As organizations look to analyst firms for guidance often little is offered. Analyst firms of today just validate a decision you have already made and comment on market conditions . As Dennis Howlett says in his post it is time re-evaluate The future of the IT Analyst Game
It is time for analyst firms to evolve their business models and add value to the organizations that are looking for more than to validate an already made decision. One of the problems with Analyst firms today is they comment and research technology which is useful but it must also be coupled with valuable business insight and real world experience. The real world experience plays an important part especially by bringing actual project management and product expertise which they are very knowledgeable about which can offer advice and counsel of what to look out for during selections, negotiations and even implementations.
Many of the Analyst firms today are based on the 80/20 model of which 80% of revenue comes from vendors while only 20% comes from organizations. Analyst firms need real products and services so that the customers they do have can derive valuable information towards things like pricing negotiation, project pitfalls, project planning and implementation experience to draw upon when counselling end users. As a Business Architect and Business Analyst and Project Manager with real world experience we are the new breed of Analyst/Consulting firm.
At Eval-Source we not only add value to the customer through strategic consulting if they would like but combine the business knowledge with technology solutions that solve what the organizations was originally looking for. Guidance with business expertise coupled with technology experience mixed in to steer the company to the best possible outcome whether it’s for software evaluation, benchmarking, investment evaluation, outsourced procurement or any other services that they are capable of offering. Our buy-side advocacy ensures that organizations get the best value for the consulting they pay for with real qualitative actionable results. These expertise have resulted in tangible products for organizations to gain from our experiences that drive immediate value. We will also be introducing evaluation consulting catered towards the SMB market specifically to allow them to get the best value for their money and the best solution for their company.
Now that Gartner has acquired AMR and gained quality supply chain expertise in the process will they be able to translate that to a changing business model that targets organizations ? Are organizations devaluing the Gartner recommendations as the pay to play model is being closely examined by companies and not finding much value in the magic quadrant as suggested? Will there be further consolidation in the Analyst market to force organizations that will only be left with one source to purchase research ?
We will have to see where the market will eventually evolve to, however the new breed of Consulting/Analyst firms should take note and try adapt by possibly being ready for what may become a more end-user oriented arena. Analyst such as Ray Wang at the Altimeter Group, Dennis Howlett, Vinnie the Deal Architect, Thomas Wailgum are all ERP advocates for the customer side, is this the new trend that will become the new model. With the ERP advocates gaining steam we are changing the dynamic of software is bought and sold so that there is a win-win for everyone involved.
Archive for the ‘outsourced procurement’ Category
The evolution of Analyst Firms
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010
Finally, cloud computing standards and interoperability being established
Tuesday, October 13th, 2009With the advent of cloud computing exploding to most any type of application being available, it only makes sense for industry standards and interoperability to be established.
The Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) announced today the formation of the Cloud Storage Initiative (CSI) in order to establish a lexicon of cloud-computing terminology, publish use cases, white papers and technical specifications, and to create reference implementation models for grid-storage architectures.
The implications of this news, should it be embraced by vendors and more importantly end-users (organizations) should drive cloud computing to a whole other level. The creation of open standards for vendors to comply will also make it easier for customers to migrate from one system to another and allow the end-user multiple choices of vendors and applications as they should all work together as this is one the goals that this cloud initiative establishes.
The creation and consumption of data should be easier by making the data easily portable to other applications within the enterprise space. This is especially great news for the SME market as there are many services that an SME can utilize such as cloud storage, outsourced procurement, server virtualization, human resources and all types enterprise software systems etc. That can be made to work together.
This in-turn would make the IT strategies for organizations easier as now the data portion of the will be considered as this was not often the case. The explosion of information, different sources, the content management of internal and external data can now be managed a little easier. An advantage that this may offer organizations is that they can easily switch to other applications and not have to redo the implementation as the data is now reusable and portable.
Lets hope the cloud computing initiative can provides direction, allows data transformation, portability and not lose sight of why this was created. Vendors that offer this thought leadership and early adoption of the cloud initiative might be looked upon as market leaders in a step towards creating a more trusting relationship with customers.
Eval-Source introduces "Ask the Expert" on new site
Thursday, October 8th, 2009Eval-Source has introduced its new website with an “Ask the Expert” interaction for organizations looking to purchase enterprise software. Questions can be asked about software evaluation, benchmarking, investment evaluation, outsourced procurement and strategic consulting all the services www.Eval-Source.com provides. Our best practices approach combines IT, business and project management into a complete methodology so that commonly forgotten items are included and the necessary detail is produced to give you the best decision possible based on your organizational needs.
Organizations often do not have method or a starting point on how to evaluate enterprise software other than basic generic checklists that are published. Our Tru-Eval method and Tru-Benchmark kits provide a procedure and systematic approach to software evaluation and selection. Our Tru-Eval and Tru-Benchmark kits make it easy for organizations to do it themselves with minimal training and within their own time frame.
