Next time you meet with an industry analyst, ask this question:
“When was the last time you ever used the products you’re advising us on anyway?”
For some reason, analyst firms only capitalized on one side of the Internet—the outbound side. That is, they were quick to use the Internet for research distribution, but failed to capitalize on its democratizing power. Most IT research organizations continue to turn their backs on the collective wisdom of the IT community. It’s no secret that the IT community increasingly is concerned about the credibility of speculative, anecdotal, vendor-influenced research, and rehashed news posing as research. Most analyst-based research is based on the opinions of the analysts who rely on heavily on vendor marketing pitches and canned demos, but never actually use or see products being used in the real world. Cozy analyst-vendor relationships can also affect objectivity. Vendors regularly pay analysts to write whitepapers or speak at conferences, and invite them to events at fancy resorts. It’s hard to write something negative about a vendor after skiing with its CEO! Also, the written-research model introduces a lag time that results in reports being stale by the time they’re published.
A study done by the IT Align Group showed that by nearly 3-to-1 IT professionals believe the insights of their peers are more valuable than those of so-called experts. Even though the traditional analyst-based model is well-entrenched in the market place and in the minds of IT professionals, the time is right for a “peer wisdom” approach to IT research.
The bottom line is that IT professionals throughout the world should be, must be, and will be incorporated into the research process. for an unbiased, real-world and quantitative alternative to analyst-based subjective research.
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