[Furl] 's Headlines for September 29, 2007

Daily Furl Headlines for September 29, 2007
From - http://www.furl.net/members/ARonaut

Holway's HotViews: Ovum
Rated 3 in topic Analysts blogs; Ovum
From hotviews.blogspot.com on September 28 at 10:12 AM
<http://www.furl.net/item.jsp?id=26267776>

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Eggxodus (twice updated)

Two ex-Eggheads have posted rather alarming posts on the mother ship today:

• Trouble at t’ Ovum mill by Duncan Brown from Influencer50


• More departures at Ovum by Duncan Chapple (who rather surprisingly links to DuncanB's post)

The rumours key figures were leaving Ovum are thus confirmed by the Duncans: Ian Westley is retiring and Gary Barnett (ranked here quite highly) is leaving for a new venture still wrapped under a shroud of secrecy.

These departures follows a few others, including Cathy Ring (gone to Nelson Hall) and according to DuncanB "Ovum only has 6 SITS analysts left, from a core team of 17 prior to the acquisition by Datamonitor".

Apparently, many regret the good old pre-IPO times, the fun and debate even if it meant a less profitable business and despise the current management. The least we can say is that the culture clash isn't managed well by the Datamonibores, not surprisingly as the market research (churning out highly-leveraged off the shelf research) has in fine little resemblance with an high-end Telco/IT advisory service. Coincidentally, we heard of another departure on the Butler side as it seems Teresa Jones is joining to the Borg.

ARmadgeddon's take: although naysayers are predicting the death knell for Ovum in its current Telco/IT RAS form, there are still a few strong players at Ovum and Butler even though the current organisation and brands are confusing the marketplace. We can only hope for swift remedial actions to restore hope.

UPDATE: Anthony Parslow sent a long response to Duncan's (Brown) post and it contains some interesting points that were overlooked by Duncan (Chapple) as well as by ourselves:

• David Mitchell has been appointed SVP (he's got a picture on his bio) IT research -and he certainly knows about IT research business.


• Apparently the staffing projections were somewhat wrong as Ovum "should have 35 people in our IT Research team at Ovum by year end not 6", including Cornelia Wels-Maug (based in Germany) and Ian Brown (ex Borg, not ex-Stone Roses).

So, le's hope for the best: to have a local alternative to the Borg, with approachable analysts not stuck in research silos.

28/9 UPDATE: Richard Holway seems to think that the analyst turnover has seriously impacted Ovum's customer proximity.

Although the significance of loosing bright analysts such as the Neils and Gary can't be underplayed in what is first and foremost a people's business, it will nevertheless be interesting to watch whether Ovum can regain momentum while under a more structured management.

Previous posts:

• The big fish that ate the fish that ate the fish that...


• Datamonibores penetrates the gametes


• Ovum buys Orbys to grow outsourcing services [ANALYST EQUITY]


• Ovum targets vendors


• Ovum is floating -just about


• Ovum to IPO, Forrester loses sales VP


• Has Forrester missed a golden opportunity?


• Making it up While Drinking


• Ovum seeks intelligence head, Gartner Watch in quest of integrity


• Weekly digest


• Ovum breaks the iPod cellphone embargo?


• Ovum makes a move!


• Furl'ing: Ovum, Aberdeen and Gartner in the blogs


• Is Ovum ambitious?

[Furl] 's Headlines for September 28, 2007

Daily Furl Headlines for September 28, 2007
From - http://www.furl.net/members/ARonaut

infuse - the blog for Influencer Marketing: Ovum responds to
yesterday's post
Rated 3 in topic Other AR blogs
From influencer50.com on September 27 at 5:53 PM
<http://www.furl.net/item.jsp?id=26237423>

infuse - Trouble at IDC too
Rated 3 in topic Other AR blogs; IDC
From influencer50.com on September 27 at 12:40 PM
<http://www.furl.net/item.jsp?id=26219003>

infuse - The most important question about influence
Rated 3 in topic AR tools and techniques
From influencer50.com on September 27 at 12:20 PM
<http://www.furl.net/item.jsp?id=26218427>

Holway's HotViews: Adjusting my portfolio
Rated 3 in topic About analysts
From hotviews.blogspot.com on September 27 at 12:18 PM
<http://www.furl.net/item.jsp?id=26218363>

Analyst Equity: Forrester continues to warn AR away from alignment
with sales
Rated 3 in topic Other AR blogs; Forrester
From analystrelations.blogspot.com on September 27 at 10:39 AM
<http://www.furl.net/item.jsp?id=26214759>

infuse - the blog for Influencer Marketing: Trouble at t' Ovum mill
Rated 5 in topic Other AR blogs; Ovum
From influencer50.com on September 27 at 10:33 AM
<http://www.furl.net/item.jsp?id=26214556>

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[Furl] 's Headlines for September 27, 2007

Daily Furl Headlines for September 27, 2007
From - http://www.furl.net/members/ARonaut

Analyst Equity: Remember, analysts also value the relationship
Rated 3 in topic Other AR blogs; AR
From analystrelations.blogspot.com on September 26 at 8:22 AM
<http://www.furl.net/item.jsp?id=26163077>

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[Furl] 's Headlines for September 26, 2007

Daily Furl Headlines for September 26, 2007
From - http://www.furl.net/members/ARonaut

Analyst Equity: Remember, analysts also value the relationship
Rated 3 in topic Other AR blogs; AR
From analystrelations.blogspot.com on September 26 at 8:22 AM
<http://www.furl.net/item.jsp?id=26163077>

Enterprise Architecture: From Incite comes Insight...: A customer
perspective on Industry Analyst Firms
Rated 3 in topic Analyst business model
From duckdown.blogspot.com on September 25 at 12:21 PM
<http://www.furl.net/item.jsp?id=26115238>

AttentionMax » Blog Archive » What Is Influence?
Rated 1 in topic AR tools and techniques
From attentionmax.com on September 25 at 12:15 PM
<http://www.furl.net/item.jsp?id=26115026>

Analyst Equity: 450 analyst firms get less than half their revenue
from vendors
Rated 5 in topic Analyst business model
From analystrelations.blogspot.com on September 25 at 11:05 AM
<http://www.furl.net/item.jsp?id=26112270>

Gartner delivers the technology-related insight necessary for our
clients to make the right decisions, every day.
Rated 3 in topic AnalystFirmsDirectory
From gartner.com on September 25 at 11:02 AM
<http://www.furl.net/item.jsp?id=26112091>

James Governor's Monkchips » Its time for analyst relations to
step into the 21st Century: Influencer 2.0
Rated 3 in topic AR; Redmonk
From redmonk.com on September 25 at 11:01 AM
<http://www.furl.net/item.jsp?id=26111981>

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[Furl] 's Headlines for September 25, 2007

Daily Furl Headlines for September 25, 2007
From - http://www.furl.net/members/ARonaut

Can't tell the players without a scorecard – Who's who inside a
large vendor like HP
Rated 3 in topic AR
From hp.com on September 24 at 10:18 AM
<http://www.furl.net/item.jsp?id=26054979>

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Cross dressing

Analyst relations sometimes feels like a very romantic job: after all, we AR professionals, spend most of our time courting those elusive analyst divas.


So when an analyst firm's account manager pitches to us for new business or when a head of research presents at an IIAR Forum, it feels like a bit of a fancy dress party. While the latter encounter is almost assured to be insightful, in most cases analyst firms don't really know know what drives AR professionals, nor how to sell to us. Which is pathetic really.


Carter's posted on the subject here: Can’t tell the players without a scorecard – Who’s who inside a large vendor like HP


We've re-posted one of his comment: Roles of the Analyst – Market/Sales Influencers, Decision Support, Smart Advisors, Sales Support, by Cartner Lusher


Read also a previous post on the question: C'mon guys, sell to us!

[Furl] 's Headlines for September 22, 2007

Daily Furl Headlines for September 22, 2007
From - http://www.furl.net/members/ARonaut

IDC projects tech marketing spending will grow 6.1% this year ::
BtoB Magazine
Rated 3 in topic AR; AR profession
From btobonline.com on September 21 at 1:03 PM
<http://www.furl.net/item.jsp?id=25929849>

Keeping Tabs » Blog Archive » Forrester's AR blog review, for your
eyes only
Rated 3 in topic Forrester
From opinion.tekrati.com on September 21 at 10:00 AM
<http://www.furl.net/item.jsp?id=25923830>

Enterprise Architecture: From Incite comes Insight...: Why Gartner
Analysts Don't Blog...
Rated 3 in topic Gartner
From duckdown.blogspot.com on September 21 at 9:29 AM
<http://www.furl.net/item.jsp?id=25923022>

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A Borg in a closet

Stephen England scooped rencently that Gartner had decided to suspend their participation to third party surveys. Those are conducted by a variety of AR firms such as KGC and are really useful for AR professionals to evaluate their AR programmes.

The Borg is also very quiet on the blogging side which prompted James (McGovern) to ask some questions, although Geva say he's a bit harsh in his very good post.

Why is the Borg so secretive and closed?

James (Govermonk) would say they're not part of the conversation and he's got a point: what's Gartner contribution to the community?

[Furl] 's Headlines for September 21, 2007

Daily Furl Headlines for September 21, 2007
From - http://www.furl.net/members/ARonaut

Keeping Tabs » Blog Archive » Forrester's AR blog review, for your
eyes only
Rated 3 in topic Forrester
From opinion.tekrati.com on September 21 at 10:00 AM
<http://www.furl.net/item.jsp?id=25923830>

Enterprise Architecture: From Incite comes Insight...: Why Gartner
Analysts Don't Blog...
Rated 3 in topic Gartner
From duckdown.blogspot.com on September 21 at 9:29 AM
<http://www.furl.net/item.jsp?id=25923022>

James Governor's Monkchips » Inquiries are thousands of times
better than briefings
Rated 3 in topic AR tools and techniques
From redmonk.com on September 20 at 2:21 PM
<http://www.furl.net/item.jsp?id=25877224>

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[Furl] 's Headlines for September 20, 2007

Daily Furl Headlines for September 20, 2007
From - http://www.furl.net/members/ARonaut

Gartner: The Billion-Dollar Quadrant
Rated 5 in topic Analyst business model; Gartner; Forrester
From fool.com on September 19 at 11:07 AM
<http://www.furl.net/item.jsp?id=25809523>

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Undercutting the Borg

Duncan just blogged on analysts firms targetting the segment under Gartner's (IT) reach:
Picking up the money Gartner and Forrester leave on the table (Analyst Equity).

He lists a few firms ative in EMEA, including IDC, Berlecon, NelsonHall and PAC.
He also mentions Burton Group although they have no presence in EMEA and Springboard for AsiaPAC.

To be complete, his post should mention whether analysts do have en user impact (in the list above, IDC Insights and Nelson Hall only) or are vendor-oriented. The latter category is actually much wider, with firms such as Current Analysis for instance, or local fims such as Sirmi in Italy and Penteo in Spain. Duncan should also mention firms we have posted about many times such as the Freeform Fellowship, Datamonibores (+ Butler + the Eggheads), Bloor, MWD, Strategy Partners, etc...
Plus the bloglysts such as the ever-ubiquious James Govermonk...

Maybe Dunc' should start up a wiki?


ARmadgeddon's take: EMEA AR professionals should not limit themselves to European branches of US analyst firms, but identify and segment local influencers, in particular since they are generally not covered by search tools and champion them internally according to their goals.


Previous posts:

• Burton lauches offensive campaign
• Freeform Fellowship grows and blurs
• The big fish that ate the fish that ate the fish that...
• Datamonibores penetrates the gametes
• Have you seen my plan, my plan, my plan?
• Strategy Partners' party
• What's that over the hill, is it a blogger?
• AR 101: Measuring Analyst Relations

Freeform Fellowship grows and blurs

Freeform Dynamics has added a new fellow to its inner ring: David Tebbutt comes out (Freeform Comments].

David (high-res picture here) is a blogger, journalist and free commenter on cooperation, collaboration and communication. In the post above, Dale comments on the blurring lines between analysts and expert bloggers: "people who investigate like analysts, think like analysts, write like analysts, but don’t actually call themselves analysts". Shall we call them "bloglysts"?


ARmadgeddon's take:
The emergence of a new breed of bloggers-analysts is both a challenge an an opportunity for Analyst Relations.

• Early movers who already have begun their morphing from AR into IfR should engage with bloglysts as it extends their reach while limiting risks for potential territorial disputes with their PR comrades.
• All AR professionals should however use the same coverage area filters and best practices when dealing with bloglyst, in particular in insisting to see their UPCOMING research agenda, ensure compliance with NDA's and ask to review research notes draft for factual accuracy before publication.

Previous posts:

• Step up a geAR or disappeAR!
• AR 101: Analyst vs. press (Analyst Insight)
• Step up a geAR or disappeAR, redux (updated)
• AR 101: NDA's

Burton lauches offensive campaign

Looks like Burton Group (not the cool Burton, the analyst firm) is on the offensive as they have launched a marketing campaing.
AnalystPerspectives sports the offending ad, although it's not on dropaseat.com.

Burton's offensive is somewhat reminiscent of this Forrester campaign, which to this date has failed to elevate them to the recognition enjoyed by META Group before its assimilation by the Borg.

BREAKING NEWS: Suspected New Foot in the Mouth Case

So we hear of a suspected New Foot And Mouth Case... in Egham.

Or was Sky News baffled by the Borgs putting its foot in the mouth?

Great post, now gone...

Shame the ARcade guys deleted their post, it was asking really good questions:
ARcade : Are you getting less for more from your analyst firm subscriptions?


Update: we were wondering which of arm-wrenching tactics or H&K having second thoughts caused the post to go offline.

Apparently neither (see comment below), and the post is now back online. Kudos to H&K for saying aloud what many think.

H&K's pledge for bloggers

Thanks to a friend for mailing us the pledge that H&K staff have to agree to before being allowed to blog on its site. Honestly, we're impressed:

I will acknowledge and correct mistakes promptly

I will preserve the original post, using notations to show where I have made changes

I will never delete a post

I will not delete comments unless they are spam or off-topic

I will disclose conflicts of interest (including client relationships) where I am able to do so

I will not publish anything that breaches my existing employment contract

I will distinguish between factual information/commentary and advertising

I will never publish information I know to be inaccurate

I will disagree with other opinions respectfully

I will link to online references and original source materials directly

I will strive for high quality with every post - including basic spellchecking

I will write deliberately and with accuracy

I will reply to emails and comments when appropriate, and do so promptly

I will restrict my posting to professional topics

I will write on a regular basis, at least once each week

Let's hope they make their clients sign the same code of conduct. I'm not sure the management here at ARmadgeddon Towers would sign off anything more than the three laws.

TGIF

This arguably may be the best funniest report title we ever came across.

H&K shoots at the Borg (and others)

Hill and Knowlton shares its acronym with Heckler&Koch, and reading the following post it maybe more than a coincidence?
Are you getting less for more from your analyst firm subscriptions? (ARcade)

Melissa Grant aims her guns at the Gartner Borg, IDC and Forrester for trying to screw vendors harder by segmenting their RAS offerings into an increasing number of silos.

ARmadgeddon's take: the Borg and others have long figured out that new clients acquisitions costs were high and that it was more profitable to milk their existing Forbes 2000 customers. Gene hall calls this increasing "leverage" (check report page 3: Substantial Operating Leverage in Our Business Model). The mood at IT vendors over imposed price increases have now reached boiling point and we foresee a backlash on renewals for RAS services whose value is not clearly demonstrable, especially in the case of an economic downturn.

Previous posts:
Borg Games
The Borg recedes in Oz and turns into high-tech sausage factory

Strategy Partners' party

Strategy partners is a small network of analysts, mostly based out of Germany, deriving its revenue from IT vendors.

We were thus quite surprised when someone forwarded us an invite for their "Annual European Executive Summit on 1st & 2nd November 2007", in Ireland.

The agenda seems to be geared towards IT executives, somewhat like an IDC Forum.

We're curious to get feedback on this event...