The Industry Analyst as a Platform: Part II

This is the second part of a mini-series about the value of platforms within the analyst industry. In the first part I gave a background about the concept of running analyst operations the same way you would manage any type of platform (defined as an integrated coupling of services, frameworks, and interfaces, etc.). The driving force behind this idea is that the current state of affairs within the analyst community calls for serious change. As technology changes the pace at which, and the methods behind a great deal of what is done by analysts, it is necessary to change the approach to our duties to cope with these changes. My suggestion is to begin to organize and approach analyst operations as if they are platforms. By doing so, some of the issues faced by the community as a whole can be addressed implicitly. This piece is going to focus specifically on how to apply this concept in reality.

First of all, any changes that are suggested will only require an adjustment of perspective and conceptual modifications. No books need to be bought, new employees hired, nor any expensive consultations. Neither is this post a plug for any services offered by Entiva Group, as we aren't in the business of consulting other analyst firms. With that being said, assuming a platform centric view on the part of analyst firms will require them to fully embrace openness because platforms cannot thrive without it.

Take Google as an example, Google has built much more than a search engine, it has built a search platform to which third parties want to connect. Without having taken the platform approach Google would still probably be the number one search engine but would lack the many prospects for future growth that it is currently has. As the company expands into other areas each succeeding line of business will be added to the Google platform as another service. With the platform approach Google is given a great deal of flexibility in terms of direction, because when another service is offered it doesn't have to stand totally by itself, it can be pieced together with the rest of the platform.

The same thing can be done by analyst companies, whereby concentrating on packaging their offerings as members of their own service ecosystem would result in similar success on a different scale. Membership in the service ecosystem would entail defining some form of specifications, interfaces, and access parameters for each service. The specification and interface definitions would, most likely, be publicly published. Along those lines metadata could be attached to each type and could be marked up to provide a clear picture of different lines of business both internally and externally (an invaluable boost to business strategy).

The specification would simply provide a brief overview and the interface would show how to make use of a given service. This concept might not sound feasible within a non-programming environment, one where the services are not pure technical entities. However, what this accomplishes is it enforces an approach that prizes transparency (providing some kind of specification and interface definition). Not to mention one that creates an efficient manner of expressing different offerings in a continuous manner.

Since the goal of a platform is to provide a steady stream of quality services in order to attract others to plug into it, this would also become the goal of the analyst company with the platform as its driver. In other words, the main focus becomes making sure that it is easy to actually understand what each company does and how it is being exposed to outsiders. If one company offers research trend analysis, also provided should be a definition of the service and how it can be accessed and used (If the service is being provided at reduced price that should be listed, if it is free then that too should be made clear). The concept might seem awkward initially but after a while it becomes evident that by doing some form of what is being discussed, industry analyst will go a ways toward remedying several issues facing our line of work.

An additional benefit of taking a platform-centric approach is that it has the potential to aid the important role that analysts are positioned to play in the coming future. Analysts are individuals who make their living handling information: interpreting it, maintaining it, compiling it into different forms, etc. This role is particularly important in global, information based economy. However, at the same time there is an expectation of increased levels of accountability & credibility from the same analyst community. The adoption of a platform-centric outlook will better prepare companies for meeting those expectations by creating outward focused enterprises who are looking to bring and express value over an open landscape.

 

 

Comments

[Cote']

I've been thinking of coming up with a microformat for analysis. hReview kind of fits, but not quite. There's no field for "advice on how to fix it" really, or disclaiming. Really, just some simple microformatting to markup my posts with.

Want to work on that? We can start a wiki page over on the RedMonk wiki.

[James]

So what services can you provide to large enterprises whose primary business isn't technology? Maybe you could answer: http://duckdown.blogspot.com/2006/11/large-enterprises-that-contribute-to.html

[Alex Fletcher]

James,

Check out http://alexfletcher.typepad.com/all_bets_off/2006/11/giving_back.html

Alex

[Wireless Barcode Scanner]

ive figured it out too. thanks.