I was privileged to work with Gideon Gartner briefly during the early Giga Information Group days (joining about a year in after its founding in 1995.) I was a newbie in the analyst game at the time, although in my prior few years I had done analyst relations formally and informally at two software firms.Continue reading “A Visit With Gideon Gartner”
Category Archives: Research Industry
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”
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”
Anonymity Is A Coward’s Cloak
Some people choose not to identify themselves when they leave blog comments. I recently had a twitter conversation after finding myself dismayed at some particularly inappropriate statements from people with “cute” screen names discussing a vendor who has recently undergone some business transitions. Assertions about the company and alleged co-workers were made that would beContinue reading “Anonymity Is A Coward’s Cloak”
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.
A Tale Of Three Cities, and Oracle, Teradata and IBM Databases
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”
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.