The Who and the Why of Perri AR Consultancy
Welcome to my analyst relations consultancy page. My name is Tony Perri, and I have been an analyst relations consultant dating back to 2010 when I was the head of global marketing, PR and AR at Allen Systems Group, now Rocket Software.
At ASG, I managed a team of marketing creatives, product marketers and a PR manager, and worked closely with the chief revenue officer and then CEO, Arthur Allen. I was fortunate that ASG put great emphasis and resources into its media and analyst relations initiatives, allowing me the privilege of working closely with AR firms Gartner, Forrester Research, IDC, and Enterprise Management Associates (EMA).
I’ve since left ASG and created startups AR Advocates and Perri Marketing, Inc. (PMI), serving the growth interests of independent software vendors (ISV) selling into the Fortune 500 in regulated industries. AR Advocates was sold in the early 2010s and PMI continues to serve ISVs selling into large enterprises with clients in the U.S. as well as Canada and France.
What I’ve learned over the years is that products and services don’t make great companies. People do. The people helping your organization – your personnel, partners and consultants – are your greatest asset. For the organizations I work with, I work alongside client teams to help make analysts part of that human resource ecosystem that separates your business from the pack. But it takes analyst relationship building and if you aren’t building the proper relationship, your analyst investment can be more detrimental than helpful.
The Misconception of Industry Analyst Relations
The Perri AR Consultancy focuses on an area of specialty that I hold from years of experience that is unique to the software industry, industry analyst relationship building. My primary focus is to help Independent Software Vendors navigate the complexities of maintaining great corporate relations with the analyst community.
There are two grand misconceptions about AR that are prevalent amongst the ISV community that I want to dispel and help better understand:
- The misconception that you must be an analyst vendor client to brief them, and
- The misconception that you must be included in a Magic Quadrant (Gartner) or Wave (Forrester) to be included in more sales deals.
If you have been thinking about AR along these lines, there is a chance that you are misaligned with what the Gartners, Forresters, IDCs and other firms are looking to gain from your relationship with them. I look forward to hearing from you.
Tony Perri, Founder and Chief Industry Analyst Advocate
The Perri AR Consultancy