One of the foremost services analysts in Europe, Dr Katy Ring, has joined her former Ovum colleague Gary Barnett at Bathwick Group. Bathwick is a boutique analyst firm noted for its strong relationship with IBM, said to stretch into seven figures.

Ring will create Bathwick’s new Global IT Services research programme, due for launch at the end of this year.

Ring’s choice to join Bathwick may be a dissapointment for Ovum, which continues to promote her work there. Ovum’s new managers, Datamonitor, are currently working to win back a number of former Ovum employees. If Ring had returned to Ovum, then that would have been a major gain for the credibility of the management’s plan.