the gr | | | | ng

Interesting, I never thought of it this way…I suppose peer to peer insight is more valuable. I’m an occasional user of Forrester and do value the insights I get there. Having said that, if I could get them from free, more quickly through a social network, I probably wouldn’t bother paying for the Forrester research.

I think it depends on whether you’re talking about the standard reports or the custom stuff. We use Gartner for custom research which would be very hard to accomplish organically.

I agree, we’re getting a lot of value from custom research also, but it’s so expensive!! I have voted that analysts add value to the marketing mix – but that’s from a vendor perspective. I wonder whether subscribers (IT professionals for example) still consider paying money for insights worthwhile if they have direct access to colleagues.

I can’t stand analysts – they are expensive and treat you like dirt unless you spend money. Their ‘objectivity’ is immediately tied to their revenue line. If your competitor is a big client, spending hundreds of thousands – they’re hardly going to give you equal treatment. It’s a twisted offering.

I would be interested to have this question answered by the panel: do you think it makes difference whether the analysts’ revenues are primarily derived from subcribers vs. consulting or vendors?

Of course they still matter – the real question is whether they need to revue their business models. And if so, how and what do the new models look like? Fat chance they will share that with each other!

Re: Jonathan. We have actually found this to make a significant difference. The Burton Group for example make most their money from their subscribers. This allows them to provide more neutral industry insights, which is why I like to work with them above the other top 3.

Interesting feedback, thank you – keep it coming. Need as much amunition for this session as possible.

Although I have a problem with the way in which analysts strong arm vendors into caring, they play an important role in providing marketers like me with valuable insights about my target sectors and audiences.

Absolutely – We have thousands of sales trainer who still teach the techniques from back in the 50′s, 60′s, 70′s they will still want to refer to analysts. Also many companies who just lost the connection to the new world and still have some money left will use analysts to write white papers about those companies or testify the company is really “hot” – even if they are actually bankrupt. Then there are analysts who write tons of papers about social media and how important this new “channel” is. At least certain generation of people love to read it or visit those conferences.

Of course there is a new generation of businesses or established businesses who have the DNA to adopt new technologies, understand the power of the consumer based information aggregation etc. and recognized that the customer education process, leading to the “educated purchase decision” no longer needs or consults analysts. I cannot imagine that the leadership team from Apple, Zappos, Salesforce.com, Virgin, WholeFoods, and alike reads, listens or even talks to analysts any longer. But for the “slow mover” or “stand still generation” there is probably still some business to be made.

Sorry – I just couldn’t resist

I am with a smaller analyst firm and the new landscape you describe has some impact though the toughest part over the last year has been the trend away from consulting. A lot of analyst firms make their money consulting and when budgets get cut, that’s one of the first things to go…

Analysts still have another few years in them as a fixture of corporate perception making. The next wave of analysts however will be half mathmatician, half technologist, and half social networked seriously. Like companies that have the right DNA for the coming period, Analysts will evolve from strict academic types into serious social engineer types who can hack through the information overload to deliver cohesive analysis on the one hand fitted to the various audiences they address though the differnent channels.

Like newspapers, broadcast news and journalists who specialize in investigating and synthesizing events while providing context and thoughts around implications, technology analysts will need to adapt their pricing model to reflect the new information economy.

Disintermediation will impact IT research organizations as it has other news and content distribution organizations (hello music companies!).

That said, their will always be a market place for insight and analysis but, with more sources providing this, competition should tend to bring pricing pressures.

Thanks David, hope you’re well