IDC goes far and wide... but not to users?

IDC publised a press release on their web site and Tekrati detailing their results for the first time: as they are a subsidiary of IDG, which is privately owned. So far they've shyed away from disclosing financials. This behaviour change might indicate that IDG may be considering putting up a IDC on the market?

Here are the numbers anyway for CY06: $297 million, 12% increase over 2005. That's $109k per analyst (the claim to have 900). For Gartner (IT), this ratio amounts to a staggering $745k/analyst.

IDC does not break down their events and consulting business, although they mention it as an "important area of growth", claiming to reach 45,000 technology buyers and IT executives (we would love to know the breakdown).

They plan to extend their geographical and industry coverage -they have a much better geographical coverage than Gartner Dataquest and they seem pretty successful with their Industry Insights programme -they have invested $40m to further boost it.

What their press release doesn't mention though is their consulting business. The word on the street is that they're not really aggressive. The IDC brand is quite strong with users and IDC would gain technology buyer insight and influence worth every penny for vendors...

Talking heads

Kim Horner from the AR agency CustomerClix publishes a newsletter for AR professionals. In the the July edition, she provides some analyst ranking in the UK media, thanks to Apollo Surveys:

1. Clive Longbottom, Quocirca
2. Andrew Kellett, Butler Group
3. Joe Wilcox, Jupiter Research
4. Keith Humphries, euroLAN
5. Michael Gartenberg, Jupiter Research
6. Mike Davis, Butler Group
7. Rob Bamforth, Quocirca
8. David Bradshaw, Ovum
9. Mark Blowers, Butler Group
10. Andrew Jaquith, Yankee Group
11. Graham Titterington, Ovum
12. Gary Barnett, Ovum
13. Michael A Silver, Gartner
14. Nigel Montgomery, AMR Research
15. Gordon Haff, Illuminata
16. Carolina Milanesi, Gartner
17. Pierre Audoin, Pierre Audoin Consultants
18. Robert Enderle, The Enderle Group

The study is from May 2006 but it's nevertheless interesting and contains a few surprises. The list is actually counter-intuitive to a certain extent. The explanation is that journalists get their quotes from several sources: vendor press releases (see AR 101: Analysts and press quotes), research firms press releases (announcing new reports), personal relationships with analysts and finally proactive outreach from analysts. From a reporter standpoint, a great analyst is one that's always available (especially 5mn before a filing deadline) to talk about anything and everything, preferably with some numerical data (market share, index or else).

Bottom line: talking heads are not necessary those influencing deals (actually, it's quite the opposite) but they can help improving your firms' media profile (and make you best friend with your PR department).

Zimmerman launches Analyst Perspectives

Jim Zimmerman, founder of white paper specialists Tekra, has a new blog - AnalystPerspectives. It's run through another venture he's associated with, Books24x7 (Even we find it hard to track all of Jim's ventures).

When he's not maintaining an excellent directory of analysts, Jim's blog provides commentary on the IT and Telecommunications analyst firm markets. His first few posts are good. He has a weekly profile of a tier 2 and 3 analyst firms, including Chainlink, Saugatuck, Mesabi and Valley View Ventures.

Let's hope he keeps up the momentum. As Joe and David have found, the first year is the easiest! Now that John is back from his sabbatical, at least there's one guarantee of more AR blogging in the future.