Gartner, being one of the few publicly traded industry analyst firms, notified the SEC that it was reducing headcount by 117 this week. This was followed by SageCircle reports of a reduction at AMR Research. Not surprisingly, the double-serving of downsizing news sent murmurs through the analyst relations and analyst watchers communities. Dennis Howlett, an Enterprise Irregulars and ZDNet blogger, … Read More
The rough cut: what is an analyst blog?
What is a blog? How would you define an industry analyst blog? What separates blogs from the other online destinations and channels published by the ICT analyst community? Is a blog still a blog without an RSS feed? comments? Is an analyst blog tied to his or her expertise? Yesterday, I asked ten or so analysts and consultants in the … Read More
Zen and the art of blog directory maintenance
The Tekrati directory of analyst blogs is easier to use, offers more information and is better integrated with its sister directories, on analysts and analyst firms. What’s more, we migrated the OPML to the latest rev and did an extensive housecleaning on the listings. Richard handled the programming effortlessly, as always. I, on the other hand, am still wrestling with … Read More
Technobabble: The top 50 ICT industry analyst blogs
An independent ranking of the top 50 ICT industry analyst blogs shows the blogosphere to be a level playing field for analyst bloggers. The ranking was produced by Jonny Bentwood, who blogs as possible at Technobabble 2.0 and works by day as a PR consultant for Edelman. The top 50 blogs hail from one-man consultancies as well as multinationals. The … Read More
Creating a 3rd life for the industry analyst business
Lots of very smart people like to point out what’s wrong with the industry analyst business. Yet, few engage in a constructive conversation about what it’s going to take to revitalize the industry analyst business — so that it plays a more valuable link in the IT procurement chain going forward. Chanting lies-damn-lies won’t do the trick. To foster a … Read More
Bloom Group Study Reveals Importance of Intellectual Capital in Marketing Professional Services
Here’s an interesting survey for PR and marketing pro’s at analyst firms and other management/IT professional services providers. Marketing consultancy Bloom Group produced a survey and report on marketing effectiveness among U.S. professional services firms. Turns out strong intellectual capital (IC) is the most important ingredient of effective marketing. The participating services firms rated IC as more important than having … Read More
Analyst Bashups: Time to Talk Back
It’s that time of year again. Time to decide which industry analysts called the shots, gave the answers, and made the time often enough to earn an IT research and advisory contract for 2007. My advice to analysts this year: publish proof points showing your accuracy, timeliness, objectivity, engagement. Put forward some well researched — not just well rehearsed — … Read More
Can Digital Video Make IT Industry Research Interesting?
Bloggers scowl at IT industry analysts for many reasons. My top grievance with the analysts is boredom. I find the presentation of research more and more dull. How about mixing in a little YouTube magic with those statistics? Instead of webcasts and videos letting us watch analysts, how about videos letting us watch analysts do some research? Guy Kawasaki’s recent … Read More
Battery Recall Tests the Mettle of Analysts, Too
This summer has seen computer battery recalls affecting consumers and professional users alike, and in record-setting numbers. One manufacturer acknowledged investigations were already underway before one of the incidents took place. Yet, I’ve found only one analyst group criticizing these recalls and advocating higher standards at the source: Ontario-based Info-Tech Research Group. Most of the industry analysts cited in the media … Read More
What’s My Line: Analyst, Blogger, or Analyst Blogger?
Richard Stiennon raises an interesting point in his Threat Chaos post, Finding Cool Companies: should analysts who blog at online media networks — in this case, ZDNet — be given media passes to competitor’s events — in this case, Gartner Symposium? I don’t think so, but it does raise an amusing question of ethics. Stiennon, a former Gartner analyst, recently … Read More