Rival analyst firm tries to lure Gartner/Burton Group customers

EMA offers free access to Burton Group clients after Gartner acquisition

Competition for enterprise IT customers is always fierce, as any industry analyst will tell you. But this week, the competition for customers is being waged by the analyst firms themselves.

The giant analyst firm Gartner recently acquired the Burton Group for $56 million, and one of its rivals thinks this is the perfect time to poach customers from Gartner's new subsidiary. The Enterprise Management Associates analyst firm is offering free access to Burton Group customers, claiming that the Gartner acquisition could spell trouble for them.

Gartner buys Burton Group in further consolidation of IT analysis market

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Competition for enterprise IT customers is always fierce, as any industry analyst will tell you. But this week, the competition for customers is being waged by the analyst firms themselves.

The giant analyst firm Gartner recently acquired the Burton Group for $56 million, and one of its rivals thinks this is the perfect time to poach customers from Gartner's new subsidiary. The Enterprise Management Associates analyst firm is offering free access to Burton Group customers, claiming that the Gartner acquisition could spell trouble for them.

Gartner buys Burton Group in further consolidation of IT analysis market

"If you are a current Burton research subscriber, you may be concerned about the loss of a trusted advisor," EMA said.

While IT vendors like IBM and HP routinely offer special deals to customers who are willing to dump competing products, the competition among IT analysts is typically much less overt. This is largely because most analyst companies are small and lack big marketing and sales forces, says Carter Lusher of SageCircle, an advisory firm that researches the IT and telecom analyst industry.

But skirmishes occasionally break out, typically after acquisitions, Lusher says. After Gartner bought AMR Research in December, Ovum representatives did some guerrilla marketing with a billboard truck that they drove around the AMR Research and Gartner headquarters, Lusher says.

But "EMA is making what could be a much more substantive offer in order to steal clients," he says. "Burton Group clients might be thinking 'I've lost my independent firm and I wonder if I need to be looking for other advice.'"

What EMA offered to Burton Group customers is a free enterprise-wide license to EMA's research library, up to five hours of free phone consultation time with EMA analysts and half-price on-site consultations. The offer expires March 31, but those who take advantage will receive these items free until the end of 2010.

Burton Group clients should take advantage of the offer, even if they have no plans to end their current subscriptions, SageCircle says in a blog post.

"EMA is offering Burton Group clients free access to research and analysts," SageCircle says. "Not a bad deal, eh? EMA has an excellent reputation so clients of Burton Group, either enterprise or vendor, should use this risk-free offer to explore adding a new advisor to their portfolio."

While EMA is hoping Burton Group customers will worry about their future, Gartner and Burton Group representatives say the companies' services are complementary and that none of Burton Group's research and consulting staff will be laid off.

Gartner presents a big target to rival analyst firms because of its size, with 1,200 research analysts and consultants on staff. Similar marketing campaigns occurred about five years ago after Gartner purchase META Group, Lusher says. But this probably is not the start of a long-term war between analyst firms.

"I think this is just opportunistic to leverage the buzz around Gartner's acquisition," he says.

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