Example Research #1

One example of this software research is into SAP's S/4HANA, where we maintain a database as a research project into S/4HANA implementation. Analysts are paid by major vendors not to cover stories or to massage information to obtain the vendor's outcome.

SAP S/4HANA Research

You can read about in the article The S/4HANA Implementation Sales Intelligence Highlights.
Industry commentators are often confused as to why there are such colossal software implementation failures. Both SAP and Oracle have many $500 million and multi-billion software failures (software & consulting costs combined -- such as with the Lidl disaster as we cover in the article KPS Continues to Keep Promote HANA for Retail for Lidl After Failure).

As we are not controlled by SAP like all IT analysts, we have been able to accumulate the most accurate predictive record on SAP, far exceeding the accuracy of SAP, which you can read at A Study Into the Accuracy of SAP.

Systems Implementation or Digital Transformation?

The idea presented is that implementation (excuse us, "Digital Transformation") "is difficult," without these commentators observing the original claims or how the claims differ from reality.

Using the Term Digital Transformation to Help Market and Turn Off the Brain

Any entity that uses the term digital transformation, which is misappropriated from the technical change in the early part of the last century, should be viewed with skepticism. This automatically associates a virtuous outcome with the project, without bothering with the actual project outcome.

Questions abound with the term digital transformation.

If the digital transformation project failed to go live, then did the digital transformation occur? Is the transformation a function of any output, or does the transformation occur without any concern for the outcome of any necessity to measure the outcome? We cover this topic in the article The Problem with the Term Digital Transformation. 

Example Research #2

This is the first searchable and filterable database on the topic of money and banking. This brings together our research and quotes from the best thinkers on money and banking, which you can see at this link.

Questions answered include.

These articles will also be published on the Brightwork Research & Analysis website as well as at the searchable and filterable website.

Providing a Powerful Tool of Understanding Banking to the Public

Upon completion, we will be sending the searchable website to universities and to the sources which we have relied upon for quotations. The filterable website will include extensive and searchable references. The concept is to bring technology to a dense and complicated field, which has large amounts of false information deliberately published by those with a financial bias to confuse those who seek to understand the topic.

What is Our Initial Research Analysis?

Our Initial Research Analysis is customized research into any topic that we cover. This will address a question or topic within the overall context of your company. It entails multiple discussions, sometimes internal documents sent to us, etc. The outcome is a final report and presentation.

A future and more complete analysis of the topic and other topics can be performed after the Initial Research Analysis. Still, we always start with this, even when a request for a larger analysis estimate is requested.

Getting Quality Analysis

If you have read our articles, the value proposition should be clear, and there are no other sources you can rely on to provide either the detail of research we provide or that lack any financial bias. Just try getting an unbiased answer on any topic from a consulting firm or an IT analyst. You can't. Let us review the common options available for companies.

Option #1

Consulting companies use analysis projects to recommend whatever the large consulting company has to sell. We would know as entirely rigged consulting documentation provided to us by our clients. Every consulting company we have ever worked for or analyzed has been highly corrupt. For the money, consulting companies will say the moon is made of cheese.

Option #2: IT Analysts

IT analysts often publish material that software vendors pay. You can see our analysis of IT analysts in the article. None of this is disclosed to their clients.

We are very experienced in validating information provided by software vendors, consulting firms, etc. If you do not have existing consulting/IT analysis input, we can create custom research just the same. And, unlike the major entities, we disclose our conflicts, which is easy as there are none.

The cost of this service is $7,000.

Our New Book on Software Marketing

We are currently working on a book on software marketing. This will be a book directed to vendors. It also introduces our software marketing service. This is one of the only marketing services that specializes in marketing software as opposed to general digital marketing.

Our Superior Understanding of Software

The vast majority of SaaS marketing agencies do not display software knowledge and have not implemented or analyzed the software industry. We spent time analyzing SaaS marketing agencies. SaaS agencies seem to focus on general marketing and don't seem to have much software domain expertise, or it is not apparent from their website copy. One "SaaS" agency I found targets the hospitality or insurance industries, which is not software. We could not find any agency that demonstrated expertise in the software industry.

Our Superior Understanding the Software Industry

Understanding software and understanding the software industry are two different things. A young programmer understands software, but not usually the software industry. We have written extensively and performed original research into how the software industry is designed, and we know the strategies used by the various entities in this industry. Therefore, our focus is not just on keyword optimization but also on the overall strategy that will help software vendors navigate the industry's pitfalls. If you look at SaaS marketing agencies, you will find that they focus primarily on content creation and SEO, etc. Our services cover the overall strategy, not just the web or email tactics.

Our Superior Content Identification and Creation

We have published 27 books and several thousand articles and have originated important work in software research. We have built a popular software research website. When we reviewed several SaaS agencies, their content in marketing their services was not all that good, and none of them have an example of something they have built on their own. We have. And that is what you are leveraging and a critical distinction between Brightwork Software Marking and SaaS marketing agencies.

Getting Your Advice and Content from a Research and Technical Basis Rather than Marketing

It is challenging for people with a marketing background to create content covering a technical topic like software. Brightwork Software Marketing is the only provider in the space that is based in research (the parent company is Brightwork Research & Analysis) and that has prominence in the software research area. This means that we can interpret the technical aspects of your product, and we know what software buyers are looking for. We have also guided many software vendors for over 12 years and know the industry inside and out. No marketing agency can say this.

How About Using References in Papers?

Private research entities think tanks and any research that are private often uses not references, allowing the creator to pose as if they invented the insights.

The Astounding Implications

This means that the major information providers in IT do not meet high school or undergraduate report writing standards. Gartner, for example, never publishes the supporting scores for its Magic Quadrants.

Try doing that yourself and when getting research published. Just try getting a paper published by submitting just a graphic of the outcome without supporting data.

How IT Analysts Get Away With It

Gartner can get away with this and be supported by all Gartner employees and industry because so few people know the research rules. So few people want to question large and powerful institutions for fear of being themselves criticized.

Relying on an Ombudsman to Enforce Research Integrity?

Gartner pushes back on all criticisms of its research by claiming it has a single ombudsman, who is an employee of Gartner naturally. This is a sleight of hand, as the term has been misappropriated from media entities and has no history in guaranteeing research. No ombudsman can cover up for what Gartner does, as we cover in the article How to Understand Gartner's Faux Ombudsman.

Is there any history of ombudsman rectifying bad or corrupt research? No, there is not. 

What Information Quality is Provided by IT Consulting Firms?

IT consulting firms also not use references, promoting the illusion that they internally generate all of the information they publish. But the quality of the information provided by the major IT consulting firms is abysmal -- and is reverse engineered from their quotas. There is no single major (and very few minor) IT consulting companies that can be trusted to..

• a.) tell clients if the information they provide is developed internally or copied from someplace, and..
• b.) tell clients anything that would negatively impact some implementation they would like to have the client purchase.

In most cases, consulting companies don't pretend they do research; instead, they put themselves as "advisors," but sometimes they do. As one example, PWC has fake titles for some people like "Research Fellow," even though these roles report up through marketing, and their only function is to sell PWC services as we cover in the following article PWC's Research Fellows are Fake And Pretend to be Academic.

Adding in Fake Research Titles to Fake Research?

Furthermore, one cannot hold the title of "research fellow" if one does not work for a research organization or in academics. This would be like Jiffy Lube giving out this title. Jiffy Lube is not a research entity. And if they did have such a title, the research result emanating from this position would be to bring your car into Jiffy Lube. Which unsurprisingly is the result of PWC's research fellows as well. (to buy services from PWC, not Jiffy Lube.)

The Outcome of Relying on Fake Research Entities That Don't Follow Any Research Rules

One cannot possibly obtain good quality information and outcomes from several profit-maximizing entities that have enormous financial conflicts and that not only fake their titles, use no references, do not declare financial entanglements, and do not follow research rules.

Should Brightwork be Queried for Free Advice and Consulting?

We have created a completely independent and honest research entity. The advice on our website and the research we perform for clients can help companies enormously. However, even though we are the only source for accurate information on many topics, many companies continue to reach out to ask for free one on one advice. The logic appears to be that the reward for providing high-quality research and staying clear of financial conflicts is to see if we can be tricked into providing free one on one advice. This has become tiresome. And it promotes the logic of not doing what we do. Furthermore, many companies that reach out are already paying top dollar to consulting firms to receive terrible and financially biased information, but then will reach out for free advice from Brightwork. Their logic is that "bringing in new companies is very political." If you find our articles of value, why not see if you can get a budget to support a mini-research project? So money is continually shoveled to the worst information providers like Accenture, Infosys, or Gartner. A full explanation of the problems with expecting honest sources to provide free question answering service is found in the following article Why Brightwork R&A Does Not Answer Questions for Free. 

The articles on the Brightwork website are free, but our time discussing topics is not. And we have become hawkish on stopping the free absorption of our time. So consider that before reaching out.