Winners announced: IIAR Analyst of the Year 2015

The IIAR is delighted to announce the winners of this year’s

IIAR Analyst of the Year 2015 and IIAR Analyst Firm of the Year 2015

IIAR Analyst of the Year

AND THE WINNERS ARE…

Keep reading below for the IIAR Analyst of Year 2015, IIAR Global Analyst Firm of Year 2015, IIAR Independent Analyst of the Year 2015 and the best new entrants.

The IIAR analyst of the year 2015 was a close run thing this year round. Unlike previous years there was a lot more variety in the numbers and kinds of analysts chosen. Analyst relations professionals voted for over 150 different individual analysts, rating them along a wide range of criteria that included: their knowledge of the domain, does their research give actionable advice, is it novel and thought provoking etc; through to questions about their impact on technology adoption; and whether they were easy and flexible to work with from an analyst relations point of view.

Congratulations to the IIAR Analyst of the Year is Julie Short at Gartner (LinkedIn, @JulieDShort). This is the first year in which Julie has won the award and we would like to extend our congratulations to her on behalf of the IIAR. Reasons AR pros gave for Julie’s nomination include:

“Got to grips really quickly with the consulting market, one that’s very fragmented and hard to analyse”.

“Julie is forging new ground for traditional tech analysts in the business consulting space – she is pushing understanding and definitions!”

“Julie has taken on and evolved a coverage area – Business Consulting – that is still nascent at Gartner and has created rigour and a clear definition for the topic with her colleagues internally in particular.”

The runner ups this year were Ray Wang / Constellation Research (LinkedIn, @rwang0) and Phil Fersht at HfS Research (LinkedIn, @pfersht).

Both Ray Wang and Phil Fersht are past winners of this award (see links below). Congratulations on their 2nd and 3rd places. Here are some reason why they received votes:

“Constellation has shaken up the AR market the 4 years they’ve been on the scene. There approach to research and influencing the market is novel and refreshing and they are the most approachable firm with the most approachable analysts in the business”.

Talking about Phil Fersht: “Thought provoking, very honest and knowledgeable. One of the very best writers around. And his engagement in discussions in social media/blog is unparalleled”.

“I do not understand how Phil is so prolific and insightful simultaneously. But he is”.

Following close, and unlucky not to be included in the final shortlist of 3 were a large group of highly rated analysts. This included: Dan Bieler / Forrester, Errol Rasit / Gartner), Gianluca Tramacere / Gartner, Kevin McPartland / Greenwich Associates, Marc Cecere / Forrester, Neil MacDonald /Gartner and Zeus Kerravala / ZK Research.

Global and Independent Analyst firms of the year were run using the same format based on 15 criteria, but in separate categories to allow for more equitable comparisons between the smaller firms.

IIAR Global Analyst Firm of The Year

The IIAR Global Analyst Firm of the Year 2015 is Gartner.

The runner ups are IDC and Forrester.

This year again, Gartner was the clear category leader, followed by IDC and Forrester. Interestingly, other firms like Constellation, 451 Research and HfS are beginning to make a showing in this category. Here are just some of the comments we received about Gartner:

“The only analyst firm that really makes a difference”.

“Premium priced, but worth it for the breadth, depth, and quality of research and advice. The most influential firm with the greatest impact on enterprise sales deals – no other firm even close”.

Here is a selection of comments about our runners up:

Talking about IDC “Trusted advisor for our company and is considered one of the TOP TIER firms”. “They are the most global”. “Very easy to work with these folks – they are great!”.

“Forrester’s recent financial woes belie the quality of its research and thought leadership in several topics – especially customer experience, mobile, privacy, security, and digital transformation”.

IIAR Independent Analyst Firm of the year

The Independent Analyst Firm of the Year 2015 is Constellation Research.

The runner ups for this year are HfS and ESG.

In the Independent Analyst Firm of the Year category, Constellation emerged as the clear winner, with Hfs and ESG fighting it out for second and third respectively. CCS Insight, Digital Clarity Group, Forrester and PAC all scored well also. One respondent described how:

“Constellation has shaken up the AR market the 4 years they’ve been on the scene. There approach to research and influencing the market is novel and refreshing and they are the most approachable firm with the most approachable analysts in the business”.

As for our runners up:

“While they have been around for some time, HFS has a whole new team that is highly business focused, looking to generate new technology research, offers freemium access”.

IIAR New Firm of The Year

Best New Entrant

In this category, our respondents were asked to identify a number of promising and potentially disruptive new firms. Here we list them (in no particular order): TECHnalysis Research, Securosis, KeyInterval Research, Aptitude Research Partners, SCM World, Machina Research, G2 Crowd, Aragon Research, Blue Hill Research, Subscription Insider, Gigaom Research.

About this survey

The data was collected and analysed by Neil Pollock. Neil is co-lead (with Aniruddho Mukherjee) of the UK Chapter of the IIAR. In his day job he is Professor of Innovation at the University of Edinburgh Business School. He has been researching industry analysts for several years. If you require further information about the survey he can be contacted on npollock@analystrelations.org. A more detailed analysis of the findings will be posted in due course, including of course a new version of the IIAR Tragic Quadrant.

Past winners

The IIAR Analyst of The Year has been running since 2008, see below the past winners.