IT mainstreaming poses challenges for the future of AR

The usage gap is widening between analysts’ most- and least-used coverage areas. That’s the finding of January’s mini-survey, which originally aimed to test new question formats for the Analyst Value Survey.

In one chart, shown here, we asked previous participants in the AVS about the topics they had consumed research about. The gap has widened between the tip-of-the-tongue topics: big data; cloud and IoT. What this certainly shows is the convergence of technology drivers and business imperatives. But it also shows the way that the growing number of analyst users who are line-of-business managers has amplified the readership for more vogue topics.

As we’ll show in a future post, the number of hours per week given to consuming this research also varies more greatly. Since more use means more influence, that means the AVS needs to pay more attention the depth of use, as well as how many eyeballs each analyst can attract.

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.