Gideon Gartner blogs HfS' views about the analyst business (click to read)
So the Grandaddy of great big research, and (arguably) the founding father of today’s IT industry analyst business, Gideon Gartner, picked up on our recent post “Will the industry analyst business be dead in five years?” (Check out his post here).
Gideon’s opinion must be the most sought-after on this topic, and he does a great job being non-committal with his blog on HfS’ piece. However, you do get the distinct impression we struck a chord with him:
“Perhaps his conclusions were overstated, but perhaps not; some version of today’s Advisories will undoubtedly survive. But the comments seem to support his views”
And while the “analyst” industry is unlikely to be buried in a coffin in five years, the amount of attention this discussion has invoked clearly signifies one thing: the traditional analyst business desperately needs to change. We’ll let Mr Gartner have the last word on the topic… for a while anyway.
And if you still haven’t had enough on this topic…
Our friends at the International Institute of Analyst Relations (IIAR) are going to feature a live debate on 13th July at 11.00am ET, where I will be discussing this “crisis” live and taking questions. Click here for more details, or email info at analystrelations.org.
Posted in : Confusing Outsourcing Information, Outsourcing Heros
I left this comment on Gideon Gartner’s blog. Here is a reproduction with some minor edits:
Analysts are losing the plot because, their traditional go-to source for views (provider firms) are no longer the ones that lead the world through technology shifts. In fact, we are in a world where there is a behavioral shift aided by technology (social networks, real-time feeds, massive unstructured recommendation platforms) of which the younger generation buyers are consumers of. They want the same to happen when it comes to seeking advice, directions. Can someone “who I know” tell me who the best providers are, give me “real time data” about them and “scatterplots about them which are not stale”? The days of instant research based on fresh data are on and they result in bite-sized inputs that are enough for the buyers.
Analysts today miss-out on aggregating validated, community produced intelligence that should sit on top of directional analysis.
Ashwin
Founder – http://contractiq.com