Fersht: some IIAR award-winners “just tick the boxes”

Some of the firms mentioned by the IIAR’s analyst team awards fall short of excellence. That’s the verdict of several hundred analysts who took our Analyst Attitude Survey, and of the CEO of one of the top analyst firms. Phil Fersht left the comment below on our criticism of the IIAR awards. We thought we’d reprint it together with the chart above. IBM, the firm furthest to the right, is rated in the top quartile by analysts. Although there are several large firms which out-perform it, the IIAR gave its award to the firm commented on by the most analysts.

Phil Fersht _Bio_Mar2016_2Our analyst firm works with AR teams daily and has real hands-on experience with most of them. I have to say, we experience some excellent class analyst relations from smaller IT suppliers – and smaller AR teams from large suppliers. In many cases, they are actually involved in driving strategic conversations with our analysts, introducing us to end users, exploring brainstorming sessions etc. I’d like to give a few shout outs for vendors not mentioned here:

  • Cognizant – AR facilitates some great sessions right across the firm. Knows when to get involved and when to step out of the way and just let stuff happen
  • Wipro – been a breath of fresh air to work with – AR is much higher up the totem pole and very involved at the senior exec levels driving interaction
  • Accenture – one of the most efficient at just getting stuff done, responding to analyst needs etc
  • Sutherland – just one AR exec for a $1bn firm, but does a terrific job
  • EXL – really tracks our research and stays on top of everything we do. Again, a very small team which handles a lot of analysts and advisors.
  • HCL – massively improved over the last year – very responsive and eager to drive exec level discussions
  • Atos – great ideas for increasing analyst visibility and interaction

There are others too, but these are just some examples. There are also some terrible AR teams out there, including some on the IIAR list which just tick the boxes, are completely reactive, and can never figure out what analysts cover – and NEVER reads their research….

Duncan Chapple

Duncan Chapple is the preeminent consultant on optimising international analyst relations and the value created by analyst firms. As SageCircle research director, Chapple directs programs that assess and increase the business value of relationships with industry analysts and sourcing advisors.