It gushes money

Gartner’s business model is genius. They gather information from vendors and users – for large fees from both – and then sell that information back to them for even more money. Bliss.

They own a toll booth on the user/vendor information highway. And collect $1.3 billion a year from the traffic – over $300,000 per employee. Drool.

But the best is the Magic Quadrant, Gartner’s money-spinning qualitative graphic. You’ve seen it, but here’s a blank version.

The “magic” is how it gets tech execs leaping, like spawning salmon, for the upper right corner.

The little engine that couldn’t

Everyone toes Gartner’s line. Until now.

Beth Pariseau posted on ZL Technologies’ suit against Gartner . ZLT hopes to force Gartner to provide:

• Fair Disclosure on Conflicts of Interest – Gartner generates its revenues from payments made by the same vendors whose products it evaluates. Similar to the new rules now being imposed on financial ratings agencies on Wall Street, Gartner should be required to disclose the revenues received from the vendors it ranks.


• Fair Disclosur