Buyer’s Pendulum
Having been in the business of advising buyers and sellers of data, information, and analytics solutions since 1998, let’s just say we have seen the buyer’s pendulum swing a few times.
With each downturn and each technology wave the enterprises our industry sells to — whether libraries, information management, end users and their departments, or marketers — centralize and decentralize with rhythm.
And the pendulum is swinging again back to centralized, with ever more involvement from procurement, multiple buying stakeholders, and longer cycles. Lawyers and compliance and security are also now in the fray and there is more scrutiny on information budgets, monopolistic vendors, price increases, and the double whammy of the fed taking the wind out of economic sails (sales!!?? Pun intended.) and doing so during still inflationary times.
Most of the workforce never had to manage through inflationary times, preceded by a pandemic, with geopolitical mayhem thrown in. Let’s just say it’s a unique time and most of us weren’t born yet or were maybe 12 or 13 when these issues rocked our world.
So, here we are again and our conversations with buyers are pointing to battening down the hatches while vendors feel the cutback pinch while managing boards breathing down their backs to cut costs, be cash flow positive, bottom fish for troubled properties, and slow up anything perceived as discretionary.
As for buyers, here are real questions we are fielding right now:
1) What are alternatives to monopolistic offerings, even if we have to buy from multiple sources? Can we save by buying that way in price or cost of ownership?
2) Am I paying too much? Am I getting the best price?
3) Is my vendor portfolio too (fill in the blank)?
4) How are others managing data licensing for algorithms?
5) Can you help review our needs for (fill in the blank) category of information vendor and help us determine the best vendors for our criteria?
6) Can we share product reviews with other buyers, or can you share yours with us? (Yes, and yes.)
And so on, and so forth. One client has rebuilt their central IM function after it was blown up in 2009. This in a global 50 company. It seems the powers that be thought in their collective wisdom that everything was on the web. Google was their answer to library nirvana. Until they realized their vendor purchases were out of control. They couldn’t find their IP — whether trademarks, patents, or internally made or externally purchased market research studies — and so on, and so forth. Their head of R&D was pulling their hair out and put her foot down to pool funding for a much missed and needed function.
And on it goes. So, the times they are a changing except they’re not. They’re indicative of repeating cycles over and over again. The fed blew up the economy. ChatGPT landed on our doorstep and our enterprise customers woke up to send the pendulum back our way.
Do you need help with data and information sourcing? Vendor evaluation? Benchmarking third party information budgets? We’re here for you.