If a CIO or IT leader wished they had a crystal ball to peer into the future to see what changes are on the horizon before making a major IT investment, they might want to check out the proprietary data being meticulously collected and analyzed by Enterprise Technology Research.
ETR Founder and Director of Research, Thomas DelVecchio, addressed an audience of CIOs at the Midsize Enterprise Summit’s Fall 2016 Conference in Austin to review his firm’s key research findings based on next-generation analytics and proprietary interactive models built by ETR’s data scientists.
Founded in 2009, ETR is a research firm that utilizes survey processes and proprietary data mining techniques and predictive analytics to gauge and identify enterprise technology trends.
“Because we have created our own systems to generate our proprietary data based on input from the largest and most diverse database of IT leaders worldwide, no one else can match what we do,” said DelVecchio. “We mine the data to look at specific things - like an analytics vendors aligned to an all cloud architecture - and then we can look at the data in aggregate and by segmentation.”
ETR queries its database (today comprised of 3,700 CIOs and CTOs worldwide, all invited based on their job title and company) at the beginning of the year about their spending intentions for the next 12 months. The firm then sends standardized surveys every quarter to determine if their answer is still on track as the year progresses. The survey is standardized and has only five response options (adoption, increase, flat, decrease, replacement) about the upcoming year’s spending intention for specific technologies. This helps provide consistency of what is being measured so changes in IT spend and technology adoption/usage can be readily identified and tracked over time.
“We see where the dollars are going over time and we see which technologies and vendors are being replaced,” said DelVecchio.
ETR’s forward-looking survey data is scrutinized, cleaned and analyzed using a myriad of proprietary models and statistical programs. Over the past eight years, ETR has conducted 25 technology spending intention surveys that have given them insights into major trends like cloud adoption over time. ETR reports that it receives 2-3 times as many survey responses as any other research firm today.
“Our proprietary research results provide valuable insights into which vendors and technologies have become or are becoming redundant, and which vendors are gaining adoption in the marketplace,” said DelVecchio. “Most CIO’s will want to know this information before they make a major investment in a technology or make a multi-year commitment to a specific vendor.” DelVecchio presented some of his key findings on cloud vendors to a packed room at the recent Midsize Enterprise Summit Fall in Austin, Texas.
The firm’s quantitative systems and platforms are able to communicate and share large scale technology trends to the marketplace in near real-time. ETR looks at vendors from different perspectives including server, storage, infrastructure software, information security, analytics, networking, data warehousing, hosted software, and more. They also look at trends from an enterprise and productivity apps perspective. Read all the MES event coverage and blogs.
The vetted CIO community queried represents $550 billion in annual IT spend across a range of industries, sectors like government and non-profits, and from enterprises ranging in size from Fortune 100 to mid-market and SMB.
Without divulging the wide variety of research insights shared with the MES attendees (other than to say that ETR sees a move to server-less environments and notes that “cloud is eating software”), what is important to point out is the unique methodology ETR uses to gather its market insights.
In return for their survey participation, ETR shares the survey results in a summary provided to the respondents within 3-4 weeks of closing of the data collection. ETR also provides the raw data so the participants can mine it for themselves.
“We do not charge our CTO and CIO respondents for the research results we gather and analyze and we provide the data to them in a useable format, not in a static PDF format which has limited application and value,” said DelVecchio.
ETR also makes all the research results generated through their proprietary dynamic models available to institutional investors and high-level IT end users.
In winding down his presentation, DelVecchio pointed out that the survey respondents are highly engaged within ETR’s ecosystem. They participate in surveys, data-curated events, startup mentorship, and networking activities.
“We understand that the CTOs and CIOs in our database are interested to benchmark and to learn from each other,” said DelVecchio. “They want to network and to better understand what their counterparts are doing and why, and to hear what kind of ROI or improvements they are seeing based on their IT investment decisions.”
To learn more, visit the company’s website at www.etechnologyresearch.com or https://www.etr.nyc/.
Janice Cain, MBA, is an award-winning marketing consultant and PR advisor who has been working extensively in the IT industry for more than 10 years with some of the world’s best known software and hardware companies. Follow her @1010_Marketing
