As part of Amalgam Insights’ research process, we also keep track of the wide array of analysts, consultants, and thought leaders who are most relevant across our practice areas. Beyond the most well-known firms, such as the likes of Gartner, Forrester, and IDC, there are a wide array of bespoke and custom firms that conduct world-class work. To help provide context on how Amalgam Insights looks at our peers, partners, and competitors and to help technology buyers make better decisions, Amalgam profiles a firm or thought leader each Thursday to provide guidance on those who we think of as influential and innovative thought leaders.
This week, we profile SMB Group, a team of industry analysts focused on the technology adoption and management challenges in small and medium businesses.
Who They Are
SMB Group was founded in 2008 with a focus on small and medium business technologies by Sanjeev Aggarwal. Prior to SMB Group, Aggarwal was at Hurwitz & Associates, AMI-Partners, and the venerable Yankee Group.
Laurie McCabe is a Partner at SMB Group who covers cloud, mobile, collaboration, and managed services solutions focused on SMB and is a frequently awarded influencer in the SMB space. In addition to her work at SMB Group, she also blogs at her eponymously named domain of Lauriemccabe.com
Why You Should Read Them
SMB Group’s focus on the challenges of technology adoption in smaller companies allows them to provide nuance to a market that is often labelled as “SMB” without considering the significant differences between a company of 25 employees and a company of 1000+ employees. Their reports and blogs provide a great deal of insight on the trends, drivers, and expectations that small companies have for technology.
Because SMB organizations have lower revenue/employee and tend to have less sophisticated sales and marketing strategies compared to large enterprises, SMB organizations need to develop more direct value propositions associated with their tech investments. This is where SMB Group truly excels in providing guidance both for end user organizations and for vendors seeking to support the long tail of businesses that require technology to optimize their work environments
Potential For Amalgam Insights to Work With SMB Group
Amalgam and SMB Group differ in our coverage approach: SMB looks at smaller companies while Amalgam tends to focus on larger enterprise solutions. Also, from a coverage perspective, our overlap is moderate, but not perfectly aligned. That said, we’re more than willing to refer business to each other when a specific project is well aligned to the other firm’s approach
Prior #ThoughtLeaderThursdays
March 29: Mint Jutras
April 5: Hurwitz and Associates
Next Week: ISG Research (Formerly Saugatuck)