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Under Direction of Research Veteran, Rob Enderle, Ombud Unveils Fourth-generation IT Research Platform
Fourth-generation IT analyst firm revolutionizes industry with Enderle at the helm.
By Ombud
April 9, 2013
Rob Enderle knows the IT analyst industry’s weaknesses – from the inside. He led the past three generations of IT analyst firms, as a co-founder of Giga Information Group, Senior Research Fellow for Forrester Research and currently an independent analyst.
Leveraging his nearly 30 years of enterprise IT insight, Enderle has become one of the world’s most influential technology authorities, writing on emerging technology for such publications as CIO magazine and IT Business Edge as well as appearing on national news programs including CNBC, FOX and NPR.
Now, Enderle is bringing that insight to the Board of Directors of Ombud, a fourth-generation IT research firm headquartered in Denver, CO.
Enderle joins Thad Eby, former European Director of Business Development at Endeca, which was acquired by Oracle in 2011; Thomas Reilly, former CEO of ArcSight, which was acquired by Hewlett-Packard in 2010; and Brenda Harms, former Operations Research Analyst at Northrop Grumman Corporation and NATO. Together, Ombud’s Board of Directors is leading this revolutionary approach to successful enterprise IT procurement decisions with insight from the vendor, buyer and – now – analyst perspectives.
“I look forward to contributing my analyst perspective, based on my years of experience as a technology industry watcher and working with leading companies in the space, to Ombud and its platform for clients,” Enderle said.
Leader among fourth-generation efforts, Ombud has shifted the focus from vendor to client with the development of an online platform that coaches buyers through the procurement process. Enderle’s direction further sustains this competitive advantage going forward.
“When we set forward to create an IT research platform, we wanted to build on the lessons learned over the previous three generations of industry analyst firms by bringing a transparent process to evaluate enterprise solutions,” said Ombud CEO and Co-Founder, Thad Eby. “As Co-Founder of Ombud, Rob Enderle is an ideal leader as we move forward in developing next generation solutions for enterprise IT selection.”
Key to this initiative, Ombud is correcting the misconception that procurement of Software as a Service does not require the same due diligence as traditional IT. Whether on-premise or SaaS, an implementation is prone to challenges that can ultimately deem the project a failure. For instance, Box (the SaaS file-sharing solution) has agreed to repay the Massachusetts State Agency after an unsuccessful implementation, as reported by Joel Schectman in the Wall Street Journal on January 2, 2013.
Rather than risk costly, unnecessary IT purchases, organizations leverage Ombud’s proven procurement process to define requirements, manage vendor engagement and validate technology.
For example, the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement uses the Ombud platform to enable healthcare providers to compare technologies and identify the solutions that best fit their community, improving the pace and scale of technology adoptions across the NHS.
“Ombud allows us to match innovative healthcare products to the strategic and operational objectives of the English National Health Service and provides a dynamic social research platform that both NHS staff and suppliers could interact with to improve healthcare,” said Nick Gaunt, Former Chief Information Officer, NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement. “I am delighted the Ombud team responded so enthusiastically to our project and have had nothing but praise from my team for the way they have been helping us. Ombud is helpful to smaller organizations without extensive procurement expertise, and also to larger ones where the social elements improve decision-making.”
About Ombud
Founded in the spring of 2011, Ombud’s online platform launched in January 2012. Now, 500 enterprise technology buyers make educated procurement decisions via that interactive evaluation platform on a daily basis. Inspired by ombudsmen, Ombud’s team of nine serves as a neutral intermediary among those buying, selling and recommending enterprise technology. Please visit www.ombud.com for more information.
Challenging IT Analysts by Shifting Research From Vendors to Clients
Traditional IT analyst firms have long provided and answer to the question, "Which vendor should my company choose?" Newer firms are taking a different approach by instead asking, "How should your company choose a vendor?"
By Rob Enderle
Friday, March 15, 2013
A few months ago I wrote about a new company called Ombud and asked, can a new analyst firm take down Gartner?
By using a social media model, Ombud would, in effect, be a fourth-generation analysis firm. Analysis would come largely from volunteers, making it, in a way, the Huffington Post of analysis firms. (Disclosure: I now have a non-paid position on the Ombud board.
Ombud and Virtualization Review Partner to Offer Instant Access to Virtualization Solution Research
Readers can now instantly compare virtualization solutions using Ombud’s research widget
Business Wire
Mon, August 27, 2012
SAN FRANCISCO--()--Ombud, a social research platform for B-to-B technology, announced its partnership today with 1105 Media’s Virtualization Review, the leading independent resource for enterprise IT virtualization news and how-to. Readers can now compare virtualization and other technology solution products through the Ombud Research Widget found on Virtualization Review.
Ombud recently expanded its coverage of technology solution categories to include virtualization. Within the virtualization category users will find in-depth coverage of Server Virtualization, Storage Virtualization, Virtualization Backup and Recovery, Application Virtualization, VDI, and Virtualization Security. This expansion means virtualization product vendors and vendors’ partners can now use Ombud free of charge to set up profiles that showcase their products and offerings to technology buyers, prospects, and users, as well as the general public.
“Ombud allows Virtualization Review to build a unique reader experience that increases our content’s impact and engages a highly targeted audience to discover the right technologies for their business,” said Henry Allain, president of 1105 Enterprise Computing Group.
Virtualization Review readers who are interested in finding out more or providing their own expertise on virtualization products can experience the Ombud Research Widget within any article, editorial, or blog on http://virtualizationreview.com. Once a user interacts with the widget, they can take advantage of the full range of services provided by Ombud. Users can set up customized, side-by-side product comparisons and request buying guides where Ombud will recommend products based on the user’s specific wants and needs. In addition, users can post personal reviews and feedback of the solutions they have used in the past or present.
Ombud is a community-based online source for technology solution decision-making. The company is revolutionizing the way people do research in the IT industry by building a global community that connects technology buyers, vendors, and analysts. Ombud’s interactive platform makes it easy to access enterprise technology information and share products and services. The company was founded in 2011 and has offices out of Boulder, Colorado, and the San Francisco Bay Area.
1105 Enterprise Computing Group (ECG), a division of 1105 Media, Inc., provides integrated B-to-B media solutions targeting the network and enterprise markets. It provides news, in-depth analysis, and hands-on information for IT executives, directors, managers, developers, administrators and channel partners. Within ECG is the award-winning Redmond Media Group and the Virtualization Media Group. Our flagship print properties include Redmond, Visual Studio Magazine, Redmond Channel Partner, MSDN Magazine and Virtualization Review. Our portfolio includes a dozen web sites and numerous events.
New social CRM review site may pose a threat to industry analysts
A new Web service that allows users to analyze social CRM products and companies has garnered some attention for what it could do to Gartner Research Inc.
By Albert McKeon
Wed, May 16, 2012
A new Web service that allows users to analyze social CRM products and companies has garnered some attention for what it could do to Gartner Research Inc.
Ombud is still in beta form, but registered users can already submit reviews, statistics and more about anything and everything in the social CRM field.
Can a New Analyst Firm Take Down Gartner?
For more than 30 years, Gartner has dominated the IT analyst market. CIO.com columnist Rob Enderle sees Ombud, a new analyst firm focusing on social CRM and pulling member profiles from LinkedIn, as a viable challenge to a firm founded before there were even PCs.
By Rob Enderle
Fri, May 11, 2012
Gartner is a major power in the IT advisory firm space. There is constant contention between Gartner and the vendors who think, right or wrong, that the company charges them way too much—sometimes upwards of $100 million—for positive reviews. IT buyers often complain that Gartner, like any large company serving lots of people, doesn't get down to their unique needs and often sends them analysts who are inexperienced. Furthermore, there has always been a concern with every vendor-funded firm in the segment that the difference between reviews and marketing collateral is negligible. With Gartner, the issue generally isn't corruption but, rather, timeliness and relevance.
Ombud Launches New Social Research Platform for Community Evaluation of Enterprise Systems and Services
Now in Public Beta, Ombud Lets Users and Vendors Showcase Expertise and Products, While Delivering Transparency to Enterprise Market Research
Boulder, CO (PRWEB) December 05, 2011
Ombud™, a new online information hub for all things related to social customer relationship management, launches its public beta testing today at Ombud.com.
With its social research approach, Ombud is poised to disrupt the traditional market research methodology practiced by conventional industry analyst firms. Ombud brings transparency to the notoriously opaque market research process by offering access to high-quality information at no charge. This allows customers with large or small budgets to generate up-to-date research reports on demand to help determine which products and services best fit their needs. Ombud’s global community vets new technology faster and more comprehensively than traditional analyst firms, which is critical in rapidly developing technology markets like Social CRM.
Ombud enables people engaged with enterprise technology to showcase their experience, while also tapping the knowledge of other domain experts. Users can follow, rate and contribute to relevant industry topics. Vendors can present their solutions, and find and interact with prospective and existing customers. Corporate evaluators of IT products and services can use Ombud as an information hub where they can access community-based evaluations and research on business-to-business IT systems and services.
Power users of enterprise technology have the ability to demonstrate their expertise by contributing content and rating products, services and service providers. As they become recognized experts in very specific areas, power users will be able to develop valuable industry relationships.
Ombud features are built to make enterprise technology purchasing processes more efficient and transparent, including research directories for vendors, products and people that can be searched and sorted according to user preference. Within these directories, the Ombud community can detail first-hand experiences with various vendors and products, compare competing products side-by-side, view online content associated with their specific interests and receive product recommendations — all from a single platform.
Social profiles on Ombud can be populated with information from users’ LinkedIn accounts, facilitating connections with industry experts, IT analysts, vendors and potential customers. Simultaneously, users may enhance the professional recognition in their social profiles by rating and reviewing each other’s contributions and associating themselves with entities with which they have direct experience.
About Ombud
Founded in the spring of 2011, Ombud, Inc. is headquartered in Boulder, CO. Ombud is an online service platform that offers community-based research on all factors weighing into the technology and services purchase decision process. Inspired by ombudsmen, Ombud acts as a neutral intermediary among those involved with the buying, selling or recommending of Social CRM products. Ombud has raised seed funding from private investors.
Ombud and the Ombud logo are registered trademarks of Ombud Inc. Third-party trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners.