CIOs and IT managers today have far more options to get independent IT analysis on tech trends than they ever did. The simple fact is, industry analysts are competing with the Internet, competing with Google, for relevancy.<\/p>\n
Gartner is doing a fine job, keeping the street happy with deals, while building its talent base with these tuck in acquisitions. But Gartner could buy every single analyst firm in the world, including RedMonk, and there would still be more options than ever<\/em> available to enterprise purchasers and decision makers, should they choose to take advantage of them.<\/p>\n Gartner is a packager of information, and a remarkably effective one at that.<\/p>\n There is a possible downside for vendors, in that Gartner is increasingly “the voice”. But to be fair to Gartner it is becoming more open about its processes in, for example, Magic Quadrant selection, and its doing a better job of tracking open source. Gartner is increasingly real time, which used to be a web (and RedMonk) advantage.<\/p>\n In the past I criticised Gartner for not being open enough. These days I tend to just sit back and admire the execution. RedMonk is a very very different firm, and as a source of second or third opinions, this acquisition can only benefit us.<\/p>\n Enterprises use Gartner for a reason – for the experience and knowledge of its people – and with Burton comes heavy collaboration, directory, networking and SOA experience. Its European security events tend to be well attended even if the firm doesn’t have many bodies here. The Burton deal adds to the recent infusion of AMR supply chain talent. If I were an enterprise customer I’d be quite happy to see the infusion of new consulting and advisory blood, as long as I didn’t have to pay any more for it.<\/p>\n