Here’s the agenda for today’s Forum –action packed as usual… and with the proverbial curry at the end!

Agenda
1500-1530   Social media tutorial
1545-1600   Registration
1600-1605   Introductions and welcome
1605-1620   Report back from Gartner Symposium
1620-1655   Discussion groups:
- AR and social media
- Planning for 2010
- Gaining and maintaining executive support for AR
1655-1715 Discussion groups report back
1715-1730 Break
1730-1830 Guest speaker: Brad Holmes, VP Technology Research at Forrester Research
1830 p.m. Close of meeting and informal dinner

This week is quite busy for IIAR members with not just one event but two:

• Tomorrow Tuesday, all are welcome to an IIAR Tweetup at Butcher’s Hook in Smithfields (http://bit.ly/2wHTzn) with @gerryvz, @dompannell, @duncanchapple, @EdGemmell, @JonnyBentwood, @lludovic and others.  Kick-off around 1800.
• On Thursday, it’s the IIAR November Forum in London with Forrester (members only).

And don’t forget about the IIAR Christmas Cafe on the 3rd December, all welcome too -many analysts already have confirmed their participation. More here and later.

Duncan hosted a teleconference with Peggy O’Neill of the IIAR board on Analyst Relations Certification and posted the summary on his Analyst Equity blog.

The IIAR Certification is a first step in equipping AR Professionals with an independent industry professional certification, definitely a good way to boost a CV.

It’s open to all AR practitioners, free to IIAR members and for a fee to others.
Read more in Peggy’s own post: IIAR Launches Certification for Analyst Relations Managers

IIAR, AR, Certification

Carsten Schmidt and other IDC Alumni recently formed Henry Corporation as a network of analysts offering strategic advice and marketing services to IT vendors, including Martin Hingley. Read Carter’s post for more background.

1. What are your coverage areas?
   At HENRY I manage the commercial communication with our clients and project manage larger and cross-country projects.
2. What are your opinions of the IT Analysis Marketplace and where do you see it going?
   A marketplace assumes sellers and buyers. Frankly, I see the buyers pulling out because of the vast availability of free information and alternate sources. Secondly analysis and marketplace are contradicting forces if we hold on to the belief that analysis is an objective or even scientific process as opposed to the notion of a marketplace. There’re numerous examples how research firms productize their analysis. By doing that information transforms from research to marketing. There’s nothing wrong (or ”magic”) about that as long as we stop calling it research.
3. What’s your typical day like?
   I communicate a lot, either by email, phone or blogs. My role is to be proactive towards HENRY’s clients, the IT vendors. I spend most mornings planning my day and prioritizing my approach. I care a lot about not wasting other people’s time. I firmly believe in business relationships that are mutually sensible meaning having the respect and interest in your client’s goals and objectives. Talking to people I never think what I can get out of it, but how it can benefit the other part. Experience has taught me that this approach is the most rewarding in the long run.
4. Now, c’mon, tell me an AR horror story?
   AR’s are marketers and part of the marketing ecosystem together with research analysts and sales and marketing people. Most ARs know that which helps communication and facilitate exchange of information. It is only when AR’s commence pre-assessing the purpose of your approach that the AR misunderstands their role.
5. How do you position your firm? What is your business model? (where are your revenues coming from, mix between users and vendors?)
   Our revenue comes solely from vendors. And we are in the business of helping building pipe lines by providing lead generation on behalf of the IT vendors. This is no different from our research colleagues in the industry apart from the fact that we communicate it in the open. World business as such is becoming more and more verticalized wherefore in-depth understanding of the IT business is a prerequisite for providing tactical marketing services. Research is used as a tool in one-on-one projects and as a foundation for offering the right tactical approach. Consequently we do not believe in published qualitative research reports as they are by nature  strongly biased toward the intended buying audience.
6. What is your research methodology, in 255 characters or less?  (primary research, F2F or phone, secondary only, etc…)
   Qualitative research must by default be primary. If not I’d call it journalism. Quantitative data can easily come from public available sources as long as you are a skilled analyst able to verify and see behind the data. HENRY only partner with highly experienced analysts as you will know from our website.
   
7. Any favourite AR professional you’d like to mention? Any why?
   IBM’s Carsten Grønning is a great representative for the AR community. Forward coming, helpful, proactive and knowledgeable.
8. Tell us about one good AR practice you’ve experienced or one good AR event you’ve atttended.
   As long as the relationship is mutually sensible any AR practice and activity is good, simply because proactivity is beneficial and time saving for both the research company and the IT vendor.
9. What are your offerings and key deliverables?
   HENRY has three offerings, Research-, Activate- and Event-related. We consider research as an integral part of the marketing value chain which real  purpose obviously is to improve market shares. We embrace that value chain by focusing at the ultimate goal for our clients, the IT vendors.
10. What is your biggest challenges for the upcoming 6 months? And for the next 30 mn?
    Strategy work at IT vendors are being centralized at headquarters. That has been a trend for years now. Secondly still more marketing money are spend closer to the clients at the expense of market intelligence. Our challenge is to communicate this trend to our prospect clients and to offer marketing services that are closer to our clients customers.

The IIAR has just published a summary of best practices papers and added a new editorial calendar detailing papers that we plan to publish in coming months.  Papers are free of charge to all IIAR members – to access them, just go to Library – > Best Practice White Papers and Teleconferences -> White Papers.

Feedback and contributions from IIAR members and non-IIAR members are welcome! If you are interested in contributing a paper, or have ideas for topics that you would like to see included, please contact me directly at peggy.oneill@analystrelations.org.

In March 2010 the current IIAR Secretary, Hannah Kirkman, will be leaving and we are looking for someone to take over the role. As Secretary, you’ll be responsible for the day-to-day running of the IIAR, including looking after members, organising events, maintaining the website and supporting the board with key initiatives such as development of AR certification, and best practice white papers. The position is part-time, hours to suit. You’ll need to be a self-starter, with a background in analyst relations, and ideally based in the UK or able to travel there on a regular basis. If you’re passionate about AR, this is your opportunity to help shape the future of the IIAR and drive our profession forward. Interested? For more details, please contact hkirkman (at) analystrelations (dot) org. 

Gartner just released the successor (but not a replacement) to the Hype Cycle: the Gartner IT Market Clock

The press release is here: Gartner IT Market Clock

Brad Holmes, VP Technology Research with Forrester Research, will be the guest presenter at the next IIAR London Forum on November 19th. In addition, before the main session Jonny Bentwood will be holding a tutorial on using social media tools. Forums are open to all IIAR members. A limited number of guest places are available for those who have not previously been to an IIAR event. For more information, please contact IIAR Secretary Hannah Kirkman at hkirkman (at) analystrelations (dot) org.

At Gartner’s AR Forum in Orlando last week, guest speaker Joshua Reynolds from Hill & Knowlton gave a presentation about social media trends and analyst relations, and provided some up to date statistics on how AR impacts sales. For those AR managers who didn’t make it to Orlando, Gartner just posted Josh’s presentation at its AR Community page today. Do take a look at Josh’s presentation and take note of the survey of tech buyers and how they use analysts. AR managers will be able to use these statistics with their internal audiences to make the case for analyst relations.  http://www.gartner.com/technology/about/ar_community.jsp

The IIAR will be holding a couple of informal gatherings at Gartner’s EMEA Symposium in Cannes, for those interested in networking with AR peers and finding out more about the Institute. These include a breakfast meeting at 8:00 a.m. on Wednesday November 4th, hosted by Ludovic Leforestier, and a dinner meeting at 7:30 p.m. on the same date, hosted by Susan Lyddon. Please email me at hkirkman at analystrelations dot org for further details.