Q&A with Zeus Kerravala, senior vice president, Yankee Group

By Caitlin McCabe

Incorporating industry analyst relations into an overall communications program should be an important goal for growing technology companies. Often, these analysts can help position your products, validate your offerings and put you in touch with the right prospective customers.

Zeus Kerravala is a well-regarded analyst at the Yankee Group and manages the firm's infrastructure research and consulting. He works with many of the leading technology companies and large end-user organizations and has been quoted in leading outlets and publications including; Associated Press,Baseline, Business Technology Quarterly, ComputerWorld, CNET, Dow Jones, eWeek, The Globe and Mail, InformationWeek, Investor's Business Daily, Los Angeles Times, Network World, PC Magazine and Wall Street Journal.

We spoke with him recently to get his thoughts on leading trends facing the technology industry, top companies to watch, and best practices for working with industry analyst firms.

Q: You've written a lot on Unified Communications, Fixed-Mobile Convergence and the trend of Enterprise end-users beginning to demand technologies that allow them to blend their personal and professional lifestyles. What are the biggest trends or changes you see facing the industry?

A: The biggest change facing Information Technology (IT) vendors right now is the trend towards consumerization. Consumerism is determining not only what technology companies deploy, but also how it gets used. For example, our research at Yankee Group shows that people in the 25 and under age range are extremely comfortable building relationships through social networking portals and using Instant Messenger to communicate as opposed to those from an older generation who place a higher value on voice and in-person communications. Therefore, user behavior is changing quite a bit. Vendors that have traditionally sold technology into Enterprise IT departments aren't getting an accurate view of this changing landscape because many of the technology decisions are being driven through the end-user or consumer channel.

In addition, consumer technologies are swapped out much faster than corporate technology solutions, meaning that the rate of change for technology in the Enterprise will increase substantially. Enterprises must be prepared to move technology solutions in and out of the organization at a much faster rate and vendors have to be there to help their customers achieve this.

Q: What is the next "game changing" technology that you think will be creating buzz in the next 12 – 18 months?

A: The technology that will have the most impact is mobility, meaning the ability to make applications and software as portable in the enterprise as they are in the consumer space. In consumer space you can take your personal technology on-the-go with you. Think of the Sony PlayStation Portable, Apple iPod and Slingbox, a device that allows users to watch cable television from any location in world. If this is all possible in the consumer space, why can't corporate end-users access a Microsoft Word document from anywhere in the world?

Take another example: AOL's Moviefone search service allows you to pull up listings and information on movies from a mobile device in matter of seconds, but pulling information from an Enterprise CRM system can be very difficult when you're not physically in the office. Right now, when mobility vendors talk about enabling users to "take the office with you," they're primarily only talking about providing access to e-mail and contact information. However, there are more so many more applications people need to do their jobs. Today, we only have access to a fraction of them with e-mail. How do you get rid of the phrase "I'll get to that when I'm back in the office"? The Enterprise space isn't there yet, but the vendors that can deliver on this will be different.

Q: What tech companies are the "ones to watch" in your opinion?

A: In the corporate space, I think Microsoft and Google are obvious choices. There are some very innovative companies out there- what happens with Second Life and Linden Labs will be interesting, as are Sling Media and RIM. On the consumer side, Apple is a fascinating company to watch. It's hard to find a company that really understands the user experience as well as those guys, but the question remains as to whether or not they can translate it into corporate research.

Q: What best practices can you recommend for vendors engaging with industry analyst firms?

A: Well for one, spend a lot of money (laughing). There's a lot of convergence happening right now, not only on the networking side, but also business process convergence and convergence in the computing stack. Unified Communications extends to everything from the desktop manager to e-mail to networking. Vendors often get stuck dealing with the same analysts all the time and it can be good to get a different point of view from different analysts within the firm and extending to smaller specialized firms, to really understand the changing market landscape and gain a broader perspective.

In addition, with the speed at which technology is changing, vendors need to engage with an analyst firm very early on, even when they're in the planning stages and vetting ideas, rather than waiting till the product is finished to schedule a briefing. If you're trying to convince an analyst to buy into your product, usually if you involve them early, they'll tend to be a little more on your side. Allow them to review and tweak your presentation. If they have their thumbprint on your slides, it's more difficult for them to find fault with them.

One thing a lot of companies forget is that we do research and it can be used for more than marketing support. Research can be used to shape the product, don't just use the good parts of the research, but really examine the faults and objectives raised and use it to make improvements.

Q: I know you've spoken with a lot of diverse vendors over the years. What stands out to you during briefings?

A: Definitely user cases, real life examples and vendors that can actually quantify their value proposition. I've spoken with so many vendors that haven't been able to demonstrate quantifiable results and user benefits and it leaves me wondering 'What's the point?' Channel strategy and how vendors plan to go-to-market with the product is often forgotten during briefings as well. This is a critical part of the presentation in helping us understand how the Company is going to be successful in the market.

Q: How can your clients get more out of their paid relationships?

A: One thing Cisco does, which I think is clever, is they let their sales force use us. Several of their sales guys will give me a call before they're meeting with a large prospect to vet the market, and I'll help them pull statistics and market research. It's a great way to tie Analyst Relations and Marketing back to Sales.

Also, try engaging us in different ways. I did a point/counterpoint article for one of my clients once on open-source IP Telephony. They took the pro, I took the con and it was published in Network World. I also did a joint sit-down interview with Citrix for Business Technology Quarterly. Analysts enjoy being published and if you can help facilitate that, it helps strengthen the relationship.

For more information on Zeus, please visit the Yankee Group website.

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