Andrew Reed’s excellent Influencer Insights Podcast has a new episode. Analyst moves get mentioned in detail, which Andrew gets from ARchitect Express (the AR CRM solution exclusively available from Kea Company). There’s a very impressive and through-provoking interview with Dr Thomas Reuner (who I interviewed earlier), who has joined HfS, and Stowe Boyd‘s move to DCG gets discussed.

I also spoke to Andrew about our new Influence Quadrant, which shows the profile in research of a group of firms and how it’s changing. I explain the life stages of brands’ AR firms, and the four stages through which companies’ relationships with analyst houses move. It’s a powerful tool to show whether the firm is working tactically or strategically. It’s simple enough for your boss to explain to her or his boss. It’s also based on more than 20,000 data points from over 450 analyst firms: more than any vendor would track. I also step through the opportunity to develop custom analyses for vendors, and how we can develop recommendations.

451 Research‘s Vendor Window was put under the spotlight by Thom Erbe who asked Peter ffoulkes to explain why we need one more signature research chart. The Vendor Window aims to move away from subjective assessments and to get forward-looking data from vendors and users which will be transparent and objective: 16 criteria about expectations and fulfilment.  That means that it’s customers, not analysts, who develop the data. Thom, of course, asks what that means for 451’s research work. You can hear the answer on the KeaBlogs site.