Jive Software has acquired Filtrbox , a Boulder-based startup that monitors the social Web to help clients understand and better participate in online conversations. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Jive sought a social media monitoring company to bring into its Social Business Software (SBS) platform. The goal is to extend the social footprint of the Jive platform. Jive sees the market becoming far more oriented around conversations on social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. These conversations affect everything from product development to sales strategies. Monitoring is critical to following and capitalizing on the conversation flow. Sponsor Jive looked at several companies in the space before deciding to approach Filtrbox. The choice came down to the Filtrbox user experience; its collaboration features; the scalable architecture and the social intelligence baked into the product. The Filtrbox architecture may be the greatest value to Jive. Filtrbox Founder Ari Newman said its architecture is a hybrid that leverages the cloud. He would not say much more about it though its business model reflects a cloud based approach. Services that leverage the cloud effectively let users scale up and down, depending on demand. Many charge on a per use basis. Newman said Filtrbox charges $10,000 per year for up to six users. Customers get unlimited use of the platform. How companies leverage the cloud will determine how they fare in the market. The ability to crunch large amounts of data is vital for understanding the real-time nature of how conversations flow. Jive seems to understand this and appears to be moving more toward a cloud-based strategy. Initially, Jive will market Filtrbox through its Jive Market Engagement solution along side Radian6. Jive and Radian6 formed a partnership back in September. Here's what Jeremiah Owyang and his colleague, R "Ray" Wang had to say about the partnership. Radian6 and Filrtrbox are essentially in the same space. it is unclear how the relationship between Jive and Radian6 will be affected by the Filtrbox purchase. Filtrbox will be fully integrated into the Jive SBS platform in the second quarter of this year. Discuss
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Jive Software Buys Filtrbox: A Purchase All About The Social Web
Gartner has acquired the Burton Group for $56 million. The purchase is another example of how the analyst community is becoming increasingly homogeneous, dominated by a handful of firms such as Forrester and IDC. And it points to a growing debate about the value that companies can receive from analyst firms when there is little diversification in the market. But it also points to the importance of independent firms and individuals that engaging in dialogue through blogs and other mediums. Sponsor The Burton Group is based out of Midvale, Utah. Its speciality lies in providing in-depth advice to front-line IT professionals. The firm has 41 research analysts and 40 sales and client service associates, and self-projected 2009 revenue of $30 million. This is Gartner's second acquisition in the past few months. Gartner purchased AMR Research late last year. The Future: A Hybrid Model Analyst firms do not have the sway in the market that they once did. Bloggers are often considered analysts as they often specialize in particular fields, providing in-depth analysis for particular markets. This is not to take anything away from the individual analysts who populate Gartner, Forrester and other groups. We depend on many of them for the insight they give on topics ranging from APIs to web-oriented architecture. But the future of the analyst community looks more like a hybrid animal - a cross between a traditional analyst firm and an online community. RedMonk and the Altimeter Group represent this new hybrid. Both are small, independent firms. RedMonk, for instance, provides in-depth research into markets but they also invest heavily in their blogs, podcasts and other outlets such as the real-time, microblogging world. The Altimeter Group also invests heavily in its community. Technobabble 2.0 recently took a look at a survey done by Jeremiah Owyang to determine the influence of his blog on the overall market. Owyang is a partner with Altimeter. Technobabble's Jonny Bentwood made this conclusion : "The fact that there is any link between the blog and procurement is a massive validation point. Obviously we are taking people's words for this and it would be excellent to have credible evidence to back this up, but this in itself is a huge factoid." SageCircle is a third-party service that provides clients with analysis of analyst firms. SageCircle concludes that the Gartner acquisition does provide a silver lining for independent firms: "The implication for the analyst ecosystem is "not good." Anytime a well-regarded mid-sized advisory firm is swallowed up by another firm it eliminates a valued second voice and opinion about the vendors and markets it covers, and decreases clients' purchasing and negotiating options. However, for competitors like Ovum this does provide a great opportunity to establish themselves as the second - if not the first - source of advice and opinions to IT managers and other technology buyers not comfortable with having only a single source for this type of service." Discuss
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Gartner Acquisition is Good for the Independent Analyst Firms
