It’s an occupational hazard of living in the future that analysts can begin to ignore the present – unless we make it a practice to seek it out. Here in the Valley, that can be difficult, when being a week behind the latest version of something the rest of the world hasn’t heard of yetContinue reading “Living in the Present is SO Yesterday”
Category Archives: Analyst Relations
White Paper Sponsorship and Labeling
My friend Curt Monash has taken Oracle to task for the way it labels its web pages that contain download links for analyst reports, and I took some collateral damage in the process. It was embarrassing to me, but an important discussion, and I thought I ought to share some ideas about the whole issue.Continue reading “White Paper Sponsorship and Labeling”
Decoding BI Market Share Numbers – Play Sudoku With Analysts
In a recent post I discussed Oracle’s market share in BI, based on a press-published chart taken from IDC data – showing Oracle coming in second. As often happens in such discussions, I got quite a few direct emails and twitter messages – some in no uncertain terms – about why the particular metric IContinue reading “Decoding BI Market Share Numbers – Play Sudoku With Analysts”
Will Tiered Content Strategies Crack the IT Research PayWall?
There are two content models in the IT research world: the PayWall and the freely available. In the former model, the business assumption is that the firm’s revenue stream is largely driven by content subscriptions. The latter treats content as the best advertising of the firm’s real value: its people and the advice they canContinue reading “Will Tiered Content Strategies Crack the IT Research PayWall?”
The State of The Industry Analyst
How’s that for a ridiculous title? This piece is nowhere near as ambitious as that; it’s a response to some typically provocative comments from Gideon Gartner, a founder and arguably the most iconic figure in our industry. In his blog post Advisory Industry, a future redesign: the Payment Model, Gartner challenges his readers to thinkContinue reading “The State of The Industry Analyst”
Microsoft Briefs On SQL Server R2 – Confusion, Questions Result
SQL Server 2008 R2 is near release. Briefings for analysts are underway, and right now the picture is a mess. Although seemingly relegated to an adjunct position compared to Office in Microsoft’s thinking, R2 adds a great deal (source:softwarekeep.ca): CEP, although tools and integration are unclear; Master Data Management (MDM), although apparently Microsoft believes endContinue reading “Microsoft Briefs On SQL Server R2 – Confusion, Questions Result”
AR: Analysts Don’t List Themselves on Social Media
Several AR professionals have recently asked me how to find industry analyst blogs or Twitter addresses. The immediate answer was to send them to Sage Circle, where a pair of excellent directories are maintained. But the fact of the questions made me revisit the issue with a simple test: if I looked up biographies, wouldContinue reading “AR: Analysts Don’t List Themselves on Social Media”
40,000 Hits – Thanks for A Great First Year of Blog Success
I posted my first entry here on March 7, 2009. At the time, I was newly independent after 13 years in the big research firm analyst business. I was optimistic about my prospects, but certainly nervous. I had a few firm convictions about the importance of collaboration, some great mentors and some ideas I wantedContinue reading “40,000 Hits – Thanks for A Great First Year of Blog Success”
PDF X-Change – Still The One
Nearly a year ago, I mentioned a wonderful product called PDF X-Change, from Tracker Software, in a post. It allows me to annotate PDF files, which many vendors maddeningly insist on using for briefings. Why “maddeningly”? Because for me at least, the best place for my notes is in the presentation – it provides theContinue reading “PDF X-Change – Still The One”
IT Marketers: Oversold Announcements Weaken Your Story
Microsoft and HP’s recent announcement highlighted some of the ways in which poor announcements strain credulity and make it harder to get attention when you do have something worthwhile to talk about. Some errors crop up repeatedly in IT marketing communications, and this one suffered from several of them.