It was the best of times; it was (sometimes) the worst of times. The month of October has for years been data management analysts’ busy season. Oracle, Teradata and IBM hold major conferences, and for customers, prospects, partners, journalists as well as analysts, the recent past, near future and plans for the long term areContinue reading “A Tale Of Three Cities, and Oracle, Teradata and IBM Databases”
Category Archives: Analyst Relations
Tech Marketers Need Friends With Benefits. No, Not That Kind
Every software product developer, and product manager, and sales rep, needs friends in marketing. And they need to be friends with benefits – benefit statements. Clear. Explicit. Specific for a particular stakeholder. Sound obvious? Based on the last month of briefings I have taken, it’s clearly not.
HP Scores Big Win
Perhaps I should have called this piece “Blogger Eats Words.” Hewlett-Packard has landed (pun intended) precisely the kind of strategic partnership win I recently suggested it is not positioned for, based on its recent description of its portfolio in a quarterly earnings call. The victory comes exactly where I suggested it needed to: with a services-ledContinue reading “HP Scores Big Win”
AR: Continuity of Contact Makes A Difference
I’ve been an independent analyst for a few months now, and it’s been an eye-opening experience in many ways. One has been the way some organizations I dealt with for a decade forgot my name the next day. This is not intended to embarrass anyone; I will name no names. It’s about best practices forContinue reading “AR: Continuity of Contact Makes A Difference”
Ray Wang Leaves Forrester – What’s Next?
I rarely cover comings and goings, in vendor firms or in analyst firms, but this simply could not pass unremarked. Ray Wang (whose excellent blog is here), a longtime friend and colleague, has left Forrester Research. I was the hiring exec at Forrester when John Ragsdale brought him in, and enthusiastically approving the hire wasContinue reading “Ray Wang Leaves Forrester – What’s Next?”
Why Virtual Conferences Suck
Lately, I get a lot of questions about “virtual conferences” and how much I believe they will replace the struggling live conference business of today. My answer? In the next 12-18 months we will see a lot of awful failed experiments. Just like the ones we’ve been seeing for the past 12 months or so.
TDWI Disappoints, But There is Hope Ahead
Few events offer as much promise as The Data Warehouse Institute World Conferences. With a deep educational focus, TDWI provides important opportunities for users. For vendors, the event offers one of the most focused, serious prospect audiences possible. My expectations, tempered though they were by economic realities, were still fairly high for this year’s San Diego event.Continue reading “TDWI Disappoints, But There is Hope Ahead”
Civilized Discourse and the Blog
Jon Reed, a consultant in the SAP world, recently posted a blog entry about some lessons he learned years ago from Hampshire College President Gregory Price. John feels, and I agree, that these principles of discourse are a model of behavior and belief that we bloggers would do well to emulate. I rarely post about “stuffContinue reading “Civilized Discourse and the Blog”
AR: Tiering Analysts Is Good, But Don’t Play Childish Games
Colleagues have recently told me of a disturbing AR/PR practice they’ve run into of late: some vendors have asked them to refrain from tweeting about the plan to have a briefing. Why? They don’t want others not being briefed to know about it. This is childish nonsense. Should some analysts be briefed more often than others in your planning?Continue reading “AR: Tiering Analysts Is Good, But Don’t Play Childish Games”
Captive Analyst Bloggers: Break Free! You Have Everything To Gain In Your Links
I spend a fair amount of my time checking in on the blogs of people whose work I respect. Now that I am no longer an analyst at a big-brand firm, I do this more than I used to – and I can now recognize there is an insularity “on the inside” that one becomes unawareContinue reading “Captive Analyst Bloggers: Break Free! You Have Everything To Gain In Your Links”