The Future of Industry Analysis

Forum IDC research leader Rory Duncan reflected on evolving analyst practices.

There are these good practices that most companies would say, yes, we have a team... but unless it's actually done consistently and at a very human relationship level, then all of that would be wasted.

Key themes for the future include:

• Growing complexity of analyst roles
• Changes in information access and verification
• Evolution of client needs and expectations
• New approaches to measuring influence
• Emerging models of analyst-vendor interaction

The research suggests successful engagement requires understanding both analysts' changing work practices and their business model evolution.

The Analyst Observatory continues its mission of studying how technology firms gain competitive advantage through analyst relationships.