Time is running out for influencing Gartner’s Fall Symposia presentations

Analysts creating presentations for the Fall Symposia series will need to submit their PowerPoint files to Editorial starting in late July or early August. So now is the time to make a last push to get your information and point-of-view across to your analysts.
It is important to remember that the push in July is focused [...]

AR Performance Metrics – July AR Coffee Talk

There are two types of AR metrics – operational and performance. Operational metrics are useful for the AR team only. Proving the value of AR requires data on the performance of the AR program rather than simple counts of analyst mentions or briefings held.
Join us to chat about what make good performance metrics that demonstrate [...]

Misunderstanding Magic Quadrants, MarketScopes, and More

For years IT and telecommunications vendors have complained about the misuse of Gartner Magic Quadrants by IT buyers.  It appears that three key issues are routinely surfaced: 
1)     The criteria for placing the dots onto the graphic are not transparent and often the dots appear to be randomly placed by the whim of the analyst
2)     Magic [...]

Michael Piramoon has joined Cognizant’s Analyst Relations Team

Michael joins AR from Cognizant’s Field Marketing team. Michael will be supporting Banking and Financial Services, Insurance, Healthcare, Life Sciences, Retail, Manufacturing and Technology. 
Please join us in congratulating Michael and wishing him great success in his new position.
 
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Asking analysts about sales impact [Practitioner Question]

At last week’s workshop “Launching an AR-Sales Partnership Program” we had a number of insightful questions.  We posted one item already about getting feedback from recorded sales training but here is another that came from a participant. 
We were suggesting the use of inquiry as a way of asking analysts about the influence they have in [...]

Gartner analyst restarts his use of Twitter

Gartnerian Anthony Bradley (bio, blog, Twitter) in his blog announced OK, OK, I Hear Ya, I’m Tweeting Again.
“I used Twitter ages ago and never really got into it (didn’t see the value). But now that Twitter has gained more participants and I’m being asked more and more for my Twitter name, I’m going to give [...]

Who do you want telling your story, you or your competitors?

We recently came across a useful reminder in a blog post by a Forrester analyst:
“… <vendor> surprised many software industry veterans this morning with its acquisition of <vendor>. Why?  Well, <vendor>’s competitors have been spreading FUD that the company was out of cash, the company was in severe debt, and the company could not execute [...]

LinkedIn forum moderated by AMR analyst

AMR analyst and outsourcing expert extraordinaire Phil Fersht (Twitter, bio, blog) is an effective user of social media as a research and publishing tool. It turns out that Phil is also using LinkedIn as well having created the The BPO and Offshoring Best Practices Forum to build the BPO community. Here is Phil’s invitation from his Horses for Sources blog:
“Yes, there is [...]

Why Twitter is Useful for Analysts

Not a week goes by where an analyst does not ask SageCircle – typically in response to a query from us if they have a Twitter handle – what is the value of Twitter for an analyst? This is a great question because analysts, like AR, should make intelligent decisions about the use of a [...]

The Top 5: AR Metrics Mistakes

Organizations that use the Balanced Scorecard to report the effectiveness of their interactions with influencers often make their lives more difficult and the Scorecard less useful by picking the wrong items to measure. This Top 5 looks at issues surrounding the selection of metrics to put into the Balanced Scorecard.
5) Not picking items whose data [...]

How do you get feedback when you do recorded training? [Practitioner Question]

At yesterday’s workshop “Launching an AR-Sales Partnership Program” we had an interesting question about the use of non-live training for sales representatives.  The workshop participant asked how to go about getting feedback.  Feedback, comments, and student reactions can often help you tailor your training or understand areas that could be improved.  Of course this would [...]

SageCircle AR Podcast for June 16, 2009 – Aberdeen change; Twittering analyst update; Cynics or Skeptics; Analyst as AR

The AR podcast is a review of the latest news and trends in the analyst ecosystem along with tips and tricks for analyst relations professionals and analyst research consumers. SageCircle strategists Dave Eckert and Carter Lusher co-host this bi-weekly program. You can find all the SageCircle podcasts on our podcast page.
Click here to listen to the [...]

Ovum awarded Analyst Firm of the Year by Communications Day

Ovum, the analyst and consulting firm, has been awarded the Asia-Pacific Telecom Analyst Firm of the Year by Communications Day.
Grahame Lynch, Director of CommsDay, said “The CommsDay Asia-Pacific Awards are the only awards in the region that are directly voted by Asia- Pacific telecom executives. They are, thus, a substantial peer review of excellence.” Lynch [...]

Analyst opening – Canalys research analyst in Singapore

Click here for more information.

IDC veteran Dan Kusnetzky joins The 451 Group – analyst ecosystem news

The 451 Group announced in a press release (see below) that analyst industry veteran and ZDnet blogger Dan Kusnetzky (bio, Twitter, blog) has joined the firm as VP of Research Operations. In addition, Dan will launch 451’s cloud computing and virtualization research coverage. This fits in well with the work Dan was doing with his [...]

Which analysts get the most attention from AR?

[Note: this guest post is from Rick Shuri the CTO of ARInsights, the provider of the ARchitect™ ARM (Analyst Relations Management) system. ]
 Over time our clients ask for a variety of new features to be added to ARchitect.  One of the requests was to advise them on which analysts were getting the most attention from [...]

Aberdeen Group President Stephen Gold departs

SageCircle has received credible reports that Stephen Gold, President & CMO, has left Aberdeen Group. We have contacted Aberdeen Group’s public relations team for a statement and their official statement is below.
Under then CEO Jamie Bedard, who took over in 2003, Aberdeen had worked to transform what was perceived to be a “white paper for [...]

Analysts are cynics – a dead idea

Public policy wonk and Fortune Magazine columnist Matt Miller’s new book The Tyranny of Dead Ideas: Letting Go of the Old Ways of Thinking to Unleash a New Prosperity got us at SageCircle thinking “Hmm, are there dead ideas holding back analyst relations?” Of course there are! This is one in an occasional series of [...]

People on the Move in Analyst Relations – Ryan Mahoney

Ryan Mahoney  (Twitter) has joined i2 Technologies, Inc. as Analyst Relations Manager.
Ryan joins i2 from AMR Research where he was a client research analyst. This will be an interesting transition for Ryan as having been an analyst at one of – if not the – leading analyst firms when it comes to supply chain coverage will provide him [...]

June’s AR Coffee Talk is on AR’s social media monitoring

Some of today’s new challenges for AR teams are how to determine if there is value to monitoring analyst opinions on blogs and Twitter, how to do the monitoring and how to use the information gathered. In this Coffee Talk, SageCircle strategists and AR professionals will discuss these issues and potential approaches to measuring and [...]

Observations on changes in the analyst ecosystem

  [This commentary comes from guest contributor Gerry Van Zandt (Twitter handle), AR manager with HP Services. This guest post started as a letter that Gerry sent to his HP colleagues. We are posting an edited version with his permission]
I think it’s important to read and internalize what’s happening in the analyst ecosystem at a macro [...]

Listing of analyst firms who have laid off analysts in 2009

This is a simple index of posts covering analyst layoffs at various firms. If you hear of job actions at analyst firms, please contact SageCircle at 503-636-1500 or ”info [at] sagecircle [dot] com” with tips and insights.

Aberdeen Group (January 2009)
AMR Research (January 2009)
Burton Group (January 2009)
Current Analysis (September 2009)
Enterprise Management Associates (May 2009)
Forrester Research (February 2009)
Gartner (January 2009)
IDC (April 2009)
In-Stat (February 2009)
iSuppli (January 2009)
The 451 Group (February 2009)
TowerGroup [...]

SageCircle AR Podcast for June 2, 2009 – GigaOM Pro; Gartner’s AR call; NDA and social media

The AR podcast is a review of the latest news and trends in the analyst ecosystem along with tips and tricks for analyst relations professionals and analyst research consumers. SageCircle strategists Dave Eckert and Carter Lusher co-host this bi-weekly program. You can find all the SageCircle podcasts on our podcast page.
Click here to listen to the [...]

People on the Move in Analyst Relations – Jocelyn Eisenberg

Jocelyn Eisenberg  (Twitter) has joined UST Global, a California-based IT Service provider, as Director of Marketing. Joc will handle all global AR as part of her portfolio.
Please join us in congratulating Joc and wishing her great success in her new position. 
 
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