Ferris Research offers an information service for IT vendors, providing impartial planning and marketing communications assistance. Deliverables include:

• Speaking at your webcasts
• Writing bulletins about you that validate key messages
• Video clips
• Participating with you in the blogosphere
• Extended briefings, so you can fully explain your activities
• Inquiry service
• Candid, detailed feedback on technology briefings
• Listing on front page of Ferris Research website
• Quotes for press releases, website, etc

The service comes in three flavors: basic, enhanced, and custom.

Basic Information Service

Extended briefings, within reason. Instead of rushed half-hour sessions, we take the time you need to fully explain your plans and announcements.

Where your briefings contain information we consider interesting and worthy of note, we write and publish bulletins about you, subject to the requirement for objectivity and integrity and our retention of full editorial control. You are able to review and provide input on the bulletins. These are excellent ways to provide authoritative third-party validation of key messages.

The opportunity to suggest bulletins we might write about you. If we find the topics interesting, we’ll write and publish such bulletins, subject to the integrity requirement. These are also excellent ways to provide authoritative third-party validation of key messages.

Unmetered quick email inquiry and advice, within reason. Examples are:

• We’re thinking of adding this message to our sales pitch–do you agree?
• We are wondering whether to attend this trade show–what do you think?
• Who do you see as the leading bloggers in this space?
• Please review this draft press release and give us suggestions for improvement

Three other single-subject discussions, typically involving phone and email conversations and some reflection by Ferris Research, and each typically taking from 30 minutes to four hours of Ferris Research time. We provide candid, detailed feedback, under NDA if appropriate. Examples are:

• You review your development plans with us, to validate them and the priorities.
• You review your marketing plans with us, to validate them and the priorities.
• Pricing discussions.
• Document review. For example, reviewing a sales presentation or piece of marketing collateral prior to its distribution.

Candid, detailed feedback on technology briefings, up to two per year.

The opportunity to review and provide comments on all bulletins we write about you, subject to our integrity requirement.

Eligibility to purchase other services, such as writing white papers or speaking.

Eligibility for quotes for press releases, your website, and other outward-facing materials, subject to our integrity requirement. If we like what you are doing or think it’s important, we are happy to make such statements in a forthright manner. We make no charge for quotes.

Listing on Ferris Research website. We put a quick link to your website in our vendor list.

Cost: $10,000 annually.

Enhanced Information Service

This consists of everything in the basic service, plus:

• Unlimited single-subject discussions, within reason, typically involving phone and email conversations and some reflection by Ferris Research, and typically taking from 30 minutes to four hours of Ferris Research time. These are under NDA if appropriate.
• Two participations in your webcasts, to add the credibility provided by analyst content. We speak for up to ten minutes on a topic, and participate in Q&A. You can record the webcasts and have unlimited distribution rights to those recordings.
• Two interviews/presentations on topics and media (eg, video clips) of your choosing. You have unlimited distribution rights.
• Participating with you in the blogosphere, subject to our integrity requirement. Eg, 1) You can pitch angles to us, and if we find the topic interesting and worthy, we’ll blog about it; 2) You can point out other blogs where a comment by us would be supportive of you, and if we agree the content is relevant and accurate, we’ll post correspondingly, normally indicating our affiliation with you.
• Detailed feedback on an unmetered number of briefings, within reason, if we’re also interested in these briefings on a research basis.

Cost: $20,000 annually.

Custom Information Service

The custom service is designed for vendors who wish to use Ferris Research as a trusted advisor on key business planning issues.

It consists of everything in the enhanced service, plus unmetered discussion of forward-looking strategic issues, generally including multiple on-site visits per year. These are under NDA if appropriate.

Cost: at least $40,000 annually. The precise terms are customized to the client, based on its needs and the level of services required.

Consulting Team

Members of the Ferris team include:

• David Ferris, who has studied messaging and collaboration since he published his first book on the subject in 1991.
• Richi Jennings, who has headed several Notes-centric competitive surveys and consulting projects and has conducted a series of TCO and messaging support headcount surveys. He’s also our spam and malware control expert.
• David Sengupta, a Microsoft Exchange Server MVP since 1998. His expertise includes archiving, regulatory compliance, legal discovery, and enterprise content management.
• Nick Shelness, former Lotus CTO and Lotus and IBM fellow, who provides a deep understanding of Microsoft, Google, and IBM technologies and directions.
• Bob Spurzem, who specializes in email archiving and data protection solutions for Microsoft Exchange. He has held product marketing positions at Legato, Mimosa, Permabit, and Veritas.

For Further Information

For more information, contact David Ferris at +1 415 367 3436, or david.ferris@ferris.com.