Gartner

Gartner
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Gartner, Inc.

Type	Public (NYSE: IT)
Founded	1979
Headquarters	Stamford, Connecticut
Key people	Gene Hall (Chairman and CEO) Christopher J. Lafond (CFO).
Industry	Research
Products	Research Consulting Events
Revenue	$1.189 billion (2007)
Net income	$73.6 million (2007)
Employees	4,000 (2008)
Website	www.gartner.com

Gartner headquarters in Stamford

Gartner, Inc. (NYSE: IT) is an information 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 Research, Executive Programs, Consulting and Events. Founded in 1979, Gartner has 4,000 associates,^[2] including 1,200 research analysts and consultants in 75 countries worldwide.^{citation needed}

1 Business areas
2 Company history
3 Competitors
4 Press coverage
5 See also
6 References
7 External links

Business areas

Research coverage

The areas of technology that the company includes within its scope is organized in three ways: research by market, research by topics and research by industries.

Gartner research

Gartner provides research analysis and advice 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 2007, to $673 million.^{citation needed} [1]

Gartner consulting

Aligned to Gartner research are its core consulting capabilities. This allows a further level of support for Gartner clients in the application of the Gartner research. The consulting practice is predominantly staffed by senior practitioners with "hands on" experience of delivering IT/IS related programmes and projects. By aligning their consulting capabilties closely to research, the consulting arm is able to offer Industry/Sector related advice and support in Government, Retail, Media & Telecommunications, Financial Services and Manufacturing. It also provides more generic cross sector services encompassing Strategy, Technology and Application Management, Programme and Portfolio Management, IT/IS Process and Performance Optimisation, Sourcing & Vendor Management and benchmarking.

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. At June, 2008, Gartner's various Executive Programs had a membership of approximately 3,700 CIOs and other senior IT leaders.

Gartner events

The Gartner Symposium/ITxpo^[3] is the IT industry's largest conference.^{citation needed} 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 2007, Gartner held 78 events which attracted 44,216 participants and produced revenues of $180.8 million.^[4]

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 several competitors, including:

Press coverage

Gartner research is frequently quoted by the business and IT press on a broad range of issues. Noteworthy examples include:

Financial Times: You can believe the Hype Cycle's take on technology, Philip Stafford, May 30, 2008 Financial Times
Wall Street Journal: Business Technology Blog: Windows (Slowly) Collapsing Under Own Weight, By Ben Worthen, April 11, 2008 Wall Street Journal
New York Times: Smartphones Now Ringing for Women, Laura M. Holson, June 10, 2008 New York Times
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,^[5]
their October 2006 statement that they believed Apple Computer should abandon its hardware business, instead licensing it to alternative PC manufacturers, such as Dell,^[6]
their December 2006 prediction that blogging activity would reach a peak during 2007,^[7] and that Windows Vista would be the last major release of the operating system.^[8]