Twitter honesty reveals Gartner Magic Quadrants for what they really are…

Courtesy of Carterlusher (and compounded by him), finally it is proved by a Gartner analyst that MQs are worthless.

Here Carterlusher shows the transcript of some tweeting by Gartner ‘Analyst’ French Caldwell.

The article shows that Magic Quadrants are not based (as you may think) on the analyst doing active research as to the latest new technologies/companies in the marketplace and cool trends etc.  Oh no, you guessed it, they are based entirely on who has the biggest/best AR.

These guys have become so arrogant now that they think that they can sit back and people will come to them and they no longer have to do ‘research’ or real ‘analysis’ – just collate questionnaire answers and build MQs / form ‘informed’ opinions based on that.

Yet more indication that this is a self-serving parasitic structure offering no real independent ‘balanced’ opinion.

I’m done with you guys – not good PR for Gartner at all…

James McGovern on Transparency

James makes a good point – how transparent are you?

http://duckdown.blogspot.com/2009/02/how-come-redmonk-is-only-analyst-firm.html

No matter how many times you tell me how much a client pays you doesn’t affect your opinion, I’m still going to feel like what you say is a little ‘dirty’…

Lovely piece of bitching

Vendors are biting back, and Gartner have the answers – an interesting little debate…

http://blogs.gartner.com/andreas_bitterer/2008/12/28/setting-the-record-straight/

Irrelevance doesn’t pay

So, now they are feeling the pinch.

Gartner (amongst others) are cancelling conferences, summits, symposia, you name it.

Why?

Times are tough, people are looking to save money and your ROI is incredibly obtuse.  You have become irrelevent to core business.

If you are/want to be a successful analyst, cut through the crap and start telling people how to save money and jobs, NOW.

Start talking about the techniques and technologies that will make a difference, and do it now, in clear, plain English.

I’m not interested in cool, sexy new technology that will pay back over the next 3-5 years.

Running a paid conference in 2009 is tough, very tough.  Budgets are tighter than they have been for a long time, and fripperies such as conferences are right out I’m afraid.

If however, you turn up on my doorstep to tell me about some really cool stuff I can do to become more efficient, fast – then I’m more than happy to listen.

P.S. – Cloud is NOT the answer to everything…

More guff

OK, so I’m back – sorry for the LONG absence, but other things took over my life.

I’m back at another analyst conference (Burton Catalyst in Prague) and again I am so far underwhelmed.

Just sat through a market overview of a particular market, supposedly identifying the key players.  Yet again the same old ‘big names’ showed up on the slides, missing out several other companies with not so big names that I happen to know actually have more revenue in this particular space.  Also certain smaller players were called out for completely the wrong part of their portfolio.  A massively blinkered view of a space they claim to be experts in.

It was a self-indulgent discussion between their own analysts on stage that again proved to be outstandingly content-light.

So in the first session, Burton have completely eroded all confidence I could have had in their ‘analysis’.

How did they choose the ‘case studies’ they are going to present, were they based on how much the vendor spent with them?

If I was an end-user in the audience I have just been misguided and am missing out on some of the new and innovative stuff that I paid a lot of money to learn about.

Am I really going to be interested in their view from now on?

Naivety?

Mike Rothman in response to my post said that I showed a serious level of naivety?

Am I naive or are the people who make their decisions based on the opinion of one analyst naive?

Just journalists spouting common sense…

Been thinking about this more, especially as this week I am attending a ‘Gartner Summit’.

‘Stating the bleeding obvious’ seems to be the theme of most presentations at these type of events. Someone I was chatting to outside said “I can’t believe these guys get respect for telling us what we already know and we pay a lot of money for them to do so” – fair comment?

How do analysts at these type of events show they add value?  Surely they should tell me something new?

So, what am I looking for at this event?

1. Insight into new techologies.
2. inspiring vision and direction.
3. End user case studies/real-world stories.

From experience what am I expecting?

1. Being told what I already know by regularly reading the web etc (i.e. Journalism).
2. Some chronically bad presenting (They need to listen to Seth and Garr)
3. General reporting and bad stats (”I/Gartner estimate”) that I can easily find or make up myself if I wanted to (more journalism).

I’ll let you know how I get on…

Ass-covers…

Long busy week, so sorry for lack of posts.

This however annoyed me this week. A mail from someone in my organisation who is trying to get some software sold. The techies and business guys have spent a long time reviewing the software, spoken to other customers, done a proof of concept and everyone wants it, however the purchase needs to ratified by the ‘governance board’ Here is the comment from the company we are talking to:

“2 of the Governance Board are very ‘into’ Gartner’s views and our champions will be asked for Gartner info on you. Please see the comment from our sponsor below:

With regards to the Gartner information, it is important I have the information to hand, in case it is raised during the presentation. If I do not have the information when questioned, I will have to admit that I had requested it from you, on more than one occasion, and nothing was delivered. This is not a situation that would be particularly comfortable for me, or you.

I’m sure you’ll all agree this is a ridiculous situation for us to be in.

They need Gartner information on:

1. Your company (generic would be OK)

2. Products”

_____________________________________________________

Why on earth are they paying all these experienced in-house people and external consultants to test and evaluate software, companies and relationships if after many months of testing and investment it’s going to come down to the opinion of one guy from Gartner who maybe read some stuff on our website and didn’t speak to any of our other customers?

How did we get to this?

Will Gartner give them a refund or accept liability if the decision is wrong?

It used to be ‘you’ll never get fired for buying blue’, has it now become ‘you’ll never get fired if Gartner say it’s OK’?

Comments

Apparently some valid comments made recently have been deleted by WordPress as spam.

I am sorry for this and have fixed it, if you don’t see yours, please re-post.

Times are tight – How do you sell better?

Got cold-called today by a well-known UK Analyst firm.

The lady started to tell me about some new reports they had and how they would change my life.

I told her that we had big contracts already with Gartner and Forrester and why would I need her reports, also if I did need them that justifying the expense would be difficult in light of these contracts.

She gave up, instantly!

Surely it’s not that easy?

Belts are tightening, the big analysts firms are looking at lay-offs – what’s your plan to get my money?