If news broadcasts are to believed we are slowly emerging into economic recovery. This will inevitably result in an upturn in investment in IT over the next year or so. So if you are in the preliminary stages of creating your wish list for next years expenditure - where will you turn to for advice?  

In a recent survey of IT leaders, more than 40 per cent of respondents said they would turn to colleagues in their own companies for suggestions on technologies, while around 30 per cent said they would go to speak to colleagues at other companies, with a similar percentage preferring to quiz peers in groups they belong to. Which affirms the decision of many organisations to subscribe to the Corporate IT forum - an powerful group of IT user organisations that share practical experience from the real world of enterprise level IT. Forum members find the intelligence gathered from peers is invaluable when it comes to understanding which suppliers and technologies will be right for their business.

Coincidentally, last week saw an article by Thomas Wailgum in CIO Magazinereporting on the lawsuit against Gartner brought by ZL Technologies which asked the question “Magic Quadrant Lawsuit: Would You Jump Off a Bridge If Gartner Says So?”. He goes on to suggest that “Gartner receives substantial revenues from the vendors it covers and opines about in its MQ and other research materials. (It’s derisively referred to by many as “pay for play,” and it irritates most, if not all, analysts, including one of Gartner’s own.)” Yet the kudos of Gartner recommended “opinion” still carries far more weight in the boardroom than the practical advice of peer (whether from within the organisation or from other businesses) that have real world experience.

How long will it be before Gartner and other analyst organisations feel the reputational backlash for wrapping informed opinion in the cloak of paid advertising? Your comments would be most welcome on this issue.