Posted on April 23, 2008 by sagecircle
SageCircle promotes the use of inquiry and we have offered suggestions on various topics for both Enterprise IT research consumers and Communications and IT vendors. In general, vendors spend far less time doing inquires than they should. This both decreases the business value they are receiving from the analyst contract and misses some important soft [...]
Filed under: Inquiry, Research Consumer | No Comments »
Posted on April 16, 2008 by sagecircle
For the most part the SageCircle blog concentrates how various members of the tech analyst ecosystem interact more effectively with the analysts (e.g., AR best practices and research consumer tips). This post is an experiment to give the community a chance to give a few friendly tips to the analysts.
SageCircle heavily encourages the use of [...]
Filed under: Inquiry, Research Consumer | 1 Comment »
Posted on April 9, 2008 by sagecircle
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 [...]
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Posted on April 2, 2008 by sagecircle
We have repeated stressed the importance of inquiry, both from the role of the vendor and that of the research consumer. Obviously it can be used to obtain information as well as inform the analyst. Another aspect of inquiry is the use of it to influence the research agenda of an analyst or a firm [...]
Filed under: AR best practices, Inquiry, Research Consumer | No Comments »
Posted on March 26, 2008 by sagecircle
Market share numbers from the market research analysts can provide interesting insights into the direction a market is going. However, relying on the numbers alone without understanding how they are created or the assumptions that went into their research can lead to the wrong conclusions
There are a variety of common mistakes that market research consumers [...]
Filed under: Research Consumer | 2 Comments »
Posted on March 19, 2008 by sagecircle
SageCircle constantly recommends that communications and IT vendors take advantage of their inquiry privileges with analysts and actively work this activity into their interactions plan. In last Saturday’s post (click here) we encouraged startups to use inquiry and suggested some techniques that are valid for all vendors.
Inquiries are a great way to stay “top of [...]
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Posted on March 12, 2008 by sagecircle
Last week (see Part One) we spoke of how getting the maximum value from an automobile required a certain amount of ongoing maintenance and how analyst firm contracts were no different. We suggested that research consumers create a multi-point checkup and review status with the firm’s Account Executive (AE) on a regular basis. Each client [...]
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Posted on March 5, 2008 by sagecircle
To get the maximum value from an automobile a certain amount of ongoing maintenance is required. This includes the regular oil change as well as larger items done at specified intervals. A trip to either the dealer or the quick-lube usually results in a multi-point “safety inspection” to highlight any special concerns.
Research consumers from IT [...]
Filed under: Analyst business practices, Research Consumer, Spending money | 1 Comment »
Posted on February 27, 2008 by sagecircle
I recently saw this question on Twitter. It was from an AR practitioner, but it also applies to research consumers as well. Several studies* of IT manager clients surfaced that “objectivity” or some variation is an important consideration for buying analyst services. But is this a reasonable expectation for the research consumers? The answer is [...]
Filed under: Practitioner Question, Research Consumer | 3 Comments »
Posted on February 20, 2008 by sagecircle
The communications and IT analyst industry has four basic ways (i.e., written, inquiries, speeches and consulting days) that analysts deliver research and recommendations to their clients. Not all firms use every method listed below and with social media there are new methods being developed that will someday be widely available (e.g., think about a virtual world inquiry [...]
Filed under: Research Consumer | 1 Comment »
Posted on February 13, 2008 by sagecircle
Last week we posted some “dont’s” about using analyst written research, so it seems appropriate to follow up with some positive actions for how to use the research and recommendations from the industry analysts.
Contrary to popular belief, IT market researchers and advisory analysts do not do either lab-based product evaluations or take an academic ivory tower [...]
Filed under: Inquiry, Research Consumer | 1 Comment »
Posted on February 12, 2008 by sagecircle
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 [...]
Filed under: Analyst business practices, Analyst industry, Research Consumer, Spending money | No Comments »
Posted on February 8, 2008 by sagecircle
For IT vendor analyst relations (AR) teams, a critical success factor is treating each IT industry analyst as an individual, not some faceless member of a crowd. For example, knowing that an analyst loathes PowerPoint presentations can be an important “ah ha!” to improving a briefing by eliminating an irritation. Similar “ah ha!”s can be [...]
Filed under: AR best practices, Research Consumer | 5 Comments »
Posted on February 6, 2008 by sagecircle
The IT industry analysts do a good job of researching and analyzing the IT industry. Where they often do not do a good job lies in educating their own clients on how to use the research and recommendations. This is critical because analyst clients could end up making wrong decisions about technology and services, putting [...]
Filed under: Research Consumer | 1 Comment »
Posted on January 30, 2008 by sagecircle
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. [...]
Filed under: Inquiry, Research Consumer | 1 Comment »
Posted on January 22, 2008 by sagecircle
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 [...]
Filed under: Inquiry, Research Consumer | 1 Comment »
Posted on January 16, 2008 by sagecircle
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 [...]
Filed under: Magic Quadrant, Research Consumer | 3 Comments »
Posted on January 9, 2008 by sagecircle
Analysts who cover really popular topics can answer the same question over-and-over to the point where they go on auto-pilot. This means delivering basically the same information and advice regardless of the client’s situation. This is especially true for end-user or IT manager inquiries. Back when I was a Gartner VP & Research Fellow covering [...]
Filed under: Inquiry, Research Consumer | 3 Comments »
Posted on January 2, 2008 by sagecircle
If you have not started listening to analyst podcasts I highly recommend that you consider doing so. Podcasts are a great way to get information when stuck in the daily commute, working out on the treadmill, shopping at the grocery store, hanging out at the airport and so on. If you have an Apple iPod, [...]
Filed under: Research Consumer | 1 Comment »
Posted on December 27, 2007 by sagecircle
Whether IT managers at corporate/government organizations or product managers at IT vendors, many analyst clients do not maximize the value of client inquiry because they do not approach using inquiries systematically. The best practice below does not require a lot of time, only a few minutes to write up the background e-mail, but can result [...]
Filed under: Inquiry, Research Consumer | 4 Comments »
Posted on December 19, 2007 by sagecircle
One of the assets that well-connected analysts have is their many anecdotal data points gleamed from day-to-day conversations. While not statistically valid, doing pattern analysis on these questions can reveal some interesting insights into emerging trends and issues falling off the radar screen. The problem from a research consumer point-of-view is that these data points [...]
Filed under: Inquiry, Research Consumer | No Comments »
Posted on December 18, 2007 by sagecircle
There are several lists of myths about the IT analysts. These include Tekrati’s Analyze This: 5 Myths About Analyst Briefings; KCG’s Under the Influence: Myths About International AR; and Valley View Ventures’ IT Industry Analysis Myths. There are probably other lists that I don’t know about, but suffice to say that are plenty of myths [...]
Filed under: AR best practices, Analyst industry, Commentary, Research Consumer | 9 Comments »
Posted on December 12, 2007 by sagecircle
There have been a number of reprints of the Associated Press story Growth of global technology spending is expected to slow in 2008 that report that the “Big 3” analyst firms (i.e., Forrester, Gartner and IDC) are forecasting reduced spending on information technology. This is potentially useful data for both IT departments and tech vendors, [...]
Filed under: Inquiry, Research Consumer, analyst press quotes | No Comments »