Comments on: Gartner and Forrester’s Report Card (so far)

By: Traditional Analysis Firms, It’s All About Dollars. But Are Blogs Heading the Same Way? at diversity.net.nz

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 07:48:53 +0000

[...] Gartner and Forrester’s Report Card (so far) CloudAve is exclusively sponsored by [...]

By: The Social Enterprise » Le Ferrari delle Community Online

The Social Enterprise » Le Ferrari delle Community Online — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 03:52:08 +0000

[...] Questo ruolo attivo trasforma i giudici in giudicati, come sta da qualche tempo accadendo per gli analisti di mercato nell’Enterprise 2.0. Esistono alcuni segnali su cui spero di tornare presto che tuttavia [...]

By: Why vendors mistake analysts’ primary task as being forecasting : Analyst Equity - Lighthouse’s action research blog

Sun, 07 Sep 2008 09:43:06 +0000

[...] currently-available solutions.Matt’s picking up on some experiences shared back in March by Sam Lawrence, CMO at a software vendor who found that Gartner and Forrester analysts failed to explore and [...]

By: Susan Scrupski

Susan Scrupski — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 23:01:30 +0000

Hi Sam. It amazes me how much our F500/G2000 clients are still reliant on the traditional analyst house’s opinions and reports. Did I say amazes? Looking for a stronger word… It’s somewhat of a frustration for me. If you’ve not seen it, a great post/debate on old school analysts vs. the digerati analysts was posted last fall by the HP analyst relations guy (whom I’m told since moved on). The comments further the debate. See for yourself: http://tinyurl.com/3ddybw

Kudos to you for grading the analysts and provoking some conversation on this topic.

By: Trisha

Trisha — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 01:49:02 +0000

Jeremiah has really made Forrester research a household name. Heck – HE is a household name (at least so long as someone in the house runs a small business or does anything online =P )

I don’t believe enterprises use these reports, however. What are assistants for, if not to research? Maybe they buy some reports from time to time, but I doubt an annual membership.

In all honesty, I use Aberdeen and my personal assistant to get at any information I need.

By: Gotta Conversation Jones?

Gotta Conversation Jones? — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 20:18:23 +0000

Will the Blogosphere Obsolete Analysts?…

In recent post Sam Lawrence, CMO of Jive Software, raised the question “Will insightful and credible people from (the) Blogosphere make analysts irrelevant?” Good question, Sam. As my father used to say, let’s take some think time on this…

By: Grading the analysts - The Network Hub: A SearchNetworking.com blog

Grading the analysts - The Network Hub: A SearchNetworking.com blog — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 20:21:34 +0000

[...] experiences. Sam Lawrence, chief marketing officer of Jive Software, a social software vendor, blogged this week about his experiences with two shops: Gartner and Forrester Research, two of the the biggest IT research and consulting firms out there. [...]

By: sam

sam — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 18:59:03 +0000

Kudos to you, Ray, for reaching out. That’s very cool.

I should be clear that as it applies to you guys, it’s not about the analysts. You guys are super smart and are doing your thing.

Most of what seems to be broken is the processes and fatty tissue on the relationship side. All that said, this is just a point in time. I spoke to your Sales reps today and I think they understand the issues, so hopefully productive stuff will come out of it.

By: Ray Valdes

Ray Valdes — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 17:36:01 +0000

Hey Sam, very interesting post.

A small point of information: Gartner first covered Jive Software back in August 2006, mentioned in my overview report on corporate blogging technology, now dated but still available at http://www.gartner.com/DisplayDocument?id=495227

Can’t speak for others, but speaking for myself, I am always interested in talking to customers and end-users about their use of social software. I probably have about five hundred such conversations in the course of a year, mostly through the inquiry process but also through other means such as formal one-on-one sessions and informal conversations at vendor/industry conferences.

There are now other colleagues at Gartner who are spending more time than me covering the category of enterprise social software. However, I am still interested in hearing about your company, its products and relevant customer experiences. Let’s keep the conversation going.

By: Richard Telofski

Richard Telofski — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 14:25:35 +0000

“Will insightful and credible people from Blogosphere make analysts irrelevant?”

Theoretically possible, I suppose. But it would require client brains akin to the best sponges out there, and clients with unlimited amounts of time.

Analysts provide the knowledge absorption and capacity of hours, allowing clients to actually run their businesses.