tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5008964430195994324.post1110990292566478852..comments2024-03-11T13:27:26.632-07:00Comments on Fountainhead: IT Industry Analysts - Falling Into the Bond Rating Agency Trap?Ken Oestreichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13530514227192850735noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5008964430195994324.post-24568835583045155762010-03-16T16:41:18.202-07:002010-03-16T16:41:18.202-07:00Thanks Steven. I have to admit that I may of over-...Thanks Steven. I have to admit that I may of over-rotated on the title of my blog. I did not intend to accuse analysts of gross bias. I just believe that sometimes they are myopic and see only the large vendors... the ones that so frequently brief them, and the ones that most of their clients ask so often about. <br /><br />I agree w/you that analysts would likely say the same things whether they were paid or not. Thanks for your voice, industry representation, and candor.Ken Oestreichhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13530514227192850735noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5008964430195994324.post-19462285478763987932010-03-16T16:36:57.394-07:002010-03-16T16:36:57.394-07:00I Just received this note from Steven Schuchart fr...<i>I Just received this note from Steven Schuchart from Current Analysis: </i><br /><br />"Your argument that the IT analyst market is becoming corrupt is an old one and a cry I hear from time to time. I have a couple of reasons to dispute it, and I will lay those out here. Full disclosure: I work for a technology industry analyst firm. The firm I work for, Current Analysis, doesn’t have a big end-user practice, it mostly focuses on vendor-to-vendor competition. This opinion is mine and not that of Current Analysis.<br /><br />"When I worked as a journalist for Network Computing Magazine, I would often hear this same complaint, but from end users. We would be accused of bias because vendors bought ads that paid for the magazine and ultimately my salary. It wasn’t true but the parallels are similar.<br /><br />"I don’t buy the theory of IT analyst corruption for a few reasons.<br /><br />1. What the vendors pay an analyst’s employer doesn’t affect that analyst’s salary. I don’t get extra money if vendor signs up nor do I lose money if they quit our service. As an analyst, do I want more subscribers for my company? Sure. But does that mean that there is some kind of preferential treatment because one company pays and another doesn’t. Not from me there isn’t, and I suspect that for the majority of industry analysts it is the same.<br /><br />2.I don’t know any of my peers that would change their opinions for money. There may be some out there, but I don’t know of any myself. I would quit before changing an opinion because of money, and a lot of my peers would as well.<br /><br />3. People don’t subscribe to analyst firms, they subscribe to analysts. An analyst’s reputation is his job, regardless of the firm he works for. The damage done to “Brand Me” for dishonest analysis for money that I won’t personally see isn’t even remotely worth it.<br /><br />"I do understand your frustration with analysts. We can be, as you put it in your twitter reply to me, myopic and only see the largest vendors. It’s a hazard of the job, one that I think every industry analyst struggles with. For every question we get about a small vendor, we get 25 about the big guys. We struggle to dispense the all-important “mention” with an even hand, just as we struggle to keep with our given areas of coverage, which always seem to expand.Ken Oestreichhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13530514227192850735noreply@blogger.com