I take a simple view of things. If we're meeting customer needs, we'll likely find a way of extracting economic value, be we large firm or small, new or traditional. What's important in my mind, therefore, is my belief that customer needs *have* changed. No longer is tech advice relevant. Much as we've stopped talking about eBusiness because it's now just one component of business, so too can we no longer talk about technology without talking about business, or business without talking about technology. That's where the current model is broken. We're selling technology insights to technologists. Is it any wonder why the average tenure of a CIO is so brief? Only once we've agreed on what the unmet customer needs are can we begin to address the issue of the right approach to satisfy those needs.

Of course it's hugely self-serving of me to say this — this is Datamonitor and Ovum's value proposition, after all — but I dare anyone to say this isn't the unmet need. It's clearly open for debate whether we can do it or what the right approach to meeting that need is, and I certainly acknowledge our challenges in that regard. But if we continue to have this discussion about the analyst industry without turning into a discussion about the customer needs, we won't serve the needs of our customers and potential customers and after all, isn't that the kind of discussion we want to have with them?

I'm not going to inflict your post with a lengthy comment as I did to David, but I will say that I think the rise of the so-called “independent analyst” is a welcome development for people who have a lot to say but never liked the results of a filtered editorial process inside a larger institution and all the agendas that water down the commentary.

I find myself not caring that much about what happens to the big firms, except to say that they are certainly scrambling to reconsider many aspects of their business models, something that David didn't note in his piece if I recall. What does interest me is how the independents of this world construct their own business models. I have no doubt that many interesting variations will develop (RedMonk being one example), but I for one hope that independents can find a way to prosper by bringing forth honest and transparent data and commentary. The end result should be a much more balanced analyst community where analysts feel much more accountable to their peers and less able to hide behind name brands.