No sooner had the dust begin to settle on the December blockbuster announcement that Gartner would acquire supply chain industry analyst firm AMR Research, (you can read all about it at this Supply Chain Matters link) the word comes forth that Gartner has also acquired industry analyst firm Burton Group for the tidy sum of $56 million.

As you can note from the Gartner press release, Burton is a well respected research and advisory firm that provided in-depth technical advice to front-line IT professionals.  Somewhat different than the AMR announcement, Gartner has actually completed the acquisition of Burton, and apparently chose not to announce the deal when originally consummated.  I suppose one could speculate that Gartner did not want to take away from the news on the AMR Acquisition.

You can view some interesting perspectives on the Burton acquisition on both Carter Lusher’s Sage Circle and Phil Fersht’s Horses for Sources blogs.   The bottom line consensuses on the implications for these series of announcements are further consolidation of the industry analyst world and limited choices for alternative opinions.  Phil Fersht’s also hits the nail on the head with his statement: “While Big G has picked up some superlative minds from its latest acquisitions, its new challenge is going to be maintaining those edgy opinions, and not having them toned down under the glossy corporate veneer of the billion-dollar brand.”

As for AMR Research, I learned today that Gartner completed the acquisition just before Christmas, ahead of its original schedule.  Gartner is obviously moving rather quickly to solidify the new AMR business model.  Kevin O’Marah, former Chief Strategy Officer will now report directly to Peter Sondergaard, Senior Vice president of Research for Gartner, and direct all AMR research activities under the Gartner umbrella.  Contrary to what was announced in December, Gartner supply chain analysts Dwight Klappich and Tim Payne have moved over to be part of the AMR research team, which in-effect leaves limited supply chain research coverage if you are an existing Gartner supply chain research customer.

From my perspective, Gartner’s strategy and motivation in these moves is to expand its reach and make a major push towards dominating more end-user and practitioner advisory needs.  So far, these efforts indicate coverage for supply chain and IT communities.  Of course, if you seek all of these services, be prepared to pay-up for all three.  No doubt, the Fortune 100 types will have the clout to negotiate their own deals, but not so for others.

As far as I’m concerned, I am more than willing to fill the existing supply chain advisory void and provide a second supply chain voice when needed.  If you are in need of such services, you can check out my consulting website, since we just added advisory services package options.

Bob Ferrari

The biggest news in the industry analyst community this year came with this morning’s announcement that Gartner has agreed to acquire AMR Research for approximately $64 million in cash, subject to certain closing adjustments.

Many in the supply chain community would agree that AMR Research had assumed the role as the most influential research and advisory firm in many areas of both supply chain business process and information technology.  Being cited in the annual AMR Research Top 25 Supply Chains report was highly sought out by many global firms, and technology providers spent high amounts of executive level efforts in trying to influence AMR’s individual analysts. (Author’s note: I was a former supply chain industry analyst at AMR Research)

 I must candidly admit that I was not totally surprised by an announcement that AMR was acquired, since there have been annual rumors that AMR was “preening itself” for an eventual suitor.  There were only two logical suitor firms, that being Gartner and Forrester, and we obviously now know of the winner of the prize.

No doubt, the biggest winners from this acquisition will be the original founders and current senior management team at AMR.  My personal congratulations go out to Tony Friscia, Bruce Richardson, Kevin O’Marah and Mike DiPetro.

The big open question in terms of the continuation of broad and specialized supply chain industry analyst coverage lies in what plans Gartner has for future research efforts under either the AMR Research or Gartner brands.  The press release specifically notes that Gartner expects to generate substantial synergies by selling AMR Research products to existing Gartner clients and Gartner research products to AMR clients.  While the press release also notes 40 AMR analysts and 45 sales executives will be added to the Gartner team, it also states that the combination of both firms is expected to drive operational efficiencies and cost savings.  More details will certainly be shared in the coming days, and Gartner has scheduled a specific briefing for its clients later this week.

Existing AMR Research clients should stay abreast of the overall timetable of integration as well as any specific changes, if any, to individual analyst coverage areas.  My initial suspicion is that changes will be forthcoming in industry related coverage since there is overlap among both firms.

 Supply Chain Matters readers can check back for additional commentary in the coming days.

 Bob Ferrari

Disclaimer: This author and the Ferrari Consulting and Research Group LLC are not an existing client of either AMR Research or Gartner Inc. and have received no compensation in relationship to the above posting.