Wra-up: Borg Audits and more...

We've been alerted by a reader that the Gartner Borg is stepping up its "audits": they're trawling their useage stats and sending warnings to those they suspect are passing on the research. Oooohhh, no AR or MI professional would ever do this, would we?

We suspect this might has something to do with their upcoming product for AR Managers....
The issue lies with the fact that the guidelines around "unfair use" are not public and it sems different rules apply, depending mostly on the overall contract value.

We also heard that the Borg is trying to enforce a policy that its sales reps should attend every briefing. It's quite unclear what they are trying to achieve but we would appreciate readers feedback.

Talking about feedback, it has been abundant and entertaining on our Datamonitor post: Datamonibores penetrates the gametes. It looks like Ovum analysts are in two camps: happy ones with shares to cash in and the others.

PS: we would be interested to have some readers feedback from the Cannes Symposium...

Friday post: open source analysis, briefing blasts...

Random Friday thoughts...

• A Jack Berry from BigBlue has added us to his briefings distro list. Why we're not quite sure, but we thought we'd post the text of his briefing invite below. Do you think it's best practice? Apart from tiering his audience a little better, what else could he improve?
• The other James has blogged about Open Source Analysis, a subject we discussed a while back here, here, here and there. He asks a few good questions about the business model. The whole area is interesting: in EMEA, the independents are happy to cooperate, some collaborate (like writing books together) and others are talking about uniting against the Borg. For AR professionals, it is both a challenge and an opportunity. Good luck guys!
• Finally, we have seen interesting comments, as usual:
  - on Reviewing Gartner's Top Predictions - who will step up?
  - on IDC attacks the user market -slowly
  - and on On Blogger Relations and Influencers Relations
  

Links:

• Open source analyst business model?
• The Governor, ancient Iraq and Gartner
• Governor attack!
• Weekly roundup: Forrester, IT-director and Quocirca (Part I)

From: Jack Berry xxx@us.ibm.com
Sent: Wednesday, December 13, 2006 4:03:48 PM
Subject: Dec. 14 - IBM's Global Financing Quarterly Teleconference

I do not mean to bury you under multiple e-mails on the same subject but, Iwanted to be sure you know about the IGF IT Analyst Teleconferencetomorrow. I have a short list of analysts that may not all be on the moreformal list maintained by our Analyst Relations Support Group.I just picked up a new news items a few minutes ago, which I will share onthe call, that may prove of interest to those of you following IGF'sbusiness expansion strategy.SNAPSHOT: Join IBM Global Financing for a quarterlyupdate regarding the latest activities on financingofferings and some significant new areas of focuson Thursday, December 14, at 1:00 p.m. EST (18:00 UK).

IBM IT Analyst RelationsTeleconference Alert

WHAT
The call this quarter will feature innovative new offerings in the commercial and partner space, the latest on what IGF is doing with facilitating customer challenges with assetdisposition, and a look at how we are leveraging the totalcost of ownership with PC Financing. We will also presentbrief updates on the latest news from SMB and Vendor Financing.

HOSTS
Jack Berry, Manager, IBM Global Financing, Analyst Relations

WHEN
Thursday, December 14, 2006
1:00 p.m. - 2:15 p.m. EST
18:00 - 19:15 UK

HOW TO PARTICIPATE
To enroll in the teleconference, reply to Kate xxx, xxx@us.ibm.com or call 1-xxx-xxx-xxx. A conferencenumber and password will be provided with your confirmation.

PRESENTATION MATERIALS & REPLAY INFORMATION
The charts will be available on the IT Analyst RelationsWeb site at: http://www.ibm.com/itanalyst/teleconferences/prior to the teleconference. Replay and additional materialswill be posted following the call.

INVITATIONS TO THIS TELECONFERENCE ARE NOT TRANSFERABLE
This invitation is intended solely for the IT analystcommunity within your firm and must not be shared withpress, financial analysts or other companies.

NON-DISCLOSURE OF CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION
By accepting this password or participating in theteleconference or both, you agree that the informationdisclosed to you is confidential to IBM, and you furtheragree not to disclose, publish, disseminate or use theinformation prior to its general announcement by IBM.IBM IT Analyst Relations E-mail: xxx@us.ibm.comVisit the IT Analyst Relations site: http://www.ibm.com/itanalyst

Jack Berry
[signatured edited]

APS rubbishes the Borg ECM MQ

After our post on unpredictions, we have seen this post from Alan Pelz-Sharpe discussing the recent Gartner Magic Quadrant on Enterprise Content Management:
Trends: Of magic quadrants and buyers' choices [CMS Watch]

George has also posted a critique here:
9 Comments on Gartner's ECM Magic Quadrant [the ECM blog]

Bottom lines:

Despite the MQ reform, transparency around the inclusion criteria and weighting applied to scores remains questionable

Vendors need that using the MQ as a marketing tool may expose them in areas they're not in the leading MQ and develop rebuttals

Users need to read the MQ as a starting point in a product evaluation, not something that makes or breaks a deal -unless they have a fine understanding of the underlying methodology

Read also other posts on the infamous Borg Tragic Quadrant:

Bitter Andy defends his Tragic Quadrant (at least someone has balls)

Vinnie on the Gartner Offshore Application Services Magic Quadrant

Gartner: now, pay to quote!

Tragic Quadrant series: episode I

The Gartner Magic Quadrant: shaken, not stirred

Gartner's Magic Quadrants: a wind of change?

Governor, Magic Quadrants and collaborative filtering

The Gartner Magic Quadrant

Reviewing Gartner's Top Predictions - who will step up?

One of the common comments about Gartner is the poor quality of the analyst work. However, it is rare that anybody actually does the work of analyzing any Gartner research: as we have commented before. So, dear readers of ARmadgeddon, do you want to do commentary on Gartner’s predictions?

To provide an example, please see the “Comments” for an analysis of a Gartner prediction “In 2005, AT&T will be acquired by BellSouth and MCI will be acquired by SBC” which proved to be completely wrong in a very short amount of time.

If you think this is waste of time, please say so.