Tekrati will resume publishing on January 2, 2008. Happy holidays!

I want to point you to Vinnie Mirchandani’s Deal Architect blog, for a clear and refreshing narrative on analyst influence in the real world.

Lately, there has been a growing emphasis on industry analyst influence — how to influence analysts, how to measure analyst influence, which analysts to influence, what analyst influence matters, etc. The implication is that influence is a major part of the analyst business. I disagree. I contend that influence — and its ugly cousin, message testing — is not the point of the analyst business. At best, influence is a by-product of a successful analyst business.

I’ve always maintained that vendors profit the most from the industry analysts by making them part of fact-based decision processes throughout the vendor company. That means tapping the right analysts to participate in decisions and discussions within the right parts of the vendor organization and at the right time.

I wonder if we’re reaching a point where there are two types of vendors: those who value analysts as part of ongoing business and operations decision processes, and those who value analysts as part of marketplace influence and spin.

Bringing in external advisors — analysts, consultants, integrators — is always messy.

But so is devising vendor-analyst relationship programs based solely on multi-tier, dynamically weighted, bifurcated, theoretically validated models of analyst influence mojo.

Carter Lusher was in touch with me and Sam Whitmore last night, with a pointer to the newly re-launched SageCircle. Carter and his longtime cohort Dave Eckert are parlaying their industry analyst relations experience and networks — developed most recently through HP and SPAR, and more distantly through SageCircle (assets transferred to AR Insights), KCG, and Gartner — into AR commentary, consulting, and training.

During November, 19 blogs written by analysts were added to Tekrati’s Directory of Analyst Blogs, a freely available directory. Those with valid feeds are included in the OPML. Some are “new” blogs, some are well established and only recently came to my attention.

The November additions are:

Company: Common Sense Advisory
Localization Industry 411
Global Watchtower

Company: Enderle Group
The Real Truth about Technology and IT

Company: Forrester Research
Annoying Design (I’m having problems validating the feed)
Forrester Applications and Program Management Council (Forrester restricted access after this blog was listed)
Forrester Infrastructure and Operations Council (Forrester restricted access after this blog was listed)

Company: Freeform Dynamics
Open Reasoning

Company: GT&A Strategic Marketing
NewMediaWise

Company: Illuminata
The Pervasive Datacenter

Company: iLocus Research
iLocus

Company: Info-Tech Research Group
Attic Dust (I know, need to give Michael his own listing.)

Company: JupiterResearch
Zia Daniell Wigder
John Lovett

Company: Longhaus
The Naked Chief Blog (I’m having problems validating the feed)

Company: Security Incites
Security Mike’s Blog
The Mike Rothman Security Report

Company: TEC
The TEC Blog
Foro Empresarial

Company: Wikibon
Storage Takeaways

Heads up: In 2008, “stealth” deletions from the Tekrati Analyst Blogs Directory come to an end. Instead, inactive and disappeared blogs will roll over to an archive (purgatory?) of sorts.

Please note, Tekrati will be closed for the holidays, from December 22nd through January 2, 2008. Your messages and blog posts are welcome during this time, but hold the chocolates.

And the fish.

I apologize for the disruption in publishing the site and newsletter these last few weeks. I expect to catch up on breaking and backlogged content before the 22nd.