The IIAR> Institute of Influencer & Analyst Relations / PAC and TBR announce a ‘strategic global partnership.’ Yep.

[This post are my views only, not that of the IIAR board or my employer]

PAC (Pierre Audoin Consultants) and TBR (Technology Business Research) announced last week a ‘global strategic partnership’. The press release is scant on details about the exact terms of the collaboration but they point out that they complement themselves geographically, with TBR based mostly (if only?) in the USA and PAC being a Franco-German (or actually Germano-French) firm.

To my knowledge, they’re both vendor-facing firms (some say ‘supply-side’) with few, if any end-user clients. TBR sells more research to financial sector firms, typically to assist them in ICT firms deals -a market also coveted by IDC and Gartner. PAC is more focused on consulting but also sells market data (their SITSI programme).

24/9/13 Update

The plan is indeed to have a better geo coverage, through a sales alliance. The combined “network” will have 60 analysts/consultants (see above point about the mixed business model) in the US and 80 in Europe. TBR also closes some PAC coverage blackspots -such has hardware, and I suppose vice versa.

My thoughts on this

When we spoke to PAC CEO in February, Frederic Munch did hint at a US partnership indeed. This makes perfect sense but doesn’t enable them to address the end-user market, probably a weak spot for both as vendor spending is more subject to economic cycles.

What are your thoughts?

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