Expert insight into the ways that IT industry analysts perform their role.

Photo of Andrew Butler from Deers Leap Insight

Who am I?

I worked as an analyst at Gartner for over 20 years before creating Deers-Leap Insight in 2018.

After joining as a Research Director in 1997, my focus on data centre technologies developed over the next two decades. Key achievements include:

Conference chair of the Cannes & Barcelona symposia for several years

Global insight achieved through regular participation in dozens of Gartner conferences all over the world

Active, named participation in hundreds of other published reports

Conference chair of the London Data Center Summit since its inception in 2007 through 2016

Primary authorship of over 300 published reports, including dozens of Magic Quadrants

Lead analyst roles for Hewlett-Packard, Cisco, Red Hat and Dell

Before Gartner…

Prior to joining Gartner in 1997, I worked for Hewlett-Packard in both the UK and Germany for 14 years. After joining as a systems engineer in 1983, I held a number of software and hardware marketing positions, and as sales training manager for Europe. Before 1983, I underwent a classic programming, systems analysis and IT management “apprenticeship”, working for both software vendors (Pentagram, Altergo) and large corporations (Nielsen Research, Schwarzkopf and Boehringer Ingelheim).

How can i help?

This differentiated insight provides me with the scope to deliver consultancy value on two very different axes:

Supercharging analyst engagement

In this capacity, I work exclusively through The Skills Connection, who are a team of former senior Gartner analysts and executives offering knowledge and expertise to help technology companies improve their relationships with the analyst community and better engage with the market. The Skills Connection works as an extension to the vendor’s own analyst relations and marketing teams to help prepare for analyst assessments, deliver briefings and increase the probability of marketing and sales engagement success. In this capacity, the Skills Connection analysts deliver three key attributes:

We understand what the analysts want to see, because we were all senior analysts ourselves.
We know the best way for vendors to present themselves to make their company stand out with analysts and prospects.
And we advise vendors on what information they need to share, at what time and in what format, in order to minimize disruption to the business.

Analyzing the market

Twenty plus years as an analyst qualifies me to advise vendors in a variety of additional ways:

Analyst contact is usually fleeting – you can’t do much in 30 minutes! I provide context to analyst interactions, to help vendors “analyze the analyst”, their message and the market dynamics.
I work with major IT hardware and software vendors to be a sounding board for their own strategic initiatives.
Through either one-off commissions, or a recurring relationship, Deers-Leap becomes a natural extension to a vendor’s own marketing or analyst relations organization.
Principal coverage areas include server technologies and operating systems, evolution of cloud computing, data center technology integration, hyperconvergence and software-defined infrastructures.

More information about the ways that The Skills Connection can help your business can be found at:

www.theskillsconnection.com

Contact Me

I am located in Wokingham, about 30 miles west of London. You can reach me via the following:

andrew.butler@deers-leap.com +44 710 126565