The Lessening Influence of Gartner
Vinnie Mirchandani, former Gartner analyst, recently wrote a interesting analysis of Gartner’s diminishing influence in the enterprise. In Vinnie’s view, “…I read my former Gartner colleague Jonathan Yarmis rave about its growing “influence” - and I pause. Most CIOs I talk to have not increased spend with Gartner the last few years. Most think its research is passe.”
As someone who just came out of the traditional research world, I would say Gartner is not alone in this challenge and Gartner’s traditional peers face many of the same issues. In my view, like Vinnie’s, Gartner’s Magic Quadrant has become much more important to the vendors than it has for enterprises and the Forrester Wave provides little to no direction for enterprises in their decision-making process.
This isn’t to say many of the veteran analysts aren’t extremely sharp and don’t have deep domain knowledge within their respective field. The problem is that the heavy hand (and wallet) of the vendors, the lack of transparency, the unwillingness to innovate in structure, content, and delivery, and lack of community inclusion will continue to diminish the value of the products and services that those firms offer today.
In the Knowledge Infusion Center of Excellence, my mission is to flip this model upside down. That means opening up the ecosystem of the HCM community, providing full and open disclosure of content, information, and methodology, leveraging new media tools and technologies, and provide a forward-looking view of where the market needs to be focused and how decisions and strategies can impact business outcomes.
May 17th, 2007
8 Comments Add your own
1. Tom O'B | May 18th, 2007 at 9:40 am
Jason:
This is something that always frustrated me about the analyst companies. It is a closed (and from my view at least) pay-for-play kind of world.
I think that perhaps the analysts are being dis-intermediated by the internet, just as brand marketers are being dis-intermediated.
It has not happened quite as quickly, but for example my passion is windsurfing. Believe it or not, windsurfing is a highly technical sport, and getting good information about products and technique are critical. We used to get this information from the manufacturers and the industry trade magazines. No longer. We now get this information from each other.
The internet has enabled us to find each other and share impressions, recommendations and experience. We don’t need the manufacturers or the mags any more as a source of information.
Above is a micro-example of brand/marketer dis-intermediation - and it is happening at breakneck pace across all kinds of consumer products. Cellphones, digi cams, cars, pharma, etc.
Now, can this happen in HCM Software/Service space? Yes - and I think an analyst group with an open architecture and un-packaged community features has a GREAT future.
Good Luck -
TO’B
2. Decreasing Influence of G&hellip | May 18th, 2007 at 9:57 am
[…] Influence of Gartner & The Yankee Group Great post from Jason Corsello about the lessening influence of Gartner and The Yankee […]
3. Susan Scrupski | May 20th, 2007 at 6:26 am
Hey Jason– As we have talked about this for so long– yes, yes, yes. Good stuff. Happy to see you outside the coventional analyst “firewall.”
Hope to see you in Boston next month. S
4. Phil Fersht | May 20th, 2007 at 7:44 pm
Jason - your approach is welcome and the best of luck to you in building faith in your future customers.
The inherent problem with the IT research business is the simple fact that in past years (Gartner’s heyday), research always thrived on innovation. IT was sparkling new and exciting, people always wanted to read and learn, and there was real passion and energy in the industry. And then the internet came along to really drive things forward. Nowadays, however, IT has become a lot more sophisticated and mainstream, the users have become a lot more savvy, and the analysts are struggling to stay ahead of them in terms of real practical experience. I mean, how can someone who’s been in Gartner (or Forrester, AMR etc) for 15 years and hasn’t tinkered with a piece of software since the early ’90s (or ever) really enlighten his or her clients that much these days? These quadrants are easy ways to make money - from the vendors - and it seems like the users just don’t place as much importance on them these days. On the flip side, vendors need tools to market their wares and these analyst firms provide the vehicle. Moreover, most of these large analyst houses are publicly-traded entities and need to achieve quarterly P&L targets, and they’ll resort to the quickest way to do it. Maybe if they went private and knuckled down to a long-term plan like the one you suggest, things will revert to the way they were…who knows?
5. Colin Kingsbury | May 21st, 2007 at 9:24 am
I think there’s something very similar going on in the trade show industry, which has a similarly “mixed” (some would use a much stronger epithet) revenue model. To Phil’s point, innovation is still very much alive and well, but the sources of it are increasingly smaller vendors and even users themselves. In the case of user-driven innovation, it poses an interesting challenge as I would argue that a non-trivial amount of it will in fact represent proprietary processes which I would not want people talking about in the open.
6. Phil Fersht | May 21st, 2007 at 1:05 pm
Colin - good points. Innovation never went away, just the ability of the Gartners of this world to continue to ride it and stay ahead of the curve as well as they used to. These guys are maximing their brand and milking the rewards….somethings just seem to have slipped away in the process.
7. Jim Holincheck | May 31st, 2007 at 9:27 am
I already commented on Vinnie’s blog about some of his assertions about the value of Gartner and other industry analyst firms. I would comment here on the value of Magic Quadrants and MarketScopes for end-user clients. At one level, these research notes communicate to clients the Gartner position on a vendor/product in a particular market (as well as the key trends and state of that market in general). We do not expect, nor do we see, clients use those documents to make software selection decisions. That is one of the reasons why the Gartner service is not just access to the written research. We want clients to talk to us about how to apply the research to their specific needs. Many clients do that (my inquiry volumes would attest to that).
It is interesting to see the discussion in the comments about the disintermediation of Gartner (and other analyst firms) by what is available on the internet. At the end of the day, I believe (this is my own personal opinion) that IT buyers want and need trusted advisors to help them make decisions. Will bloggers and communities become the new trusted advisors? Yes, it probably will in some cases (there are many knowledgeable bloggers out there already). However, one of the unique things about an industry analyst is the number and variety of inputs that they get from both end users and vendors. In addition, the industry analyst firms provide “one-stop shopping” for a breadth and depth of trusted advisors that is hard for other approaches to meet, especially for a CIO or other senior executive.
8. Jason Corsello | June 13th, 2007 at 5:46 am
Thanks for your comments Jim. Do traditional analyst firms have unique insight…absolutely. Is their value in that insight…no question. I simply see most of the traditional analysts firm, including my previous employer, not moving quick enough to support the disintermediation we are seeing. I think their is so much more they could be doing but are forced to support their existing business model, which I would argue is flawed in today’s market.
Jim, their is no question regarding the value you provide to clients, both vendors and enterprises. I personally see it all of the time. I would argue, though, that you are one of only a few remaining “stars”, (as ex-Gartner analyst Brian Sommer describes), in Gartner’s stable.
Cheers,
Jason
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