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'Gartner', Inc. () is an information and technology research and advisory firm headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut. It was known as 'The Gartner Group' until 2001.^[1]
Gartner clients include many large corporations and government agencies, as well as technology companies and the investment community. The company consists of Gartner Research, Gartner Executive Programs, Gartner Consulting and Gartner Events. Founded in 1979, Gartner has 3,700 associates, including 1,200 research analysts and consultants in 75 countries worldwide.

Contents

Business areas

Technology scope

Gartner Research

Gartner Consulting

Gartner Executive Programs

Gartner Events

Gartner Publishing

Company history

Competitors

Press coverage

See also

References

External links

Gartner in the news

Business areas

Technology scope

The areas of technology that the company includes within its scope include:

★ Customer relationship management (CRM)

★ Business-to-business e-commerce

★ Supply chain management

★ Business Intelligence

★ Wireless and similar communication technology

★ Security

★ IT services in general

★ IT spending and strategies including global manufacturing operations

★ Emerging technologies

★ IT Infrastructures and Operations

Gartner Research

Closely related to consulting, Gartner provides research analyses and reports for IT professionals, technology companies and the investment community in the form of reports and briefings, as well as peer networking services and membership programs designed specifically for CIOs and other senior executives. Following a publisher's business model -- "write once, sell many" -- Research operates on high gross margins and is Gartner's most profitable business unit, growing 9 percent in 2006, to $571 million.

Gartner Consulting

This is the basic business area; Gartner consultants provide support in all areas related to information technology to measuring the effectiveness and efficiency of business practices, serving as independent advisors. Gartner's consulting staff provides customized project consulting on the delivery, deployment, and management of high-tech products and services in four areas: IT Management and Measurement, Sourcing, Federal Government, and Market and Business Strategies.

Gartner Executive Programs

Gartner sells 'Executive Programs' (EXP) memberships to Chief Information Officers (CIOs) and other senior executives in a wide range of technologies. An EXP membership leverages Gartner's services in ways that are specific to the CIOs needs, and offers members-only communities for peer-based collaboration. Members also receive advice and counsel from a personal relationship manager. As the company is involved with all the facets of the industry, this inevitable includes both users and vendors of the same technology, which might appear as conflicts of interest. At December 31, 2006, Gartner's various Executive Programs had a membership of approximately 3,150 CIOs and other senior IT leaders.

Gartner Events

The Gartner Symposium/ITxpo is the IT industry's largest conference. Gartner Symposium, offered each spring and fall in various international locations, is a strategic conference for senior IT and business professionals. Symposium is combined with ITxpo, an exhibition where the latest technology products and solutions are demonstrated. It has been hosted in Sydney, Australia; Cannes, France; San Francisco, California; Barcelona, Spain; Orlando, Florida; Tokyo, Japan; and Cape Town, South Africa.
Gartner also organizes regional conferences in over 65 countries on specialized topics such as: outsourcing, customer relationship management, application integration and business intelligence. In 2004, Gartner held 56 events which attracted nearly 31,000 participants and produced revenues of $138.4 million.^[2]

Gartner Publishing

In 2004, Harvard Business School Press (HBS Press) and Gartner announced that they would publish a co-branded series of professional handbooks for senior executives, titled The Gartner Growth Agenda: Leading and Managing Strategic Growth with Technology. The partnership also included a component allowing HBS Press to distribute research reports from Gartner Press, the Strategic Planning Series and Executive Reports. The reports feature Gartner's proprietary research tools and models including Magic Quadrants, Hype Cycles and Strategic Planning Assumptions. Topics include CRM, Web Services, Security, Outsourcing, Wireless and Mobile, Business Intelligence and Asset Management.^[3] Some of Gartner's recent publications include:

★ ''IT and the East, How India and China are Altering the Future of Technology and Innovation'', James M. Popkin and Partha Iyengar, Gartner, Inc. ISBN: 1422103145 Harvard Business School Press, April 2007

★ ''Multisourcing: Moving Beyond Outsourcing to Achieve Growth And Agility'', Linda Cohen and Allie Young, Managing Vice Presidents, Gartner, Inc. ISBN 1591397979 Harvard Business School Press, November 2005

★ ''Heads Up, How to Anticipate Business Surprises and Seize Opportunities First'', Kenneth G. McGee, Vice President, Gartner, Inc. ISBN 1-59139-299-3 Harvard Business School Press, April 2004

★ ''The New CIO Leader, Setting the Agenda and Delivering Results'', Marianne Broadbent, Associate Dean, Melbourne Business School, Gartner Fellow and Ellen Kitzis, Vice President, Gartner, Inc. ISBN 1-59139-577-1 Harvard Business School Press, December 2004

★ ''Heads Up, How to Anticipate Business Surprises and Seize Opportunities First'', Kenneth G. McGee, Group Vice President, Gartner Inc. ISBN 1-59139-299-3 Harvard Business School Press, April 2004

Company history

The company was founded in 1979 by the eponymous Gideon Gartner. Originally a private company, the Gartner Group was launched publicly in the 1980s, then acquired by Saatchi & Saatchi, the London-based advertising agency, and then acquired in 1990 by some of its executives, with funding from Bain Capital and Dun & Bradstreet. In 2001 the name was simplified to Gartner.
In the course of its growth, Gartner has acquired numerous companies providing related services, including most notably Real Decisions (which became Gartner Measurement, now part of Gartner's consulting division), and Dataquest (Gartner's market research firm). It has also acquired a number of direct competitors, including NewScience (which Gartner acquired in the late 1990s) and arch-rival Meta Group (acquired in 2005).
The Chairman and CEO is Gene Hall (since August 2004). Business performance under Hall's management has been considerably stronger than under his predecessor Michael Fleisher.

Competitors

Gartner has a large number of smaller competitors, including:
EVANGELISTS
The Butler Group
Cutter Consortium
Forrester Research
Computer Economics
IBRS (Australia)
IDC

Press coverage

Gartner research is frequently quoted by the IT press, particularly in regard to controversial IT topics, including the security of common software, or the costs of switching to free software alternatives. Noteworthy examples include:

★ their September 2001 advisory that, in light of increasing internet worm attacks such as Code Red and Nimda, companies using Microsoft IIS for web hosting should switch to alternative products,^[4]

★ their October 2006 statement that they believed Apple Computer should abandon its hardware business, instead licensing it to alternative PC manufacturers, such as Dell,^[5]

★ their December 2006 prediction that blogging activity would reach a peak during 2007,^[6] and that Windows Vista would be the last major release of the operating system.^[7]

See also

★ List of United States companies

★ List of research companies

References

External links

★ Gartner website

Gartner in the news

★ Computer Weekly, Friday 15 December 2006: Gartner’s top 10 forecasts for 2007 and beyond, by Antony Savvas

★ TechWorld.com, December 15, 2006 – Magic Pillar gets Gartner seal of approval

★ InfoQ, December 14, 2006 – Gender Gap Continues to Increase in IT: Gartner