Gulliver's Travels

Carter Lusher, who heads Industry Analyst Relations at HP in a recent post wrote:

"Today there are the established firms (e.g., AMR, Forrester, Gartner and IDC) that have been around since the 1980’s that on the surface have not changed all that much. Then there are the insurgents like Gartner alumni Vinnie Mirchandani at Deal Architect and James Governor of Redmonk with his Monkchips blog who claim that that they are becoming just as influential as the dinosaur firms. As a consequence, we in the AR community should pay just as much attention to them as old firms."

And I invoked Jonathan Swift in the response I left him:

"Carter, greetings. Where exactly did you see me claim I am as influential as an analyst firm? A far more accurate comparison would be small firms like mine are Lilliputs to your Gulliver. Individually you can choose to engage or not with them, but collectively they represent a growing market influence.

While I represent just one perspective, might help to explain our business model and the 3 tracks in how we interact with vendors:

a) CIO advisory services. We help clients evaluate technology solutions and negotiate various technology contracts. We derive majority of our revenues from buyers. When we work with vendors it is when they are themselves procuring technology. So very different from analyst firms which get a sizable percent of revenue from vendors. The best time to "brief" this track of our business is during a competitive evaluation with a solution customized to the client's needs or RFP. Clearly, only vendors invited to that client situation are allowed that opportunity for such a conversation.

b) I also happen to write 2 blogs - New Florence, New Renaissance, which focuses on innovation in technology and Deal Architect, which focuses on economics of technology. Our sources for blog materials vary between the two. On the New Florence blog, I welcome citations from vendors which showcase how a customer has taken advantage of something alpha or beta from their labs. I have cited HP a few times on that blog based on our own research, without a press release from you. But if you have something truly innovative which a customer can vouch for, I would welcome a ping.

c) On the Deal Architect blog, a number of topics are driven by market trends we see in our advisory business. The best way for vendors to engage there is through blog comments or through a guest column. So when I quote BusinessWeek saying HP printer ink is more expensive than like amount of Dom Perignon, make your case why you think your pricing is justified. Or when I ask why your CIO tells the world he is going to cut his IT spend in half, why your customers cannot expect similar advice around their spend with HP, debate me why what's good for HP is not good for your customers.

So across the 3 channels - our advisory business, New Florence and Deal Architect blogs - we touch a number of industry buyers. Far more in numbers and global reach than you would think a small firm could. Let's not get delusional, though - compared to Gartner, our individual influence is puny.

But many of us Lilliputs are banding together. My advisory firm goes to market with a couple of larger consulting firms. I am part of a group of bloggers called the Enterprise Irregulars. Carter, these guys are smarter than the talent we represented at Gartner and are pioneering thoughts around enterprise software, emerging web 2.0 and SaaS markets. There are other similar other groups in other technology categories.

You have to make up your mind whether it is worthwhile to engage with small firms and bloggers at all - and whether one on one, or through groups like the Irregulars. But I can tell you traditional analyst briefings do not work as well - you have to be ready for interactive and transparent conversation. And you will find most of these firms are far more independent than industry analysts."

Comments

[Jon Collins]

Just curious Vinnie - your statement, "I can tell you traditional analyst briefings do not work as well - you have to be ready for interactive and transparent conversation," implies that there is a lack of interactive and transparent conversation in briefings - which is not my experience. Neither, with respect to, "you will find most of these firms are far more independent than industry analysts," do I believe that many of my colleagues in a variety of industry analyst firms are anything but staunchly independent. Are you talking about your own previous experiences, or are these comments on either the current landscape as a whole, or specific firms?

[vinnie mirchandani]

Jon, thanks for your comments

Rightly or wrongly, the perception of the industry analyst and the sell side financial analyst has taken a significant decline in independence. I hear that from my CIO and IT clients, and from the Enterprise Irregulars. Smaller firms tend to be a bit better but the larger firms get way too much vendor side revenue to be credibly independent. When I wrote below blog one of my former Gartner colleagues sent me an email "how do you know Ballmer was not briefed ahead of time?"

http://dealarchitect.typepad.com/deal_architect/2007/10/the-stockholm-s.html

The EI briefings I have been part of tend to be completely up to individual blogger to accept - no pressure to listen to a vendor because they are paying large subscriptions, and the vendor knows the whole world may be able to see what they discuss for free on a blog, not in a sanitized, limited distribution research note. Both to me make for a far more transparent conversation...

[Jon Collins]

Thanks Vinnie. Perhaps its because I work more closely with the "wrong bunch" - people from firms like Disruptive Analysis, Tekplus, Redmonk. Its a lot of fun to share analyst sessions with these guys, and in the main they will give their opinions freely, even if earning consulting revenues from vendors.

I agree its a tough nut to crack but I like to think that we have enough checks and balances in place. For myself I think the balance comes from considering the position like marriage guidance - my primary focus is delivering long-term value to both sides, but I'll still be quite happy reminding one side or the other to get his hair brushed before he goes on a date ;)

"The EI briefings I have been part of tend to be completely up to individual blogger to accept - no pressure to listen to a vendor because they are paying large subscriptions, and the vendor knows the whole world may be able to see what they discuss for free on a blog, not in a sanitized, limited distribution research note."

Absolutely, same here.

Perhaps the biggest task is to cut through the fads and try to move things forward in a sustainable fashion. It's not always obvious what the best way is, but we'll keep plugging on...

[James Governor]

hey vinnie. feeling like a man of straw?

[vinnie mirchandani]

James, only because I know Oz didn't give nothing to the Tin man that he didn't already have -)