Burton Group announces job action

SageCircle has received from Burton Group CEO Jamie Lewis an email about a job action resulting in analyst layoffs. We will continue to provide updates as we learn new information

• Update 1 – 1/20/09 – Posted official statement
• Update 2 – 1/21/09 – Posted one analyst name to list
• Update 3 – 1/22/09 – Removed Pete Lindstrom from list of analysts – he had departed ahead of layoffs

Official Statement

“On Monday January 19, Burton Group took actions to ensure the ongoing financial health of its business given current economic conditions. Like every business, Burton Group must ensure that it spends within its means in 2009, preserving the significant resources the company has as it prepares for long-term growth. In short, these changes were minor adjustments to accommodate market conditions. Burton Group continues to be a profitable, debt-free, and growing business.

Specifically, the company had a reduction in force of 8 people, or 5% of its total workforce. Of these eight people, four were analysts, three were internal support staff, and one was a consultant. This reduction in

Right firms – Search out alternative services providers that better match your needs for a better price [Purchasing Analyst Services, Part 4]

One method for avoiding the price increases that Forrester and Gartner are initiating on a regular basis is to diversify your sources of analyst research and advice. The one usual negotiating trick of playing one vendor off another probably won’t work with Gartner as CEO Gene Hall has been quite emphatic in his quarterly earnings conference calls that discounting by sales reps has been and will continue to be sharply curtailed.  This means you may be better off looking to “boutique” firms for some services. There are hundreds of analyst firms in the market, many with very smart analysts and interesting research. Besides a lower price, there are other potential benefits to going with other firms including: flexibility in service delivery, better customer service, and unique insights.

The difficulty of purchasing from a smaller firm is discovering them in the first place. Forrester and Gartner (as well as the vendor-centric IDC) have tremendous mindshare from tens of thousands press quotes and growing sales forces that drive their brand equity. Very few firms outside of the Big 3 invest in marketing and sales that would give them the market visibility to become a regular addition to buyer short lists.

The next issue is finding alternative firms that can deliver services that meet your needs. Many analyst firms specialize in advising

Burton Group launches new Data Management Service

Here is a high level description from the DMS Blog:

“…Burton Group today introduced a new research service, Data Management Strategies (DMS), which is focused on domains including:

• Business intelligence (BI) — including data mining, data warehousing, enterprise reporting, online analytical processing (OLAP), predictive analytics, and other BI topics
• Data management — e.g., data modeling, data integration, master data management, data governance, and more
• Database management, including assessments of leading commercial and open source