated with the Office of the Ombudsman.  Welcome back! It will be interesting to see if there will be a reasonable stream of new posts (e.g., two or three per month) or whether the [...]

What do PR agencies bring to the table for AR?

At the inaugural meeting a couple weeks ago of what is hoped to become the Silicon Valley chapter of the Institute of Industry Analyst Relations (IIAR, website, blog), I ran into Anne-miek Hamelinck, VP of Waggener Edstrom’s AR practice. I asked Anne-miek what she thought PR agencies brought to the table in terms of AR. [...]

Should your industry analyst conferences be combined with other company events? [AR Practitioner Question]

Question: As AR managers look forward to 2009, many are thinking about scheduling an analyst conference. A common question SageCircle receives on this topic is whether to co-located the analyst event with other events.
Are you holding an IT or telecom industry analyst conference in the next few months?  If so, planning should be well under [...]

Managing the AR budget in a recession

With all the turmoil in the economic scene, we have been getting inquiries about how to manage the analyst relations (AR) budget in a recession. This post is a roundup of content we have published on the SageCircle blog on the topics of budgets and spending. 
This content is the tip of the iceberg when it [...]

Never assume during an annual renewal that the analyst service contract remains the same

Annual syndicated research subscriptions are a common approach for enterprises and vendors when it comes to gaining access to published research and advisory. However, for all the value and convenience in this type of contract, there is a potential “gotcha” to watch for during the contract renewal – changes in the terms and conditions.
Often contract [...]

Oracle’s Ludovic Leforestier with a quick update on the Euro IT analyst landscape

At the inaugural meeting a couple weeks ago of what is hoped to become the Silicon Valley chapter of the Institute of Industry Analyst Relations (IIAR, website, blog), I ran into Ludo Leforestier, AR wizard with Oracle in Europe and IIAR board meeting. I asked Ludo what is up with the analysts in Europe. Here [...]

Mastering the Hype Cycle – Highly recommended for different reasons for different audiences

Gartner’s Hype Cycle (official definition) is a research graphic that is far more useful than the Magic Quadrant, even if it is not as visible as the MQ. While it is not obsessed over like the MQ, Gartner has built a franchise around the Hype Cycle with the annual July spate of around 90 Hype [...]

77% of industry analysts would read AR blogs, if…

…”they had relevant, useful, timely information.” There is always a catch, eh?
Frankly, this percentage is significantly higher than we would have guessed before we conducted our survey of thousands of industry analysts. Even though we are ardent proponents of AR using social media, we expected that many in the analyst community might be adopting a [...]

ARchitect Users Group Meeting – lively discussion on AR metrics

Last week, following the Forrester Technology Leadership Forum in Orlando, ARInsights held their second ARchitectTM Users Group meeting.  ARchitect is the leading Analyst Relationship Management (ARM) system with a significant number of client companies using it.  It was nice to see some of those companies represented at the meeting and the dinner that followed. Of [...]

Don’t listen to the squeaks when managing your analyst list

“The squeaky wheel gets the grease” is one of the hoariest clichés in the culture. When applied to building and managing analyst lists, it is also incredibly dangerous. 
Just because an analyst demands a briefing, access to your executives, or whatever, it does not mean that they should get it. What becomes difficult for analyst relations [...]

Thinkbalm is holding analyst office hours in Second Life

Thinkbalm (see Q&A) analyst Erica Driver is holding office hours in Second Life at 12 pm US ET on Friday October 3, 2008 and Friday October 10, 2008. The meeting will be held in the ThinkBalm Innovation Community brainstorming space, located on the Vio II simulation.

Analyst Twitter Directory breaks 200 mark and other news

If you have not checked out the Analyst Twitter Directory lately you might want to take a look. Over the last few weeks we have seen a significant number of additions as analysts are starting to evaluate Twitter.
A new member of the SageCircle directory portfolio is the AR Contractor Directory. Listings are free so I you do [...]