Gartner & The Right Influence

As I read Vinnie taking on Gartner – most of which appeals to me as right set of observations, I spoke to a few who are in the thick of the developments inside the industry. I summarize many of the impressions that I hear from various industry sources - about what Gartner is doing, what it can do and what more is expected of it. These are not a reflection of my employer's view in anyway.Most believe that Gartner is still playing the catch up game in defining the course of decisions centered on outsourcing - despite numerous research papers, conferences and even publishing book. Though the book is an excellent read. Its another matter that no other analyst firms come anywhere near Gartner on this. Increasingly in corporate scheme of things, the TPI’s & Everest Group’s weigh a lot more in decisions centered on outsourcing. Most outsourcing entities rely on these firms to offer concrete advice. A number of events and responses have led to this : The consolidation of the analyst industry meant that Gartner has become the most dominant entity, the proliferation of products and new spaces meant that the opportunity to serve new markets and offering are increasing quite substantially. The pro-activeness needed to be seen as a thought leader and influence setter is not something that Gartner seems to be focusing on right now. Many would like to see more of Gartner articulating in a direct and hard hitting way views on the development in the industry :consolidation, the TCO on enterprise investments, the exorbitant extortion in the name of annual maintenance when costs of support through offshoring, telecommunications have come down substantially – ideally one would have loved to see it taking leading positions on product vendors relying increasingly on maintenance revenue stream – a set of companies surviving on these & for a set of companies directly increasing their bottom line or walking dead as the case may be through such efforts. Gartner’s view on the lack of innovation in the enterprise technology ecosystem, technology fads & taking a position against the SAP’s & Oracles’s charging 22% for support & maintenance etc. In the last ten years, many high profile IT investments have failed to get completed/deliver on promised results – views from Gartner in a concerted way about how things went wrong and from a telescopic way what lay ahead – all count a lot more to business( after all IT investments shall be more than half the capital investments around the world). Only these things matter to CIO. The magic quadrants may matter only to procurement office. Gartner has to be the spokesman of the buyer as much as the vendor. As a lead player in the analyst industry, with the best possible minds and perhaps the best research insights – it is uniquely positioned – it ought not disappoint the industry by taking a subdued, slow moving pace in setting, defining and analyzing the agenda.There is a near unanimity that only gartner can do such things – deep , wide and in a wholistic way. Let more interaction, research, publications,advisories, outlook results come out of Gartner in all possibel media forms - blogs, podcasts included - the world can't wait anymore.Lets hope that Gartner raises to the occasion. Otherwise new forces/entities shall move centerstage..