Thursday: What Gartner’s haste, hype and sales can (and can’t) do

At 11 am Eastern time we’re repeating our webinar to review recent changes at Gartner. It’s been interesting to see the feedback we’ve been getting from folk over the last month. A number of these suggest that Gartner is increasing its lead on Forrester in client numbers (although Forrester’s building deeper relationships, and there’s more from us on that topic soon). However, comments suggest that the firm also faces three particular challenges, especially with global account management.

  1. More haste. One feeling is that Gartner’s analysts face increasing workloads, and this makes it easier for detailed research to be replaced by a grand narrative developing in its work, for example on the shift to managed services and cloud computing. That’s come in for some sharp criticism: it’s possible that Gartner needs spending on traditional IT moving over to the cloud solutions (and certainly we are seeing sharp falls of up to a quarter in many markets).
  2. More hype cycles.  Because Hype Cycles generate a lot of discussion, make clients feel smart, produce press and are easier than data-driven research, they are very attractive to analysts. However, some clients feel that the number of Hype Cycles and the emphasis on them in discussions is moving too far away from real issues of implimentation.
  3. More salespeople.  The trend away from global accounts is uneven, with some salespeople holding on to worldwide relationships, but the unwelcome experience for some firms is that they have multiple account managers selling into different territories.

As in each monthly interactive webinar, this discussion will give Lighthouse’s insight into developments of the firm being discussed that month. We’ll share our most recent into the firm’s research interests, customer base and international reach. We’ll also review the impact of this year’s changes on the firm, and the firm’s relative influence on end-users.

The call will be on Thursday at
– 8 am Pacific
– 11 am Eastern
– 4 pm Britain
– 5 pm Central Europe
– 6 pm Finland, Israel.

To book your seat, visit http://www.etickets.to/buy/e.x?cid=508

Duncan Chapple

Duncan Chapple is the preeminent consultant on optimising international analyst relations and the value created by analyst firms. As SageCircle research director, Chapple directs programs that assess and increase the business value of relationships with industry analysts and sourcing advisors.

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  1. September 04, 2009, 6:17 pm

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