Gartner creates empowerment vehicle

By Paul Vecchiatto for Gartner

Cape Town, 03 Aug 2005

Gartner Africa, the franchisee of US research firm Gartner`s SA business, has opened a separate consulting division that is earmarked to be a vehicle for future black economic empowerment (BEE).

Talking to ITWeb during the Gartner Symposium ITxpo in Cape Town this week, Renee Jacobs, Gartner Africa MD, said while the consulting firm will be in effect a separate legal entity, it will make no difference to Gartner`s clients as they will only be dealing with one brand.

Jacobs says the BEE component should be finalised before the end of this year.

Gartner recently acquired its smaller rival, Meta Group.

"The new structure came into effect from 1 July and the [former Meta] consultants are now employed by us. They will now have access to the entire range of Gartner intellectual capital as in other countries," she says.

Gartner announced the Meta purchase in January for $160 million in cash and the deal became effective from 1 April. However, the two firms` local representatives have exclusive sales agreements with their principals and are not directly owned by either of them. Jacobs` counterpart was Peter Riches, who represented Meta in this country.

While METAmorphosis, run by Meta SA, went ahead in May, the branding at the event was Gartner`s. The event will now be absorbed into the annual Gartner Symposium ITxpo.

In the previous structure, Gartner had one consultant and Meta had seven. Only one Meta consultant has not taken up employment with Gartner following the merger. Neither firm had analysts based in the country.

Both firms distinguished analysts from consultants with the former dealing with a multitude of clients on a specific topic, while consultants operated on a strategy development basis with a fewer number of clients.

Jacobs says Gartner`s analysts have become more sensitive to local conditions and they are in regular contact with their South African clients.

"Many of our local clients also want to know what is happening in the rest of the world. They very often understand their local competitors well," she says.

Gartner research fellow and analyst Andy Kyte says analysts compile their research for a worldwide audience irrespective of where they are located.

"We will remain a research firm that offers a consultancy service," he says.