Gartner

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Gartner, Inc.
Type Public
Founded 1979
Headquarters Stamford, Connecticut
Key people Gene Hall (Chairman and CEO)
Christopher J. Lafond (CFO).
Industry Research
Products Market research
Consumer research
Consulting
Events
Revenue $1,060 million (2006)
Net income $156 million (2006)
Employees 3,700 (2006)
Website www.gartner.com
Gartner headquarters in Stamford
Gartner headquarters in Stamford

Gartner, Inc. (NYSE: IT) is an information and technology research and advisory firm headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut. It was known as The Gartner Group until 2001.[1]

Gartner clients include many large corporations and government agencies, as well as technology companies and the investment community. The company consists of Gartner Research, Gartner Executive Programs, Gartner Consulting and Gartner Events. Founded in 1979, Gartner has 3,800 associates,[2] including 1,200 research analysts and consultants in 75 countries worldwide.[citation needed]

Contents

[edit] Business areas

[edit] Technology scope

The areas of technology that the company includes within its scope include:

[edit] Gartner Research

Closely related to consulting, Gartner provides research analyses and reports for IT professionals, technology companies and the investment community in the form of reports and briefings, as well as peer networking services and membership programs designed specifically for CIOs and other senior executives. Following a publisher's business model -- "write once, sell many" -- Research operates on high gross margins and is Gartner's most profitable business unit, growing 9 percent in 2007, to $673 million.[citation needed]

[edit] Gartner Consulting

This is the basic business area; Gartner consultants provide support in all areas related to information technology to measuring the effectiveness and efficiency of business practices, serving as independent advisors. Gartner's consulting staff provides customized project consulting on the delivery, deployment, and management of high-tech products and services in four areas: IT Management and Measurement, Sourcing, Federal Government, and Market and Business Strategies.

[edit] Gartner Executive Programs

Gartner sells Executive Programs (EXP) memberships to Chief Information Officers (CIOs) and other senior executives in a wide range of technologies. An EXP membership leverages Gartner's services in ways that are specific to the CIOs needs, and offers members-only communities for peer-based collaboration. Members also receive advice and counsel from a personal relationship manager. As the company is involved with all the facets of the industry, this inevitable includes both users and vendors of the same technology, which might appear as conflicts of interest. At December 31, 2006, Gartner's various Executive Programs had a membership of approximately 3,150 CIOs and other senior IT leaders.

[edit] Gartner Events

The Gartner Symposium/ITxpo[3] is the IT industry's largest conference.[citation needed] Gartner Symposium, offered each spring and fall in various international locations, is a strategic conference for senior IT and business professionals. Symposium is combined with ITxpo, an exhibition where the latest technology products and solutions are demonstrated. It has been hosted in Sydney, Australia; Cannes, France; San Francisco, California; Barcelona, Spain; Orlando, Florida; Tokyo, Japan; and Cape Town, South Africa.

Gartner also organizes regional conferences in over 65 countries on specialized topics such as: outsourcing, customer relationship management, application integration and business intelligence. In 2004, Gartner held 56 events which attracted nearly 31,000 participants and produced revenues of $138.4 million.[4]

To advertise these events they use opt-out mailing lists, which many consider to be an unethical way to advertise.

[edit] Gartner Publishing

In 2004, Harvard Business School Press (HBS Press) and Gartner announced that they would publish a co-branded series of professional handbooks for senior executives, titled The Gartner Growth Agenda: Leading and Managing Strategic Growth with Technology. The partnership also included a component allowing HBS Press to distribute research reports from Gartner Press, the Strategic Planning Series and Executive Reports. The reports feature Gartner's proprietary research tools and models including Magic Quadrants, Hype Cycles and Strategic Planning Assumptions. Topics include CRM, Web Services, Security, Outsourcing, Wireless and Mobile, Business Intelligence and Asset Management.[5]

[edit] Company history

The company was founded in 1979 by the eponymous Gideon Gartner. Originally a private company, the Gartner Group was launched publicly in the 1980s, then acquired by Saatchi & Saatchi, the London-based advertising agency, and then acquired in 1990 by some of its executives, with funding from Bain Capital and Dun & Bradstreet. In 2001 the name was simplified to Gartner.

In the course of its growth, Gartner has acquired numerous companies providing related services, including most notably Real Decisions (which became Gartner Measurement, now part of Gartner's consulting division), and Dataquest (Gartner's market research firm). It has also acquired a number of direct competitors, including NewScience (which Gartner acquired in the late 1990s) and arch-rival Meta Group (acquired in 2005).

The Chairman and CEO is Gene Hall (since August 2004). Business performance under Hall's management has been considerably stronger than under his predecessor Michael Fleisher.

[edit] Competitors

Gartner has several competitors, including:

[edit] Press coverage

Gartner research is frequently quoted by the IT press, particularly in regard to controversial IT topics, including the security of common software, or the costs of switching to free software alternatives. Noteworthy examples include:

  • their September 2001 advisory that, in light of increasing internet worm attacks such as Code Red and Nimda, companies using Microsoft IIS for web hosting should switch to alternative products,[6]
  • their October 2006 statement that they believed Apple Computer should abandon its hardware business, instead licensing it to alternative PC manufacturers, such as Dell,[7]
  • their December 2006 prediction that blogging activity would reach a peak during 2007,[8] and that Windows Vista would be the last major release of the operating system.[9]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ EDGAR Form 10-Q. Securities and Exchange Commission (February 14, 2001). Retrieved on 2006-12-16.
  2. ^ Associate is Gartner's term for a directly employed staff member. This runs counter to another accepted usage where an associate is (often) a self employed consultant working under the umbrella of a large brand consultancy
  3. ^ Symposium/ITxpo Worldwide
  4. ^ Gartner Annual Report 2004
  5. ^ Harvard Business School and Gartner Inc. Form Publishing Partnership, CRM Today, January 30, 2004
  6. ^ http://www.theregister.co.uk/2001/09/24/ditch_microsoft_iis_now_says/
  7. ^ Gartner: Apple should quit hardware business - ZDNet.co.uk
  8. ^ BBC NEWS | Technology | Blogging 'set to peak next year'
  9. ^ http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-6143800.html

[edit] External links

Gartner in the news