Tuesday, December 20, 2005
Enterprise Architecture, Industry Analysts and Startups
One obvious statement that enterprise architects should consider before embarking on a savage vendor reduction strategy is to consider that no one gains competitive advantage by going solely with the big guys. Startups are part of the value proposition and we have a fidicuary duty to listen to any value proposition put out by these guys.
I have been public in saying that I will make myself available every Friday at 4pm to talk with startups and venture capitalists who are interested in picking my brain for research purposes (NOTE:This is different than attempting to sell to me. Anyway, one of the things that I have been known to do whenever a sales guy rings my phone is ask them about their relationship with the industry analyst community. If they only tell me about large analyst firms, I will either hang up or show them the error of their ways...
With all the hype surrounding the notion of an Enterprise Service Bus, I am somewhat leary of a vendor that invents yet another acroynm. If you cannot explain your value proposition in simple terms, then I am not interested. If you happen to send me an analyst report that even contains a new acronym then I will not only not be interested, I will be torqued.
If I ask you what conferences you will have booths at and the only answer you provide is either a highly commercialized event (TechTarget comes to mind) or at an industry analyst technology conference, I may start to lose interest. If you told me you were at a high quality event put on by the folks over at Marcus Evans then I may be more interested.
Absolutely, positively do not email me or call mentioning that you will be hosting a conference call that will feature a prominent industry analyst. Do even think of insulting me with a statement that they will somehow be objective unless it is also followed with a statement from the analyst themselves mentioning that they were not paid a single cent to participate.
The final thing is when vendors point to a single piece of collateral written by an industry analyst firm that only talks about the firm itself and doesn't compare it to other products in its universe. I can read your web-site for this type of information. I am seeking insight not insults...
| | View blog reactionsI have been public in saying that I will make myself available every Friday at 4pm to talk with startups and venture capitalists who are interested in picking my brain for research purposes (NOTE:This is different than attempting to sell to me. Anyway, one of the things that I have been known to do whenever a sales guy rings my phone is ask them about their relationship with the industry analyst community. If they only tell me about large analyst firms, I will either hang up or show them the error of their ways...
With all the hype surrounding the notion of an Enterprise Service Bus, I am somewhat leary of a vendor that invents yet another acroynm. If you cannot explain your value proposition in simple terms, then I am not interested. If you happen to send me an analyst report that even contains a new acronym then I will not only not be interested, I will be torqued.
If I ask you what conferences you will have booths at and the only answer you provide is either a highly commercialized event (TechTarget comes to mind) or at an industry analyst technology conference, I may start to lose interest. If you told me you were at a high quality event put on by the folks over at Marcus Evans then I may be more interested.
Absolutely, positively do not email me or call mentioning that you will be hosting a conference call that will feature a prominent industry analyst. Do even think of insulting me with a statement that they will somehow be objective unless it is also followed with a statement from the analyst themselves mentioning that they were not paid a single cent to participate.
The final thing is when vendors point to a single piece of collateral written by an industry analyst firm that only talks about the firm itself and doesn't compare it to other products in its universe. I can read your web-site for this type of information. I am seeking insight not insults...
