Research firm BMI-TechKnowledge is severing its 13-year relationship with US-based International Data Corporation (IDC) as the local company moves into general management consultancy, says BMI-T MD Denis Smit.
During the past two years there has been consolidation among pure IT research companies, with Gartner buying rival Meta Group and Datamonitor buying Ovum.
Smit says the market is now maturing and "declining" as customers' information requirements become more sophisticated.
He says market research and advisory companies are being driven to create fresh ways of enriching the value provided to customers. South African companies are increasingly looking for more local research to meet immediate market needs, he notes.
"The client service methods of the recent past are no longer valid and our new focus on go-to-market services represents a new and innovative approach to yielding higher value for the research-rand."
Smit says BMI-T also needed greater flexibility in partnering with other international consultancies when needed for specific projects, as it is doing with international management consultancy Arthur D Little. He adds the amount of business conducted between IDC and BMI-T had declined over the past three years.
Demand for research
Simon MacDonald, country manager for Forrester Research, says local companies will always require international research.
"Just seeing what a competitor does means that you are playing catch up. There will be a need to get strategic information from around the world to give one a technological advantage to gain business advantage," he says.
Desire van der Lith, Gartner SA MD, says local response to the appointment of two Gartner SA analysts two years ago had been positive, but local clients still wanted international information.
"Local context and setting for a lot of information is important and the local clients want that. However, SA has become more important for our other international analysts because of the challenges the country faces along with some of the leading-edge innovation it is doing, especially in the financial services market," she says.
Van der Lith does not believe there will be more consolidation in the international arena, but notes local companies may have to band together in order to gain the overseas information needed by South African organisations.
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