Welcome Enterprise Advocates

A quick shout out to my friends Oliver Marks, Dennis Howlett and Vinnie Mirchandani, and to R Ray Wang and Frank Scavo on the launch Enterprise Advocates.

This signals a new trend in the consulting and analyst landscape, characterized by loose federations of both independent consultants and firms that collaborate as advocates for the end customer.

Dennis talks about the need for agile advisory:

One of the main reasons we formed this group is because we believe there is a need for agile, flexible teams capable of rapidly responding to client needs. The big analyst/consulting firms struggle with that. We also see the problems companies face as global albeit with local nuance. That means as opportunities emerge, some or all of us will be involved with projects, drafting in appropriate specialists on an as needed basis from our extensive network of contacts. Our offer is based on solid practical help backed by more than 100 years combined experience with companies both large and small.

The money quote from Vinnie for the need for customer advocacy:

We think the time is right. Technology vendors spend 20 to 50% of their revenues in sales and marketing. Give or take that is a trillion dollars a year. The buyer’s voice is often drowned in that roar.

And Oliver, who like me, comes from the social computing and collaborative design view point, says:

My involvement in enterprise advocates is also two fold: to help the buyer get a good deal on technology which will help them be more efficient and make more money, and to address the increasing friction between the office and infrastructure areas, and help design greater interoperability for buyers.

I’m actually surprised that we haven’t see a federation like this pop up earlier. That said, I can’t think of a more experienced team of individuals in the Enterprise arena that can credibly have the customers back.

The technology industry is seeing tectonic shifts right now with the advent of Cloud Computing alternatives, a heightened awareness of maintenance costs for on-premise software and the (somewhat yet to be realized) promise of social computing constructs at a large scale. And so its more important than ever to have a customer advocacy group that can navigate vendor marketing hoopla, putting the customers needs and interests at the nucleus of the discussion.

To kick things off, the group will host its’ first webinar:

The inaugural one-hour webinar is planned for 22nd October ( 9:00 am PDT/ 12:00 pm EDT/ 4:00 pm GMT / and 5:00 pm CET) and will focus on helping SAP customers understand what they are dealing with, how maintenance can be managed, what alternatives are available, how to build a long-term contract negotiations strategy aligned with the organization’s applications strategy, and why buyers must act now. Time is set aside for Q&A and, should the session run out of time before all questions are answered, then full answers will be offered at the website following the webinar. Interested individuals may register at the following link: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/435331515.

Best wishes to all of the folks in the Enterprise Advocates. The official site, here. And, on Twitter.

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