First Things First.  Thank You Altimeter Group.

The rumors are true.  I've left, but on good terms.  I remain a unit member and investor of Altimeter.  I wish my former colleagues the best.  In fact, Altimeter's been doing great work.  The firm has grown from 10 to 135 clients in 13 months.  The team is on fire.  Altimeter's built a great brand and is trusted by clients.  We've proven that a market exists for high value firms.  Clients seek differentiated points of view.  Frankly, the success of Altimeter drives the inspiration by clients and member analysts for building out new models of a research firm.
Announcing The Next Wave - Constellation Research


Constellation is a next-generation research firm, comprising member analysts who take a multi-disciplinary approach to enterprise research topics.  Our main mission serves the needs of technology buyers and end-users who seek insight, guidance, and advice in dealing with IT.
The best analysts bridge the gap between theory and practice, and that's what we seek to do.  Our research agendas look at cross-role, cross-functional, and cross-industry trends. Every analyst member of Constellation brings decades of practitioner experience, a strong network of other experts, and a passion to share and serve clients.  We take the buyer’s perspective and make the tough calls that clients will expect of us as an independent research firms.
Our research agenda includes a number of emerging trends and technologies: enterprise applications, legacy system optimization, cloud computing, mobile computing, social networking, business analytics, game theory, and unified communications.
We are first and foremost a research firm. We work to a research agenda and work with our clients to shape that agenda. We provided both open and syndicated products and we build long term retained relationships with both our buy side and sell side clients. Our primary product is our IP and knowledge which we share deliver in many mediums such as reports, webinars, and project consulting.
Software Insider Joins Constellation

Effective today, my longstanding research firm, Insider Associates, LLC, is now a member of the Constellation Research Group. We will continue to deliver services under the Software Insider banner, but in addition, we will now be able to leverage the resources of this brand-new membership research organization and extend our services to its clients.  Coverage of next generation apps require a holistic point of view across the technology ecosystem, especially given the many enterprise influences coming from consumer tech. Our mission is to constantly provide the best advice to our clients.  This partnership with Constellation opens the door to a greater portfolio of collaboration on disruptive research and advisory for our clients.
Introducing The Constellation
We have assembled a really top-notch group of analysts.

• Phil Fersht (@pfersht) is a well-known industry analyst covering business process outsourcing (BPO) and IT services worldwide. He is the founder of the acclaimed global sourcing blog "Horses for Sources." Before that he worked for 15 years at AMR Research (now Gartner Group), Deloitte Consulting, Everest Group, and IDC.
• Maribel Lopez (@maribellopez) brings deep industry knowledge in covering the communications industry. With over two decades of marketing as well as industry analyst experience, she has covered the massive shifts in the communication market. Maribel has worked in marketing at Motorola and Shiva corp and as an analyst for IDC. She also put in over 10 years at Forrester Research, most recently as Vice President of the tech industry strategies group, covering network and service strategies, enterprise communications, and consumer markets for voice, video, and data.
• Oliver Marks (@olivermarks) is a partner at the Sovos Group. Oliver provides consulting to end-user organizations on the effective planning of collaboration strategy, tactics, technology decisions, change management and roll out. Oliver previously managed the Sony WorldWide collaboration extranet, and has worked with the American Management Association, Sun, Docent/SumTotal Systems, Harvard Business School and McKinsey on major initiatives around knowledge transfer and change management.
• Vinnie Mirchandani (@dealarchitect) is a thought-leader on trends in software, outsourcing, and offshoring. He has personally assisted clients in negotiate technology contracts valued in excess of $5 billion and has advised companies on IT risk management, globalization and sourcing issues. Vinnie is the founder of Deal Architect and is a former Gartner analyst and an outsourcing executive with PricewaterhouseCoopers.
• Paul Papadimitriou (@papadimitiriou) is a big thinker on online media, its impact on how brands and individuals communicate, and the redefinition of social norms through new technologies. With more than a decade of experience as a lobbyist and business consultant, he delivers intelligence to companies seeking to understand the shift in customer engagement. Paul also advises startups, writes about Japan mobile & web trends, and is a sought-after speaker at conferences around the world.
• Sameer Patel (@sameerpatel) is a partner at the Sovos Group. Sameer is a recognized expert in accelerating business performance via the use of collaboration and enterprise social software. He has more than a decade of experience managing initiatives for large organizations to help drive sales and marketing intelligence, partner network optimization, innovation, customer acquisition, and employee productivity via communication and collaboration technologies. Sameer’s clients have included Ingres, Sun Microsystems, Computer Associates, KPMG, McKesson HBOC, WR WrigleyCo., The Sabre Group, Grupo Televisa (Mx), and Cardinal Health.
• Frank Scavo (@fscavo) is the co-founder of Strativa, a management consulting firm providing business and IT advice to end-user organizations. He has over 20 years of experience in IT strategy, IT management metrics, enterprise applications, and business process improvement, serving end-users in a broad range of industries, including manufacturing, life sciences, consumer products, high-tech, distribution, retail distribution, and information services. He is especially skilled at aligning business and IT strategy, developing the business case for new systems, and facilitating the selection of enterprise systems, such as ERP, CRM, and supply chain management. He is also an expert in benchmarking IT spending and staffing levels for end-user IT organizations. Frank is a Certified Fellow in Production and Inventory Management (CFPIM) by APICS, the Association for Operations Management. He is also the President of Computer Economics, an IT research and metrics firm, founded in 1979.
• Alan Silberberg (@ideagov) is a leading analyst in Gov 2.0. He speaks on transformational change, crisis and brand communications, and government 2.0 and the crossover into business and technology. Alan has government and private sector experience, having served in the U.S. White House, at Paramount Pictures and numerous technology companies as an advisor, founder or investor. His clients have included the Vatican Global Licensing group, currently elected officials, and former elected officials as well as numerous technology startups. He is focused on the business side of Government 2.0 and how the technology platforms create commercial ventures and new markets. He is the founder of Gov20LA which is the first west coast un-conference for Gov 2.0 tech.

In addition, we have a great group on our Board of Advisors that provide mentorship, guidance, and general research advice:

• Paul Greenberg (@pgreenbe)
• Dennis Howlett (@dahowlett)
• Erin Kinkin
• Esteban Kolsky (@ekolsky)
• Brian Solis (@briansolis)

Additional members have and are expected to join Constellation Research Group in the coming months.  Stay tuned for their announcements over the next few months!
Constellation Service Offerings
We work with our clients to tailor programs of access through open research, syndicated research, and one-on-one interactive engagement. Advisory services include:

Visit the Constellation Research Group website for more information, or simply contact me if you are interested in our services.
Stay Tuned For The Launch Webinar
A free webinar on the Constellation Experience will be offered on December 2nd, 2010 at

• 9 am Central European Time
• 10 am Eastern Time
• 10 am Pacific Time

Stay tuned for registration and details
Your POV.
Ready for the Constellation experience?  What are you looking for in a next generation research firm?  Would love to hear your comments on the blog or send me an email to rwang0 at gmail dot com or r at softwareinsider dot org and we’ll keep your anonymity.
Resources And Related Links

Cross posts will be linked here.
Reprints
Reprints can be purchased through the Software Insider brand.  To request official reprints in PDF format, please contact [email protected].
Disclosure
Although we work closely with many technology providers, we want you to trust us.  A full disclosure policy is coming soon.
Copyright © 2010 R Wang and Insider Associates, LLC. All rights reserved.