RedMonk: My New Favorite Analyst Firm

I met James Grovernor, a cofounder of RedMonk, at an IBM Information Privacy retreat (in 2003 I believe).  His analyst firm had just gotten off the ground, and he was excited to tell everyone about the nexus that exists between Redmond and Armonk – hence the name.

What I thought as quite unusual then – and brilliant today – is their open source model for IT research.  Basically, anything they publish for general consumption is available for free with no strings attached.

They publish dozens of podcasts on IT Management research, and on emerging enterprise technologies.   They have a TV show.  They have great blogs and are savvy Twitter users (Michael Cote and James Grovernor).

Of course, open source research does not mean they are a charity.  They make money by selling patronage.  $5000 is the entry fee to receive their offering of value added services. Larger companies pay a $10,000 annual membership and a few are higher-level patrons.

Patronage delivers focused expertise on the company’s terms.  The Redmonk analysts will provide independent consulting or speak to employees or at events.  I’d presume that the more face time a firm has with the analysts, the higher propensity there is for them to truly understand the value propositions of your products and services.  Given that their research is reaching an increasingly larger consumer base (due to the freely consumable nature of it), I’d bet that patronage is a worthwhile investment.

Here is a video from their TV channel with James interviewing John Shedletsky from IBM on the economics of mainframes today.