Burton Group was the focus of today's Advisor Spotlight webinar. Recently we've been in an interesting discussion here about the rise of new forms of vendor-sponsored research, and the discussion was a useful corrective. It reminded us that end-user organisations (corporates, government, academic etc.) are increasingly turning to non-vendor funded analysts' research and advisory services.
IT infrastructure consultancy Burton Group is one of the beneficiaries of this trend. The firm grew sharply this year, enough through revenue from vendors is only 10 to 15% of its research and advisory revenues. North-American end users making big-ticket investments in enterprise architecture and networks are increasingly turning to Burton for help (the firm is not so well known outside North America). It is well-know for the cautious long-view that's needed when balancing architectural strategies with business drivers.
The firm has made some interesting moves forward over the last year. I'm especially interested in its Executive Advisory Program, which provides some free content to senior business managers outside Burton Group's geeky client-base. If Burton Group acts smartly, it will be able to tap into the growing opportunity with end-user organisations that are frustrated with Gartner (and other firms). But it needs to develop a less technology-driven, more business-based, approach towards IT infrastructure as part of the broad management of technology risks, costs, services and processes.
The early signs look good, especially since Burton Group is focusing on making its current insight easier rather than by developing totally new practices. So that means providing digestible briefs, charts, summaries and tools that time-pressed CxOs can understand, rather than new insight on consumer trends.
If it can expand its readership and advisory base out from the technology silo and into the business management, then they will be able to expand their footprint in their Fortune 500 client base and expand their reach into the Global 2000. An important measure of this will be Catalyst, the firm's conference. Topics at the conference look notable more topical, business related and friendly this year: 'Everything wireless' and 'New ways of work' feel pretty different from earlier years where the sesions were on application platforms, network architecture and .NET. But the question is -- will they have the business-savvy audience to match?
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Burton Group uses growth to reach up to the boardroom
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I was pleased to see this post by Lighthouse that comments on Burton Group's strategy and philosophy. Here are a few key points:
"[Burton Group] is well-known for the cautious long-view that's needed when balancing architectural strategies with business drivers."
You see, product and market analysis are only part of a bigger picture. What's right in one environment may be wrong in another: it all depends on a given enterprise context, which includes business drivers. Assessing the long view enables a "steadier hand on the wheel", allowing decision makers to steer through near-term obstacles in favor of a long-term strategic goal. In the best case, architectural strategies are a manifestation of business goals. More often than not, however, they work in opposition to one another and on different timescales. Especially in this year of econominc constriction, ensuring that architectural strategies are not tossed out in favor of immediate tactical "fixes" is one of the CIO's primary responsibilities. The combination of Burton Group advice, trend projection, and hands-on consulting is designed to enable the enterprise to move forward with tactical deliveries that align with architectural plans. It's just not enough to put a point on a graph and use it as a star chart for strategic choices.
"[Burton Group] needs to develop a less technology-driven, more business-based, approach towards IT infrastructure as part of the broad management of technology risks, costs, services and processes."
We couldn't agree more. All of us who come from industry backgrounds have lived this requirement. As an analyst firm, we do you a disservice if we omit the analysis of business context. Fortunately, Burton Group has always presented business context as part of its analysis. What's different now is that we have introduced new channels and content types that focus primarily on business drivers. Within the Executive Advisory Program, our modus operandi is to identify business implications that arise from our technical research and pull those out for closer inspection. In many cases, we roll up those implications to the CxO level where business decisions require concise explanations and infrastructure value discussions. Furthermore, infrastructure choices like Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), Software as a Service (SaaS), and Unified Communications (UC) must be assessed for their business impact and driven by actual need, lest they remain obscure technical discussions that never get off the ground. Or more ominously, they are chosen as solutions without careful analysis of future business and architectural risk.
"[Burton Group] has made some interesting moves forward over the last year. I'm especially interested in its Executive Advisory Program, which provides some free content to senior business managers outside Burton Group's geeky client-base. ... The early signs look good, especially since Burton Group is focusing on making its current insight easier rather than by developing totally new practices."
Thanks for noticing! (And, by the way, we still love our geeky client-base.) By creating the Executive Advisory Program (EAP), we were responding to a need expressed by our clients. This included a growing dissatisfaction with Gartner and others (as noted in the Lighthouse report). Rather than try to replicate what others were doing, we decided to build upon what we do best: well-reasoned, focused research that helps move our clients forward. With our executive audience, we honor their time constraints and recognize that a different "lens" is required on our content. At the same time, we acknowledge the executive as part of the enterprise ecosystem...connected with their staff in the pursuit of IT success in their organization. As a result, we make it easy to connect our executive research with underlying technical content and vice versa. The goal is to foster a productive exchange within that ecosystem.
Watch in the next several months as Burton Group continues to reinforce its capabilities and offer compelling value to both technologists and executives. This will include new business-focused sessions at our June Catalyst Conference that provide context for our continuing in-depth technical research.
Chris Howard
VP and Director, Executive Advisory Program
Burton Group
eapblog.burtongroup.com
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