Gartner and Forrester lead the 2018 Global Analyst Firm Awards, which recognise the market analyst and advisory firms most valued outside the Americas (which is covered by a separate award).

The methodological tweaks in the 2018 awards, which recognise the valuable firms that are most relied on, boosts the gap between Gartner, Forrester and IDC, which collectively produce half the analyst value outside the Americas, and the other firms.

Ten winners of the 2018 Global Analyst Firm Awards

1. Gartner continues to be the most valuable analyst firm, especially in understanding the impact of AI, but its share of users’ overall channels accessing analysts is falling. The purchase of the Corporate Executive Board has more impact in North America than elsewhere.

2. 

   Forrester Research narrowed the gap with Gartner, partly because of the unique value proposition of its leadership boards. Its growing optimism about global growth has also struck a chord.

3. IDC is well respected by the supply side for its global market forecasts. Over the last year its GDPR coverage was valued, and it expanded global research programmes.
4. Ovum nudged in front of HfS, although the two firms’ scores were close. Ovum’s fundamental strength in telecoms makes it hard to substitute, but it also did well in with cybersecurity and in marketing. With better social media and content marketing, it could easily widen the gap.
5. HfS Research remains a top-five performer. Alongside its long-time interest in services and RPA, it has developed real thought leadership around its concept of the Digital OneOffice.
6. ISG overtook 451 Research by an even narrower margin. Again, the methodological tweaks picked up the greater reliance on hard-to-substitute services like consultancy for the global sourcing market and the Quarterly ISG Index.
7. 451 Research continues to do well, and we think its new research portal will reap results over the next year. Vendors and investors especially appreciated it for strong assessments of corporate strategies.
8. Analysys Mason’s provides global telecoms data which is hard to substitute, and produced valued analysis of acquisitions. Its freemium reach remains limited.
9. Global Data continues to benefit from deep vertical market expertise in healthcare and energy. That allows it to have strong vertical insight into diverse markets, like tourism, and cross-market challenges like Brexit.
10. Everest Group held on to its top ten position by the narrowest of margins. It provides valuable consultancy to clients, but the reach of its research remains highly limited.

Firms to watch

Global Data and Everest are part of a tightly packed group which extends below the top 10. Any of the firms in this cluster could easily move in or out of the awards.

For example after strong performance in 2017, CXP Group narrowly avoided inclusion in the Global ranking, partly because of growing participation of the survey in Asia, but made up for this with high value in the Americas. IHS Markit and Enterprise Management Associates, which performed well in other Analyst Firm Awards, almost came close.

A rare runner up award went to Canalys, which performed better in the Global category than any other. Canalys has a specific capacity in understanding the channel to market, especially in Europe and Asia-Pacific, which isn’t well accounted for in our other award categories.

Method

This is part of a series of posts about the six 2018 Analyst Firm Award categories. Each post notes the ten firms that came highest in that category, out of the top 60 firms on which the Analyst Value Survey surveys users. Each post will also include slightly extended comments on two of the firms: one at the start, noting a strong performer in the top group, and one at the end of the post to note a firm that did better than its average in that category. In total the series will contain extended comments on all 12 of the firms which attended the Analyst Firm Awards.