This week, I’ll profile another tier 2 firm that represents the Long Tail of the market - Saugatuck Technology (www.saugatech.com).
Founded in 1999 by Bill McNee, formerly a Research Fellow and Group Vice President at Gartner (click here for profiles of the entire executive team) – Saugatuck Technology is headquartered in Westport, Connecticut and staffed by a veteran team of 10 full-time industry analysts and staff (most of who, like Bill, were previously with Gartner. The firm specializes in providing market strategy consulting and subscription research services to information technology vendors and investors, combining strategy development, business planning and market intelligence with first-hand research of executive technology buyer trends. Supplementing the core team are more than a dozen part-time and affiliated consultants, many household names in the annals of tech market research, who are brought in as industry specialists as needed.
In a recent call with Bill, he emphasized that the company was initially a pure market strategy consulting firm, filling a gap between IT analyst firms such as Gartner and the large "Big S" strategy firms such as McKinsey, Booze Allen or the Boston Consulting Group. With a focus on working with senior strategy, marketing and planning executives primarily at software and services firms, Bill shared that Saugatuck tries to "operationalize strategy" - making it practical, actionable and approachable, rather than as a 10,000 foot exercise that is often hard to comprehend or implement.
Bill shared that in many regards, most of Saugatuck's engagements revolve around helping to validate and fine-tune where its clients are going, as well as identifying new market opportunities to pursue. Most of Saugatuck's engagements include go-to-market strategy and tactics, with associated positioning and messaging constructs, and where appropriate, competitive analysis and/or scenario planning. Saugatuck's clients include a mix of industry mega-vendors such as IBM, SAP, HP, EMC, BEA and Unisys, as well as a variety of emerging, small and medium-size software, services, and information-focused and/or vertical-industry targeted providers (e.g., Progress Software, WebEx, Fiberlink, Prolifiq, Dow Jones).
Over the past three years, the firm has added a very strong primary research capability, specializing in senior executive buyer behavior research (delivered through either web research or executive-level interviewing). This has been particularly valuable to some of Saugatuck's larger clients who very much value Saugatuck's fact-based research/consulting approach. To this end, Saugatuck has developed some terrific partners that provide unique and unparalleled access to C-level executives, including a strategic partnership with BusinessWeek Research Services announced last fall, after a 3-year working relationship.
Since early 2005, Saugatuck has also dramatically stepped up its published research business, including adding a subscription-based research and advisory service called CRS last year. Similar to its consulting focus, Saugatuck's CRS specifically targets the needs of senior IT vendor executives and investors, providing independent and unbiased insights and guidance relative to emerging market trends, buyer behavior and “white-space” opportunities. What makes Saugatuck's research so valuable is the combination of the team's vast experience and knowledge, along with a deep appreciation for fact-based research that helps tell them what buyers are really doing (not just what industry analysts think they are doing). In this regard, Saugatuck is constantly surveying the market to better understand current and future market and executive buyer trends.
Given the heritage of the team, it is little surprise that the research is being very well received, especially their SaaS 2.0 research (Software as a Service) - considered by many to be among the most leading edge and influential in the market. Saugatuck's new research agenda for 2007 will continue to focus on key industry trends related to SOA, Open Source, SaaS and IT Utility adoption rates, as well as new and disruptive market forces and players at the business process layer. Click Here to access their research library.
Bill also asked me to extend an invitation to our readers who might like to participate in future research projects at Saugatuck. Saugatuck is always looking for executives to survey for their studies. If you’re interested, please visit their Contact Us page and drop them a note or give them a call. Saugatuck also publishes free weekly Research Alerts – click here to register.
Please tell them you learned about them on the AnalystPerspectives blog!
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