deal architect

Burning Platform: Analyzing the Analysts

In the 65rd episode of Burning Platform, we host Duncan Chapple, Co-Director of the Analyst Observatory at the U of Edinburgh.

He presents a summary of their 20^th annual Analyst Value Survey. It is a fascinating discussion of how the influencer space keeps evolving.

We cover dramatic shifts in technology buying centers  – verticalization and the impact of the pandemic, the growth of Asia/Pac, shadow IT and the fragmented landscape of advisers they turn to – traditional firms like Gartner, advisory firms like Everest, the Big 4, peer review sites like G2.

We discuss the changing role of the Analyst Relations functions in vendors and the likely move away from somewhat static, formulaic approach to market research to more scenario based planning.

We discuss several other topics – using analyst firms for influence v intelligence, the perception of analyst independence and the value of their content and market research.

The session ran long but we could have easily gone much longer. As an example we did not touch much on the impact of strategy consulting firms like McKinsey and BCG especially in complex digital transformations , and the advice, blogs and videos a small firm like mine brings to this landscape.

Unit4 pioneers the “hybrid analyst summit”

Since Workday held its first Analyst Summit in 2010 - I had called their effort exhilarating - I have encouraged vendors to adopt a similar format. User Conferences are more for customers - I find analysts intrude on their time when we are invited to those events.

Since then, vendors have become increasingly creative in their summit formats. Plex used to combine them with customer plant visits. Workfront co-mingled one with a customer advisory board meeting. Others have used them to also showcase their new real estate - Infor and SAP in New York, Zoho in Austin.

During the lockdowns of the last 18 months, vendors moved the summits to virtual format. Recognizing every one’s digital fatigue, most vendors kept them short and spread them out. But as Jon Reed of Diginomica and I discussed - see starting at 26.15  here - the virtual format has been somewhat flat. I have compensated with lots of 1:1 conversations and shared over 300 of them in my Analyst Cam, Burning Platform and other video episodes. 

So it was good to spent time with Unit4 executives last week, first virtually, then in person in Boston. The virtual part was broadcast from their X4U user conference. The in-person portions were a dinner, followed by a 6 hour event at the very pleasant Intercontinental which harkens memories of the Tea Party in 1773. The access to Unit4 executives in all 3 segments was impressive and they had safety protocols in place with certification requirements, masks etc. Not overbearing, just prudent.

The content in the in-person day was particularly striking. CEO Mike Ettling described how he had focused Unit4 in his 3 year tenure- as he described it they had accumulated a variety of "hot dog stands" he had cleaned out. He presented on how they adapted to the pandemic. He discussed the ‘dikes’ they raised - operating principles to keep them protected. He had described some in this episode. 

He also discussed the move from Advent to TA Associates as their lead private equity investor earlier this year. In the middle of the pandemic, they had face to face meetings and due diligence with 15 PE firms before settling with TA. Off the record, he had described to me more of the intense 4 month process. PE firms are a mystery to most of us - this would make for a dramatic book. I hope someday he writes it. Or let’s me narrate it for him.

He then invited Morgan Seigler, a Managing Director of TA and co-head of TA's Europe Technology Group to present their perspective and expectations. As he told us, they see ‘riches in niches’ and are investing in a variety of vertical enterprise software vendors.

That was a good segue for later sessions which featured the product - an update on the ERPx rollout and the Industry Mesh they announced - see image below, with plans to verticalize for Unit4's target industries. It also included a customer section which profiled Buro Happold – a global firm with 1,700 staff who consult with architects and engineers - in line with Unit4’s vertical focus on service- and project-focused businesses. 

The variety in the sessions and the generosity in executive access truly stood out. Brad Everett and Antonella Crimi who head their corporate marketing and AR efforts did a really nice job coordinating the complex logistics of the hybrid agenda. Either in virtual or in person mode, I think they managed to engage over 50 analysts. 

I think every vendor can learn from the Unit4 event, but I should point out not every vendor had bought into the in-person summit format even prior to the pandemic. In fact, I got feedback from one they were offended that I had recommended they adopt the format. This vendor also turned down my offer to profile some of their execs in my video series in the last year. They appear comfortable with having analysts wander the halls of their user events. Travel should be a lot easier next year, but I do hope the hybrid format takes off and vendors get even more creative.  

 

Burning Platform: Acronyms, Buzzwords and Customer Realities

In the 56th episode of Burning Platform, we host Jon Reed, a co-founder of Diginomica.

He is a fellow Enterprise Irregular who blogs and videocasts on enterprise trends. One of his most popular, regular features is Enterprise Hits and Misses. He is incisive, snarky, funny all at once.

We start off dissecting a Gartner slide from their recent Symposium, a list of 12 of what they call "Top Strategic Technology Trends for 2022" like Hyperautomation.  We use that as a launching pad for a discussion on what we think customers are looking for after the turmoil of the last 18 months. Jon makes a great point - he wishes he could see Gartner's hype cycle around each of their 12 trends.

We discuss the need for application/business process vision in addition to architectural evolution, and the need for OT (operational technology, especially industry specific) in addition to an IT focus.

We also discuss virtual events in the industry. Jon has been particularly forceful in pushing for an evolution in that format.

We also bring into the conversation a fellow analyst, Ray Wang and his new book, Digital Giants. Ray had presented about it in the Analyst Cam series here. 

It is a peek into conversations that us market watchers often have when we are away from tech vendors and buyers. Actually both of us are pretty well behaved - we can be far snarkier when there is no camera in sight:)

Thinking outside the Magic Quadrant

First an apology, I could have it titled this post as well with the Forrester Wave or the IDC MarketScape.

Next a mea culpa, I unleashed a few MQs during my tenure at Gartner in the 90s. However, in the years since I have become much more aware of the disconnect between tech buyers and vendors about the value of such tools.

When I was at Gartner, its revenues came largely from buyers. In the run up to Y2K, my colleagues and I did thousands of calls with buyers actively making ERP decisions. Coming up with the MQs - the leaders, challengers - was pretty easy with that market driven data. We did not have a composite win/loss analysis but we could make some pretty educated guesses about market share and momentum.

In today’s much more fragmented IT marketplace, especially since analyst revenues have become more vendor centric it must be so much more difficult. Analysts have to poll vendors for what we used to gather from market signals. You hear vendors whisper in frustration at how much effort it requires on their part.

The bigger issue is how buyers use MQs or Waves. It is just the tip of a spear. It is used to come up with a short list of vendors to evaluate. Detailed RFPs, demos, site visits, reference calls, lengthy negotiations are far more influential in the final decision. Nearly 15 years ago, I wrote about the ‘1,000 points of influence’. With growth of social media, the influence points have only grown. In composite, they help buyers derive their personalized "Interactive MQ".

Also, once they have decided on a vendor, most buyers don’t pay much attention to that MQ category till their next purchase - that could be a couple of decades. Oh, if a vendor drops precipitously from the Leader to the Niche quadrant, they would be concerned, but such moves tend to be glacial.

Vendors, in contrast, get their microscopes out to measure how much they moved from one MQ to the next. It’s fodder for press releases. I especially enjoy the Triple Crown announcements. “We are a leader in Analyst A, B and C’s tools.” I want to ask them - and how many buyer steps above did that eliminate?

MQs and similar tools also tend to reinforce silos in analyst firms. That can drive what I have described as Addressable Market Myopia 

There is a whole community of very committed Analyst Relations folks at vendors. Ignoring MQs would be suicidal, but does so much talent need to be invested every year on the MQ/MarketScape process?

Some of them will ask me what would you do differently. I am happy to help them think outside the box - ok, the square - in how to directly help their sales colleagues in their pursuits. How to help their companies think about and present their products differently and much more creatively. How to look around the corner - the analyst intermediary.  

No press release needed.

Analyst Cam: Everybody wants to rule the world

As we have moved to virtual briefings, I have increasingly been excerpting short video segments (with permission ), as part of my Analyst Cam series. 

I know the title suggests it is about the Tears for Fears hit. Sorry, click here for that:)

My good friend Ray Wang makes a repeat appearance, this time giving us a sneak preview of couple of themes from his upcoming book due out on July 13. You can pre-order it here.

He talks about how delivery services like DoorDash became the interface to customers during last year's lockdowns/everything from home and are reshaping the restaurant sector. I have pointed out many industries had a similar reshaping in 2020 as "edge" applications like telemedicine took off in healthcare, distance learning in higher education, 3PLs took over ecommerce fulfillment, virtual open houses transformed real estate.

I am looking forward to my advance copy and especially what he thinks of policy changes we should be considering as what he calls new Digital Giants emerge. Ray is one of the few analysts who I can talk to freely on those topics. We had a lively session a few months ago here 

We also don't spent much time on Magic Quadrants or Waves. The business world is changing way too fast for old categories and acronyms. We need new ones like Ray's DDDN.

Thank you, Dennis Howlett

Dennis has announced he is retiring. I knew it was coming - he would often fret he did not have enough time for his large and growing family - but I would have bet it would be towards end of this year. Or next. I am glad I managed to record a couple of episodes with him in the last few weeks.

We had our fair share of disagreements - show me someone who has been spared that by Dennis? :) But I admired several things about him and let me share a few things you may not know about him

a) he is a Polymath

Every few months I would learn something new about him.  Listen to his bio in the excerpt below - it will blow your mind.  And he does not even mention here what he has been up to recently - building and painting 1/35 scale armored vehicles (three in progress and 18 more in his 'stash' he says)

b) a true blogging pioneer.

It hit me when Dennis, Frank Scavo and I recorded a Christmas episode. We took a walk down memory lane - see excerpt below. Each of us has been blogging for 15+ years. He was a purer play than either of us. Frank and I had advisory distractions. I spent a fair amount of time on my many books. He dedicated the last phase of his career to making enterprise blogging and the independent analyst model a respected source of industry influence.

c) he made time for so many

He was a whisperer to so many in the industry - check out the flattering comments on his LinkedIn post where he announced his retirement. I was constantly amazed how he could find the time. I certainly benefited - he reviewed every one of my books.

So, Dennis, thanks for the many laughs and cries. Enjoy time with the family and your train rides.

But please come back and record more episodes from time to time. I want the opportunity to say it a few more times - GFY :)

Burning Platform: Developers, Developers...

In the 31st episode of the series I am joined by James Governor, co-founder of Redmonk.

In September 2000, Steve Ballmer was ahead of most executives in loudly cheering for software developers. The video below leads off with his exuberance at Microsoft's 25th anniversary celebration. Since then. we have seen an explosion in developers in every corner of the world.

James has had a front row seat to these changes. Along with Stephen O'Grady and others at Redmonk they are a bit more subdued than Ballmer but they have been influential cheerleaders for developers, DBAs etc - and not just those with the Microsoft flavor.

James' view is we have gradually moved away from top-down dev mindsets to bottom- up ones facilitated by the intersection of Cloud Computing, Open Source and Social Coding

We cover wide ground - the trend towards more buy v build in the industry, the growth in citizen developers (see also the session with Amit Zavery of Google Cloud here), software quality, vertical differences. We discuss the growth of software communities around the world - he has some really interesting comments about Salesforce Trailblazers and the relatively untapped community in Nigeria. We also discuss Armenia, China and India and several other parts of the world.

Lots of positive energy from James - as there is in the rapidly multiplying developer pools around the world.

The Analyst Cam: IT Central Station on B2B buying trends

As we have moved to virtual vendor briefings, I have increasingly been excerpting short segments (with permission from vendors), as part of my Analyst Cam series.

I have had several industry analysts join me in my Burning Platform series over the last several weeks. I invited Russell Rothstein, CEO and co-founder of IT Central Station which offers a crowdsourced knowledge platform that helps technology decision makers to better connect with peers and other independent experts who provide advice without vendor bias.  

I thought he would provide some insight into the many IT categories his site tracks from Firewalls to RPA tools. Instead, he did something that most analysts have smartly stayed away from in 2021 - making predictions after most went so wrong in 2020.

Russell makes 6 predictions on how enterprise tech procurement will change this year.

Burning Platform: Pandemic and Tech AR/PR

Brian Sommer and I have recorded 12 episodes in this series - see index here. Last couple of weeks, we have had several guests  -Rob Kugel of Ventana, Josh Greenbaum of EA Consulting, Bonnie Tinder of Raven Intel, Frank Scavo of Avasant, Dennis Howlett of Diginomica, Cindy Jutras of Mint Jutras, Dave Hofferberth of SPI Research, Holger Mueller of Constellation Research and Bob Ferarri of Supply Chain Matters

This time it is Sabrina Horn of Horn Strategy Consulting. She has been a tech industry pioneer - I called her a "marathoner" in this 2018 interview.

We cover a lot of ground in the video below about what she has seen in tech marketing during the pandemic.

She talks about the initial wave of empathy that guided vendors to focus on customer problem-solving and not come across as "ambulance chasers". We discuss how some vendors still want to pitch what they had in their bag in January, not reflective of how dramatically most markets have changed. We talk about "influence v intelligence" when it comes to industry analysts in changed markets, and whether AR would be better positioned in product development v marketing. We also talk about changed messaging as the whole world has moved to video communication and a much more digital world.

She shares a few details about her upcoming book with a working title of "Make it, Don't fake it". It is part autobiography about her leadership style, and part philosophy about her integrity and "getting to the truth and sticking to it".  Should be a fascinating read and timely given some of the crazy expectations we are seeing on Wall Street. I look forward to bringing her back to present on the book in much more detail.

In the meantime, enjoy this really invigorating session.

Occupation: Advisor, Analyst, Author

In my four decades of global travel, I have always hesitated about the correct occupation to list on a landing card or tell a passport officer (apparently I am not the only one who agonizes about that answer). At PwC, the answer used to be consultant or advisor, and I am sure I noticed a couple of immigration officers smirk at that. At Gartner, the answer was analyst, till an officer asked me "so why are you not using your diplomatic passport?" and I had to say "not that kind of analyst". I felt the most welcome ever entering Canada a few years ago. The immigration officer practically hugged me when I said I was an author. That did not last. Couple of trips later, in some other part of the world, that answer triggered the question "so how many copies of your books are you carrying?" Ergo, let's figure out how much customs duty you owe.

I should say AAA - as in advisor, analyst, author as my professional bio describes me. But then they would assume I worked for the automobile association.  Can you imagine how long I would hold up the immigration line?

AAA confuses far savvier clients of mine. Many of them see my 7 books and assume I am an academic. My accountant does not understand all the different revenue and spend categories that apply to each. Vendors see analyst and wonder why I don't do Magic Quadrants. Still others have no idea I write the New Florence blog - 15 years and 6,000 posts later. The Deal Architect name has led to inclusion on mailing lists for architecture magazines.

But deep inside I know if I were to unbundle AAA I would probably not get a nice reader review like this

'Mirchandani not only does his homework but seems to have first-person access to everyone who’s anyone in the technology sector, so the quotes peppering the text are all germane and keen'

Even better are those from my advisory clients who say "Thank you for stopping us from making a $20 m mistake" or others who say "you opened our eyes to all the white space in the market we were not addressing"

They don't get hung up on monikers. They do ask me how I manage any conflicts of interest. Otherwise, they just know the blend of AAA brings them a very different perspective and much higher payback than what they get from others. 

Curious - would love to hear from readers what unusual experiences you have had with immigration and customs.