Comments on: Marc Benioff says Ovum’s Bradshaw better than Gartner/Forrester folk

By: James Governor

James Governor — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 15:44:11 +0000

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

By: ARonaut

ARonaut — Wed, 20 Sep 2006 16:24:21 +0000

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

By: James Governor

James Governor — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 22:47:55 +0000

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.

By: James

James — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 20:09:56 +0000

It would be interesting if Redmonk were to uncover enterprise perspectives on Gartner & Forrester relative to small analyst firms…

By: Dennis Howlett

Dennis Howlett — Sat, 16 Sep 2006 07:11:18 +0000

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.

By: vinnie mirchandani

vinnie mirchandani — Sat, 16 Sep 2006 00:11:22 +0000

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…

By: David Rossiter

David Rossiter — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 21:20:44 +0000

Indeed.