IDC telecoms chief leaves

This week saw Chris Lewis (@chr1sLew1s) leave IDC and set up his own analyst firm, Lewis Insight.

At IDC, Chris was group vice president, international telecoms and networking. He's also held senior research leadership roles at Ovum and Yankee Group.
 

LewisInsight open for business today,looking to leverage almost 30 years of telecom and related industry experience!
— Chris Lewis (@Chr1sLew1s) June 6, 2013

Ovum: New leader, enterprise growth - but what's next?

Thanks to Claire Booty, I had the opportunity of meeting Steve Hotham, the new Ovum MD at the recent Ovum Industry Congress. 

He gave a good performance (particularly for someone who’d only been in the job for 15 days at the time) and was ably supported by two of his key lieutenants, Ian Charlesworth, director of IT research and analysis, and Richard Mahony, director of Telecoms research and analysis.

Steve cleared up some obvious questions. He’s been brought in to run Ovum. It's business as usual. There will be no merger or integration of Ovum with other Informa businesses.

He also confirmed that Ovum’s Telecoms division and Informa Telecoms & Media will not be merged (although he acknowledged that some back-office administrative functions – not related to research and consulting - are being combined to take advantage of economies of scale). 

Steve comes across as a mature and experienced business leader.  Despite his low-key manner, he is obviously excited about the opportunity to get his teeth into Ovum and make it a success.

It's also very apparent he is an Informa man and for Ovum, that's no bad thing. 

Steve very clearly understands what is expected of him and of Ovum.  It’s the kind of clarity that comes when someone has worked for a company at senior levels for a lengthy period of time. There is deep trust and respect on both sides.  Having someone like this at the top is likely to pay dividends for Ovum in the longer term.

Judging by Richard and Ian's contributions to the conversation, they still have huge passion and commitment for their respective divisions.  There is no sense of disappointment at having missed out on the top job. (Nor from Eamonn Kennedy, director of tools & insights, who – in spite of having just flown in from India - was on good form when I bumped into him later). 

They spoke eloquently and at length about Ovum’s capabilities, the experience of their teams, product innovations, the way analysts work across teams and divisions, and the company’s agility.

Very interesting and positive to see was Ovum’s willingness to start sharing information on the scale of its work in the enterprise market (i.e. with technology buyers and users).

The company says the IT division now has 15,000 registered individuals, from 650 enterprise customers, on its IT Knowledge Centre (the research portal).  In 2012, it was carrying out about one consulting project a week for enterprise clients.

There is also a clear strategy to invest in growing the enterprise business. This is focused on key vertical markets including public sector, financial services and communications & media.

This is good news for Ovum. Having a substantial and growing enterprise base gives any analyst firm clout.  

Many analyst companies claim to influence buyers but very few have been successful at persuading technology buyers to actually purchase research and consulting.

Those which can prove they act as trusted advisors to technology buyers are much sought after (not least by technology providers who believe some of that insight will rub off and help them sell more products). 

So with a growing enterprise business, other basics in place and most things apparently working well, what else might we see from Ovum as Steve gets to move forward with the business?

Here are a couple of suggestions:

Show some more ambition

Although Ovum still considers itself as small compared to many of its competitors, it’s not.

Based on the number of analysts it employs (about 120) the firm is certainly in the top five of general ICT analyst firms (three are obvious, we can debate who the fifth is if you wish).

Ovum has analysts and customers on four continents – Europe, North America, Asia and Australasia. These aren’t associates or affiliates or partners.  They are real employees. Unlike some analyst firms which use smoke and mirrors to give the idea that they’re global players, Ovum’s actually there.  

The company has a powerful parent. Informa is a £1.2 billion GBP ($1.8 billion USD) business. If it chooses to flex its financial muscle, there are plenty of small and mid-tier analyst firms out there which could be brought together to really build out Ovum’s reach in technology areas, verticals and regions.

For instance, looking regionally, Ovum is still relatively unknown in North America, at least in the IT space.  There are surely growth opportunities in Brazil. China remains a powerhouse that is underserved by global analyst firms. And let’s not forget the next wave of emerging markets which include Indonesia, South Africa, Vietnam, Mexico, Turkey and Argentina.

Ovum has pretended to be a small company for too long. It may just be time now to capitalize on all the advantages that size can bring. 

Tell a compelling, credible story about why Ovum is better than the rest

Most analyst relations people will tell you some firms stick out while others blend together in a grey mush. Gartner advises end-users. IDC is the numbers specialist. Current Analysis provides quick and easy-to-digest competitor intelligence. 451 does emerging technologies. Forrester has roles. 

What about Ovum? The firm definitely thinks it has some clear advantages over rivals and can articulate these at a divisional level.

What’s still lacking is a single unifying theme. Without that, Ovum may as well be two separate organizations – one focused on IT and the other on Telecoms. 

We won’t know what’s going to happen for a while. A period of stability for Ovum will be good but firms also need to evolve and grow.  Vision and leadership are crucial.  Steve needs time to understand the business properly, establish himself as leader and build his vision. Let's see what he comes up with. 

Footnote:

Also in the meeting were IIAR (@IIAR) board members Ludovic Leforestier (@lludovic) and Caroline Dennington (@cdennington) as well as IIAR member Patricia Valuch.  I’d encourage you to go and take a read of the IIAR view.

Claus Egge - Rest in Peace

Over the weekend, I heard that Claus has passed away. It's very sad.

We first came into contact when I was doing work with NetApp and Hitachi Data Systems. When Claus left IDC, we would then bump into each on the circuit, as you do.

I always found him friendly, interesting and insightful. He was a very nice man and seemed to know everything possible about the storage market!

You will be missed Claus. Rest in peace.

Analyst Relations & Sales & Social Media

I was delighted to host the IIAR (Institute of Industry Analyst Relations) forum yesterday in a very sunny and hot London.

It is always great to see how many AR professionals are willing to come along and meet old friends, make new contacts, learn about best practice and share their own experiences.

Fionnula Fitzsimons gave an absolutely excellent presentation on AR and sales. It was interesting, insightful and practical. Anyone in AR who needs to get their sales teams on board and demonstrate the value that AR can add to the sales cycle should make sure they get a copy of her presentation (downloadable by IIAR members from Huddle).

And then, we had an excellent panel debate on how analysts use social media with Richard Edwards (Ovum), Dale Vile (Freeform Dynamics) and Dean Bubley (Disruptive Analysis). Robert De Souza of IPsoft chaired a lively discussion.

This was a social media discussion focused on how these analysts actually use it and why. It was interesting to hear about real-life behaviour and practical benefits rather than tools, processes and best practice.

Hopefully, someone at the IIAR is doing a write-up of what was discussed.

And I mustn’t forget a plug for IIAR accreditation. If you’re a member, it’s free to take. It’s a tough quiz but if you have got a couple of years of AR experience and know what you’re doing, then passing the exam should be pretty straightforward.

I’ve passed - and while it’s nice being in an exclusive club, I’d rather be joined by hundreds of other people! The IIAR has even promised to provide us with a badge and our own Linkedin group.

What next for Ovum?

I seem to be one of the few people who mourns the Ovum / Datamonitor divorce. Making the combined offer work was always going to take time as it required huge cultural change.  You were effectively bringing together three different organisations (Ovum, Butler Group and Datamonitor) and trying to create something new.  That takes much longer than most people realise. 

I had a glimpse of how powerful the Collaborative Intelligence approach could be when working with the combined energy/utilities team.  The combination of vertical business and technology expertise allowed Ovum to shine brightly, eclipsing its competitors.  It will be a great loss to the IT industry if the re-organisation means that type of collaboration isn't nutured and encouraged.



The IT world needs Ovum.  Or more accurately, it needs another company that is capable of being a global competitor to Gartner.  IDC does this successfully in its chosen market segment.  Forrester is still pushing hard, with its role-based model and its recent expansion into Asia-Pacific.  Ovum had a chance to be a player at that table.  I wonder if it can still make it. 

Andy Buss joins Freeform Dynamics

Andy Buss has joined Freeform Dynamics as a service director, covering end-user client computing and access and infrastructure communications technologies. According to the Freeform website, his current areas of focus are client, datacenter (I note the US spelling), convergence, unification and networking.

Andy joins from Canalys where he looked at notebooks, desktops & tablets, smartphones, PDAs & navigation (Presumably this means GPS) as well as server & datacenter, IP routing, switching & wireless, and security.

Thoughts on Gartner buying Burton

For those who follow me on Twitter, this post will be very familiar as it is a write-up of the thoughts I posted there last week (slightly expanded and tidied up).

Thought 1
Gartner’s acquisition of Burton cements Gartner as THE company to go to if you want an analyst firm that is being paid by end user buyers for tech advice.

With AMR and Burton gone, there were now two less firms selling to end users – and there were few enough before. There are others out there but they’re mainly specialists and not of the same scale as Gartner.

Thought 2
I wonder what Forrester is doing nowadays as it's missed out on AMR and Burton. It seems to be losing out in the end user market.

Thought 3
This might lead to a bigger opportunity for Ovum to become the main alternative to Gartner in the end user space. If it gets things right...

Thought 4
Gartner's acquisitions seem focused on North America. Who would it try to buy in Europe? Thinking about this, I’m not sure there's anyone obvious over here. Perhaps that's why.

Thought 5
How do boutique firms scale to provide a real alternative to the establishment? There is a real challenge there for the smaller organisations.

Quality of work is important but volume of paid work does count too. It’s not just about creating noise (by which I mean work mainly undertaken to raise profile).

I am hoping that the likes of Ovum and the smaller boutiques (e.g. Quocirca) are going to work hard and keep the big boys honest and on their toes.

Final Thought
If you have a few minutes spare, then listen to the IIAR panel discussion that took place last week. It was interesting. You can find it on the IIAR blog.

Ovum and Datamonitor: The Rise of A New Industry Force?

There's been lots of talk over recent months about the changes happening at Datamonitor, Ovum and Butler Group.

Well, the plans are now complete and the good news is there's enormous potential in what the new look Datamonitor group is trying to accomplish.

Moving forward, the plan is for Ovum to be the single brand selling technology and telecoms research and analysis services. (Datamonitor Tech has already gone and we’re told Butler Group is to be phased out over the coming months).

In the meantime, Datamonitor has established a single technology analyst team under the Ovum banner. This team is split into two groups: one covering IT and the other covering telecoms. All the analysts at Butler Group and Datamonitor Tech have transferred across to Ovum.

And the new Ovum teams are looking to expand out of their traditional vendor home base and start providing research and analysis services that will appeal to the technology buyer.

Now this is where it starts to get really interesting. Because Datamonitor has a huge business outside of IT and telecoms. There are another 350 analysts who are not technology related. They are business specialists covering industries such as Healthcare, Energy and Consumer (FMCG, Retail and Financial Services).

Most of this work is done under the Datamonitor brand (the exception is retail where Datamonitor operates under the name Verdict Research). And Datamonitor argues it is the “powerhouse brand” in many of these industry segments.

For example, it says it has more analysts covering healthcare and retail than any other company in the world. Verdict Research's position in retail has been endorsed by no less than Sir Stuart Rose.

That depth of resource out strips anything that the other tech analyst firms can offer. Those technology analyst firms that have built up teams to look at vertical markets have done so on a smaller scale. Quite naturally, they have also concentrated on the use of technology rather than providing broader business insight.

Until now, technology has never seemed to fit easily in the Datamonitor group. It's both vertical (with analysts advising vendors on how to run their business) and horizontal (with technology being used by every type of company out there).

Too often, the opportunities offered by the latter have been neglected. Not any more.

CEO Mark Meek has spent the past two years putting together a strategy that he believes will allow Ovum to compete at the highest levels when selling to IT and telecoms vendors. More importantly, he hopes it will enable Ovum to move in to the buy side market in a significant way.

Ovum will now work with all the other Datamonitor analyst teams (including Verdict) under the “Collaborative Intelligence” model. Technology analysts can call on the insight and expertise of their industry colleagues to help them in their work. Similarly, the industry analysts can turn to Ovum when their clients need advice on technology and telecoms.

This is obviously a huge culture change – and Mark's introduced processes and structures to try and ensure it works in real life as well as on paper. He is determined that analysts in Ovum and Datamonitor start working together. For example, cross industry teams must now meet every month and every quarter to discuss research agendas. There is also a common model across the whole group - gather data, apply meaningful insight and make recommendations.

Like all cultural change, it is taking time and it's been painful – but things are apparently coming together slowly but surely..

For Ovum, the advantages are clearly defined.

Its analysts can now help IT departments talk the language of their specific industry (not the generic language of business). If I am a CIO and I want outside IT advice from an industry analyst, I can now turn to Ovum. I will get the advice I need – but that advice won't be generic. It will be based on a detailed understanding of the industry in which I work.

That's only possible because the Ovum team can call on the resources of all their colleagues who specialise in healthcare or retail or energy or FS or consumer goods. These people are actually experts in that industry, not in technology. All of a sudden, as a CIO, I have industry experts and technology experts being brought together to answer my questions and give me the advice I need. That's powerful.

Ovum will do the same for technology suppliers, helping them understand their clients' industry – and not just from a technology perspective. As a vendor, my product, marketing and sales teams now have a new source of industry insight and expertise that they can use to make sure they know what's happening in their clients and prospects. They are no longer talking in generic, cliched horizontal technology terms but addressing real, specific business issues in a detailed way.

It's hard to get across the real potential of the model in words – but at a recent Ovum event, two great examples of how this might work were given (one for pharma and one for retail). Videos of both are available on the Ovum website (you can also access them via the IIAR blog).

According to the Datamonitor and Ovum leadership teams, feedback from CIOs has been very positive. On the other hand, vendors have been underwhelmed. They don't appear to have yet grasped the concept or the benefits it could bring.

It's exciting to hear Mark and his senior colleagues speak. They are doing something different and there is the opportunity here for Ovum to become a powerhouse technology and telecoms industry analyst firm, in both the buy-side and sell-side sectors.

Of course, there is the chance that it will all fail. While the vision is compelling, the challenge of making it real is huge. Some steps have been taken but there is plenty more that needs to happen before anyone can declare the new Datamonitor/Ovum a success.

One thing is clear. We now have three sizeable, clearly differentiated competitors to Gartner. One is focused on market sizing (IDC), one on roles (Forrester) and one on industry insight (Ovum).

Buyers – both buy-side and sell-side - should be delighted to have real choice in the market.

Gideon Gartner on the future of the industry analyst

I have been told I mustn't be shy. I should make sure you all know to go see Gideon Gartner, Jonathan Yarmis and me discuss the future of the industy analyst.

Thanks to Ovum for inviting me to take part in its recent event launching "Collaborative Intelligence".

You can access the video via the IIAR website.

Gartner buys AMR

So, another analyst firm is to disappear. This time it's that leader in ERP and supply chain, AMR Research. It's being bought by Gartner for $64 million.

AMR seems to have got a fair price - 1.6 x sales is roughly the same ratio as Jupiter Research got from Forrester ($23 million paid on sales of $14 million) and more than Gartner paid for Meta ($162 million, 1.35 x sales of $122 million).

I'm not as upbeat as some other industry commentators are. AMR was a well respected firm with a good team of analysts. In its niche, AMR was a strong rival to Gartner.

Vendors and buyers looking for a second opinion on supply chain are now going to struggle to find a viable alternative in the short-term (although watch out for Datamonitor/Ovum, there's some really interesting stuff going on there - a compelling vision if it can be delivered on).

Given Forrester's focus on role-based research, you might have thought it would have taken a fancy to AMR. It'd be interesting to know if it got outbid by Gartner.

Because once word got out that AMR was up for sale, it's hard to see Gartner letting anyone else buy it. It's just too good a deal - revenue, clients, people and opportunities for growth.

Bruce Richardson, chief research officer at AMR, is eloquent in explaining why this also makes sense for AMR, over and above the hard cash that Gartner offered.

If you're interesting in reading more on this, it's worth checking out the IIAR blog post on the acquisition. There's some interesting and valuable insights there.