How does one become an analyst? [AR Practitioner Question]

At a recent client meeting we got an interesting question: How does a person become an analyst? Is there certification? A test?
At this time the requirements for becoming an analyst consist of ownership of a laptop, cell phone, business card and an opinion. A website and / or blog are nice, but not required. There [...]

Gartner Q1 FY08 Earnings - No decrease in research growth

This 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 [...]

What is the definition of “analyst”?

Over on Twitter, there is a conversation starting about the definition of “analyst.” This post is to provide a place to gather ideas and see if we can come to consensus. Please leave comments with your thoughts.
There is almost no barrier to entry for someone to call themselves an analyst. All one needs is an [...]

AR’s turn - How industry analysts can come to briefings better prepared

After we published Research consumer’s turn - How industry analysts can be better prepared for inquiries we received several suggestions about how we should give AR managers’ their turn. In this case, the AR managers wanted to give the analysts a few friendly tips to the analysts about how the analysts can come to briefings better [...]

Why technology buyers use the IT industry analysts

Sometimes IT and telecommunications vendors express frustration at the very existence of IT advisory analysts and their influence with the technology buyers (aka end users or IT managers). Often the vendors accuse the IT buyers of being lazy or stupid because they use the analysts instead of doing the research themselves. Bloggers are equally amazed [...]

Social media is a multi-facet opportunity for major industry analyst firms

Major analyst firms like AMR Research, Gartner, IDC and Ovum are rightly criticized for being slow out the gate when it comes to addressing and using social media. The one major firm that has done the most to leverage the potential of social media is Forrester, but even Forrester has not been as aggressive as [...]

Did you know that you can comment on Forrester’s research on its website?

Something that came up yesterday at the AR Effectiveness Seminar is that nobody knew that they could rate and comment on research notes on Forrester.com. This is another example of Forrester embracing social media and they deserve kudos for doing so. However, to make it really powerful, Forrester should actively promote the use of this [...]

Gartner Analyst and Investor Day

Take aways for communications and IT vendors:

Gartner has achieved stable double digit growth in research contract value over last four years due to increasing the sales force and expanding the end-user client base. This translates into increased influence on vendor sales.

Gartner is tuning Events to deliver more IT professional attendees. Events will be retired as well as added. More emphasis [...]

AR managers do not like surprises, which mean they are a little annoyed at blogging analysts

Obviously SageCircle is a big proponent of social media and the potential for positive impact on the analyst ecosystem. However, that view is not shared by all AR professionals. I recently had an interesting conversation with an AR manager who was more than a little irritated with major firm analysts who blog. Are these normal [...]

Spotlight on Enderle Group’s Rob Enderle — High profile yes, but also smart and insightful

One of the more controversial analysts in the analyst ecosystem and blogsphere is Rob Enderle. For instance, some of the more colorful posts are “Why Rob Enderle is a moron” and “Rob Enderle: Putting the ‘Anal’ in ‘Analyst’”. This animosity is due to the fact that he gets the most press quotes of any IT industry [...]

Synovate - the market research company with marketing

I had never heard of Synovate until one of its employees friended me on Facebook. That got me looking at it’s website. Hmm, actually has a little marketing going with some interesting branding (tag line “The global marketing company driven by curiousity”) has hip, clean visuals (brochure cover to left, click to enlarge) and uses social [...]

Forrester and Gartner Q4 and full year earnings — Higher prices and emphasis on role-based services

The two analyst firms that are publicly held conducted earnings calls last week, Forrester (February 5) and Gartner (February 6). This 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 CIT vendor analyst relations (AR) teams.
For clients of [...]

Gartner grows 12% in 2007 — SageCircle will be microblogging during earnings announcement

Carter will be on Twitter (”follow” me at http://twitter.com/carterlusher) giving a running commentary. Even if you cannot follow live, you can see the complete commentary by clicking on my profile afterwards. The comments will be focused on the interests of members of the IT analyst ecosystem (e.g., AR managers and enterprise IT clients) not investors.
The earnings call starts at 10 [...]

Introducing SageCircle’s Fog of Influence

(Editor’s Note: A draft of the Fog of Influence graphic has been replaced with the final version. 2/4/08 12:50 pm PT)
It used to be so simple to identify the influencers of technology deals in those idyllic days of yore. IT managers would talk to the IT advisory analysts, read the IT trade press, listen to [...]

The IT industry analysts’ role: evolution of perception

For more than a decade there have been graphics that capture the evolving role of IT industry analysts as influencers in the market and on purchasing decisions. Here are

Speed versus silence on the Microsoft-Yahoo announcement and the implications for Analyst Relations and the Press

It has been interesting seeing the different responses to the Microsoft-Yahoo announcement. For example, as of 10:15 US Pacific Time:

Redmonk’s James Governor on his Monkchips has an interesting post, plus James has been Twittering
Forrester has commentary from three analysts (Rob, Charlene and Shar) on three blogs, each with a unique point-of-view
Rob Enderle has weighed in on the [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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

Man bites dog — IDC licenses reprint of Outsell report in order to tout itself

In what is for me an amusing twist how things normally work, here is an analyst firm getting a reprint of another analyst firm’s report in order to promote itself. In this case, it’s IDC that got the reprint of an Outsell report “IDC Grows Vertically Through Insights Product Line” to put on its website [...]

Gartner’s Spring Symposium is a fine opportunity for vendors competing on emerging technologies and trends

Hmm, it’s early January, what to do? I know! For AR teams, it’s time for the big push to ensure the proper visibility at Gartner’s Spring Symposium. This is especially true for vendors that truly compete on hot tech, R&D and being on the leading edge. Spring Symposium has turned from deadly boring into an [...]

Spotlight on… Gartner’s Carl Claunch – Doing the hard work and delivering client service

One of my favorite sayings is “It’s good to be good, but it’s better to be lucky” and we were definitely lucky in early 2004 when Gartner appointed VP and Distinguished Analyst Carl Claunch as one of the two Lead Analysts for the company Dave and Carter worked at.
 
Up to that point, many of the major companies had great difficulty in [...]

Reflections on 2007

For the last day of 2007, here are a few random observations about the year that is wrapping up.  
Moving from the blogosphere to the analyst ranks – Traditionally analyst firms get a lot of their analyst hires from vendors and end users with some hires from the press and elsewhere. This year we saw [...]

Interesting mix of analyst videos on YouTube

While browsing around YouTube this afternoon, I came across an interesting mix of analyst videos. Everything from firm level experiment like the Forrester Research channel (left) and the IDC eXchange channel to one-off videos by many other firms and individuals. I thought that Redmonk had a regular show on YouTube, but I did not find [...]

What am I missing? Why would a vendor brief a competitive intelligence firm?

While an AR director, each time I received a call from a competitive intelligence (CI) firm analyst requesting information, I would politely decline. When asked why I had declined, I would respond “Why would I give you information that you will turn around and give to my competitors?” This CI types often tried to persuade [...]