Where’s the Upside ?: Report from the London City Show, September 13 2006.
“A nice touch was that Marc pulled up David Bradshaw of OVUM who happened to be in the audience. Marc stated that when he wants to know what’s happening in the industry this is who he calls. The only analyst to have consistently called it right for the past few years, Marc stated much better than Gartner or Forrester.”
Well done David!
Are any of AR bloggers still listening? This one should be noted, I reckon. Its not like Marc isn’t pretty smart in his own right.
David Rossiter says:
September 15, 2006 at 3:20 pm
Indeed.
vinnie mirchandani says:
September 15, 2006 at 6:11 pm
I am sure he is good, but when a vendor CEO praises an analyst, is that because someone is fair and knowledgable or because he is nice to them. I can tell you some buyers would be suspicious of an analyst a vendor praises. Call them cynical, but that’s reality. Vice versa, vendors tend to suspicious of analysts or observers who are buyer friendly. To me a very good analyst is one who knows sector well, and is willing to make his/her calls without worrying about either vendors or buyers in the sector – and is mostly right.
One of the gutsiest calls I saw was my colleague Erik Keller at Gartner saying the apps market would slow down in mid 98, not 99. Everyone including Gartner’s Y2K analysts, vendors, Wall Street, other analysts questioned his sanity, but he was hearing from a number of buyers about their “lock down” plans as they approached 1999. And he turned out to be right…
Dennis Howlett says:
September 16, 2006 at 1:11 am
The day a vendor publicly praises me is the day I know I’m soft in the head. I’ve already expressed concern to SAP about that in my tone about B1 – fortunately they know it’s a short lived thing.
Vinnie is right – better to be sharp than to be a flack in disguise.
James says:
September 18, 2006 at 2:09 pm
It would be interesting if Redmonk were to uncover enterprise perspectives on Gartner & Forrester relative to small analyst firms…
James Governor says:
September 18, 2006 at 4:47 pm
Dennis and Vinnie:
vinnie – how on earth did the erik keller call help enterprises to make better decisions? you’re talking a pure inside baseball play – for investors or vendors.
Dennis- sure, whatever. You’re already bloody soft in the head, flack or not.
James- interesting idea, but not one we’d be the right people to pursue.
ARonaut says:
September 20, 2006 at 10:24 am
So should vendors single out analysts who agree with them? And probably actually only invite analysts who are favourable to them?
This might sound silly, but many large vendors only measure favourable reports. Duncan wrote about self selecting samples here: http://analystrelations.blogspot.com/2006/09/ar-institute-focuses-on-measures.html
James Governor says:
September 21, 2006 at 9:44 am
ARonaut – “should vendors single out?” Its not a question of should – that is the way the business works in many cases. every time you see an analyst white paper that supports a vendor position that is what is happening.
“silly”- no, its just the way it us. certainly some vendors only work with analysts that only say nice things about them.
only invite favourable analysts – i think is absolutely the wrong approach. you need to engage with critics to become more effective.
You raise a good point, in the vinnie and dennis vein, but i actually just read benioff’s comments as praise for a guy that must have called it right over time – rather than being the usual PR/AR/analyst message control approach. but without knowing David’s research better its even harder for me to know