London, Thursday 04th July 2019 – The wait has an end…. Whilst the USA are celebrating their Independence Day, the IIAR members celebrated their annual IIAR Summer Party, kindly sponsored by Criteo and Spotlight AR this year. Highlight of the evening was the announcement of the IIAR AR Professional of the Year 2019, a highly coveted recognition among the AR professionals.

Needless to say that there were plenty of reasons to celebrate at this traditional event that brings together the AR professionals and agencies as well as the analysts who joined us from Gartner, Forrester, IDC, Ovum, 451 Research and many others for an evening full of great discussions and insights. The party is a great opportunity to engage with peers from the AR community and exchange best practices, get feedback from the key analysts in the industry and build or strengthens new and existing relationships. 

The IIAR recognises outstanding analyst relations professionals since 2014 through it’s yearly ARPOTY survey of all global industry analysts who can rate the capabilities and performance of AR pros. The analyst respondents can vote for the best AR professional, teams and agencies who they engage with throughout the year. Foundation of the survey are traditionally the 3 R’s of analyst relations:

• Responsiveness– analysts expect AR pros to revert back to them in a timely fashion with the information required for their research

• Relationships– analysts have many stakeholders; they rely on someone that’s easy to deal with and always goes that extra mile

• Results– can AR pros deliver results for their employers?

This year, over 400 AR professionals, 84 agencies and 11 megavendors have been rated. The IIAR added Google and Amazon and Fujitsu to the megavendors section of this year’s survey.

“This year’s IIAR AR Professional, Team and Agency of the year survey indicate an interesting phase separation in the analyst relation professionals community, between the top 10% of top performers, the middle ground long-tailers and new this year, analysts have clearly indicated displeasure with the bottom 10%. This shows the need for continued education and best practices on the profession”

Ludovic Leforestier (@lludovic, LinkedIn), IIAR Board Member.

A big Thank You! to all of the analysts who took the time out of their busy schedules to provide quality feedback on the service the AR pros deliver. The analysts input is of great value for the AR professions who can evaluate their own performance, plan analysts engagement according to analyst priories and , and for relationship building activities.

Whilst the IIAR awards the top 3 AR professionals, there are many others who are doing an excellent job and who stand out from the crowd. It is always a great pleasure to see so the many talented AR professionals who are acknowledged by the analysts we work with on a daily basis and the survey clearly shows the head to head race between our fellow AR peers. We’ll share more details and our key findings in the upcoming webinar for IIAR members where we will look beyond the top winners and discus why it is crucial for an AR professional  to be responsive, have the ability to help build strong analysts relationships with their stakeholders and deliver great results.

Enough talks –the winner of the IIAR AR Professional award 2019 goes to…

IIAR AR Professional of the Year 2019: Peggy O’Neill / Informatica

Congrats to Peggy! Peggy O’Neill  (@pegoneill, LinkedIn) was able to claim back her title from 2016 making her the AR Pro of the Year for the second time.

“I’m humbled by the recognition and feel grateful that even after doing analyst relations for 17 years I still look forward to work everyday.”

Peggy O’Neill / Vice President Industry Analyst Relations, Informatica (@pegoneill, LinkedIn)

See Peggy’s interview here.

A big Wohooo also goes to  the two runner-ups tp Peggy who share the second place:

Joely Urton / Box (@JoelyUrton, LinkedIn) and Christine Randle / Oracle (@crandle, LinkedIn).

“It seems like you need to have been to the Oracle School of AR those days -congratulations to Peggy for claiming the title back and fostering such a rooster of talented AR professionals.”

Ludovic Leforestier(@lludovic, LinkedIn), IIAR Board Member.

Well Done! To learn about the top 10 AR professionals, please join us for the webinar on the 23rd July 2019 at 1600 BST (IIAR members only, join here).

IIAR AR Team of the Year 2019: Oracle

Analysts were also able to vote an AR Team of the Year – with Oracle being the winner for 2019 -all the way from the bottom of the league in 9th place back in 2014.

AR teams are being recognised in doing a great job in balancing the ever-increasing volumes of requests, continuously evolving their AR program to the changes in the market and the demands of the analysts whilst looking at building strong relationships with the analysts. Teams recognised from “Megavendors”, are defined as companies over USD 20 billion global annual revenues and providing a mix of three or more types the following: IT hardware; Networking equipment; Telecommunication services; Enterprise software; IT services and outsourcing; and Business consulting.

“It is an honor to be recognized for this award for the first time, especially given the strong competition. We very much appreciate the positive support from the Analyst community. This is above all a win for a very dedicated team of AR professionals driven by years of experience, strong relationship skills, and creative problem solving expertise. I’m grateful to the Oracle management for helping us build one of the best AR
 programs in the industry.”

Ricarda Rodatus / VP of Analyst Relations, Oracle (@rodatusr, LinkedIn)

See Ricarda’s interview here.

Oracle was followed by SAP (up from 6th last year), IBM (up from 8th), and HPE (up from 7th).

Last year’s winner IIAR AR Team of the Year 2018 Cisco dropped down to 5^th place in the megavendors AR teams ranking.

“It’s a great pleasure to see Oracle back on top of the AR teams after a few tough years, congratulations to Ricarda and the team for this spectacular turnaround.“

Ludovic Leforestier / IIAR Board Member (@lludovic, LinkedIn)

More details on the scores will be given in our webinar on the 23/7.

IIAR AR Agency of the Year 2019: Dennington AR

In its second year is the category AR agencies that are providing analyst relations services. With a big head start Dennington AR was rated into the winner position of 2019. The second place is being shared by last year’s winner Signe Loenberg (@signeloenberg, LinkedIn) of Loenberg AR and Destrier AR which is managed by our newly appointed board member Simon Jones (@SimonDestrier, LinkedIn). Also ex-aequo in 4th place, we have Magnolia Analyst Relations, founded by Pam Crain (@pamcrain2002, LinkedIn) and Merritt Group.

It is the best feeling to receive an award for a job that I am passionate about and enjoy doing.  Being recognised by the analyst community makes me feel extremely proud of Dennington AR and its associates.  Delivering value to clients and ensuring analysts needs are met is absolutely fundamental along with maintaining trustworthy and credible relationships.  I would like to extend my thanks to the IIAR and all of the analysts who participated in the survey as well as congratulating Peggy, Oracle and all the other winners.”

Caroline Dennington / Managing Director, Dennington AR (@Cdennington, LinkedIn)

The IIAR survey analyses a deep field with 84 AR agencies identified by analysts, with a good balance between smaller, boutique AR specialised agencies, the top 30 agencies as well as large unspecialised agencies. .

“On behalf of the IIAR Board, it is a pleasure to award Caroline for her magnificent AR work and to Signe and Simon for being once again in the top three of excellent analyst relations services.” 

Ludovic Leforestier / IIAR Board Member (@lludovic, LinkedIn)

See our IIAR list of AR agencies here.

Well done everyone who snatched an award and thank you for your ongoing commitment to best practice in analyst relations. We also appreciate the efforts of the analyst community to keep us informed and sharing their insights. 

Thanks in particular to Anja Steinman (@AnjaSteinmann, LinkedIn) for her precious help with this project.

See also the IIAR> press release: The IIAR Announces the 2019 Analyst Relations Professional, Team and Agency of the Year 2019.

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