Update on the Institute of Industry Analyst Relations

There's been a lot going on at the Institute of Industry Analyst Relations recently so it seemed an appropriate time for a quick update.

As you may have seen, we now have a website. This contains information and news on the Institute as well as various sections for members. These include an AR job shop, discussion forums, a calendar of training courses and events, as well as a library that contains (among other things) 'best practice' whitepapers and analyst firm research agendas and team directories. (Hat tip to Tekrati for providing the newsfeed we use on our homepage).

Looking ahead, we’re delighted to have Gartner presenting at our next meeting which is taking place on 15 March. Peter Sondergaard (SVP and head of research) and Aaron Yaverski (GVP, high-tech provider product management) are our guest speakers. If anyone is interested in attending, please contact us using the details on the website.

In January, at our last meeting, IIAR members and guests from companies such as BEA, BT, CA, Cisco, LogicaCMG, Oracle, T-Systems and Unisys came to hear Datamonitor executives Anthony Parslow and Tim Royston-Webb. There was obviously lots of interest in Datamonitor’s recent acquisition of Ovum and Anthony and Tim spoke openly about the company’s future plans for the business.

There’s a summary of the meeting at the IIAR Yahoo Group. Members can find more information (including the Datamonitor presentation and handouts in the Library section of the IIAR website.

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Disclosure: I am a board member at the IIAR along with Duncan Chapple, Susanne Huebner, Ludovic Leforestier and David Taylor. The secretary of the IIAR is Hannah Kirkman.

Free: A Guide to Industry Analysts

Clive, Bob and the rest of the Quocirca team have produced a handy guide to the world of industry analysts.

The report is called “Use and Abuse of Analysts: A Guide for Vendors” and is available to download free of charge from the Quocirca site.

Aimed primarily at those who are interested in briefing analysts (rather than buying research or consultancy), it’s a very useful introduction.

The guide provides an overview of the analyst market, looks at what analysts do and when to use them. It also provides some ideas on identifying the most relevant analysts and gives tips on how to successfully interact with them.

I would say it’s a ‘must read’ if you are new to the world of AR and want to better understand who analysts are and how they work.

Those more familiar with the analyst market shouldn’t find it contains any surprises - though it’s still worth a quick read through.

Tony Lock and Joyce Becknell join Freeform Dynamics

I got called out by The AR Pro for my recent lack of posts. Quite right too.

So here's my first post of 2007.

Freeform Dynamics is expanding once again, this time adding Tony Lock and Joyce Becknell to its team. Tony and Joyce were previously at Sageza (although Tony is probably best known for his work with Bloor Research, the firm he left last year).

Both join as 'programme directors', a new role at Freeform Dynamics.

According to the website, Tony's current interests are hosting and services as well as software as a service.

Joyce meanwhile will be covering go-to-market (including SMB and mid-market sectors, emerging markets and channels) as well as server & storage infrastructure.