My contact at Datamonitor believes that the biggest benefit will be that now they will be one of the "big boys".
However, bigger is not always better.
The article in Bloomberg also talks about whether Datamonitor is worth the price paid but the real test will be if Informa can rebrand the group to bring more value to their customers. If they want to compete with Gartner, the value is not just about better or more information but whether they can influence the buy side as Gartner does which is still Gartner's biggest differentiator and it isn't about size, it is about brand.
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
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2 comments:
Hi Nancy - I found your blog recently and just wanted to share some of my observations on the Informa / Datamonitor deal.
First, there's more to this than technology - both Informa and Datamonitor have big businesses in other market sectors. In Informa's case, its existing tech analyst business is less than 10% of the company.
Second, this could be the start of a long-term plan by Informa to challenge Gartner - but it's got a way to go yet - in size and scale. To compete with Gartner undoubtedly mean more acquisitions.
I think you're right - part of competing with Gartner's existing business means that Informa will need to get that buy-side influence.
So, it's interesting to note then that Datamonitor - through its Ovum acquisition - now owns Orbys, a third-party advisor firm which advises end-users on which outsourcing suppliers to choose.
Informa will now own that business. Will it develop it?
Well, there's a question! I suspect there's still plenty more to come from this deal.
My view is slightly more long term. If you consider what the key elements are of a successful analyst business model are, and then apply them to the Informa Group you can see that they 'potentially' fare very well.
1) Research (Informa and Datamonitor have great scale here)
2) Events (Informa and to a lesser extent Butler have expertise here)
3) Advisory (Ovum, Butler and [a few Datamonitor analysts] are great here)
4) Market (Ovum have positioned themselves superbly within the Telco space, DM within Healthcare)
Obviously success is not guaranteed. Informa must retain the key analysts as well as ensure that they don’t change what works well at Ovum and DM (ie Consulting and Reports). Where does this leave us? I still believe that handled correctly the sheer scale and size of Informa enables them to be a credible competitor to Gartner. In a world where I am regularly hearing the demand to speak to someone else beside Gartner this is a welcome move.
My post backs up this point.
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