The Value Of Industry Analyst Relations

Recognizing it would take time, the Alacrity Global team initiated an Industry Analyst Relations (IAR) outreach and engagement program in 2017. The aim of the program was to facilitate new relationships between leading industry analysts and Wesley Clover portfolio companies in order to create exposure and gain greater global market insights. As part of the program, the team provides IAR Best Practices Guidance through local lunch-and-learn events as well as workshops for entrepreneurs participating in semiannual Alacrity Global Boot Camps.

Six companies in the portfolio now have regular engagement with industry analysts: SaaSquatch, Cliniconex, ProntoForms, Martello, CounterPath and Solace. As these companies are at different stages of commercial evolution, they have different needs of the analysts. The following are some highlights so far:

  • SaaSquatch was able to secure some feature coverage last year in Now Tech, a Forrester Research Document focused on B2B Customer Engagement Marketing.
  • Cliniconex was included for the first time last summer in the Gartner report, Put Patient Throughput and Capacity Management at the Center of Your Performance Improvement Plan.
  • ProntoForms has achieved recognition in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Low-code Application Development, out-pacing more than 200 other vendors for this desirable market position, as well as being recognized in the Gartner Peer Insights Voice of the Customer Report.
  • Martello achieved recognition from Frost & Sullivan in 2018 with the Price/ Performance Value Leadership Award for Network Performance Management. The company is now working with Gartner to further define the Digital Experience Monitoring market segment.
  • CounterPath frequently engages with analysts that cover the Unified Communications markets. The company was covered in the World UC Applications Market Forecast, 2019 by analyst Tim Gelardi, MZA Telecoms & IT Analysts.
  • And Solace has secured research mentions with analyst firms such as IDC, Gartner and 451 Research. Importantly, the company has been successful in influencing Gartner to adopt the Solace term Event Mesh to identify the new market space Solace is targeting, and promote it as a digital business priority as the evolution of messaging in one of their research documents last year.

Each of these accomplishments is being leveraged by the companies for business development purposes — third-party validation, credibility building, industry proof points, etc. These are long-term endeavors, but they can prove very valuable, for younger companies who need this sort of validation to compete, and for companies of all sizes who can leverage the competitor insight to continue growing. alacrityglobal.com