Executive Summary
- We receive questions from vendors, open-source entities, etc. as to what is our business model.
- This article lays out our model for vendors and other providers.
Introduction
This article explains what we offer to vendors and providers. We don’t have any other plan, and we don’t adjust this plan for vendors.
How Our Vendor Model Works
At Brightwork, we cover a wide variety of topics. We can pick and choose what to analyze and publish and what not to. For vendors that want us to publish material about their area, a few things have to occur.
- We have to think that the vendor is offering something that is sufficiently interesting to cover.
- We have to have first-hand exposure to the vendor’s prospects and customers.
In our view, the best way to accomplish this is for vendors that we have an interest in covering (i.e., they pass rule 1), that vendors recommend our research and analytical services to prospects and customers. We quote a fixed price for customers for a specific scope of work. We create a series of milestones, and then bill as the milestone is complete, which is something we cover in the article Brightwork Research Pricing. We do not subcontract to any vendor. We have a prime contractor relationship with the customer and bill as an independent entity.
There are a few essential benefits of this model.
- We are not paid by vendors — which maintains our independence.
- The vendor does not have any influence over what we write. Vendors do also not receive “advanced copies” of what we produce before the customer sees it.
- We usually publish sanitized versions of the research that we do on the Brightwork website, which is a popular site, and which provides coverage to the vendor.
What We Have Encountered in the Past
We have interacted with quite a few vendors over the years. Our observation is that the majority of vendors we have interacted with have been overwhelmingly self-centered. What all vendors seem to want is promotional coverage, without any concern for accuracy, and they expect multiple entities to provide this coverage. Vendors believe that entities like Brightwork should be government-funded so that their specific software can be promoted.
None of the vendors we interact with have been able to follow through on the part where they introduce us or refer us to accounts.
The sequence of interaction goes like this.
Step# 1: The Initial Outreach
The vendor reaches out and complements an article we have written and notices how distinct it is from other material.
Step# 2: The Interest in Educating Brightwork…for Free
The vendor tries to “educate us” as to their offering. The idea is that we should invest the time in order to set up a future opportunity to work together.
Step# 3: Reverting to the Senior Team
The vendor contact then goes back to their senior team to discuss, and to talk about how we can work together. The term “work together” will often mean that we donate time for free to help the vendor achieve its objectives.
Step# 4: The Contact Falls Out of Contact
The vendor eventually falls out of contact, or continues to discuss how we can “work together,” but never follows through on the part where we receive any benefit. We might get invited to a conference on at our own cost, or we may receive emails about how this or that is a problem in the industry.
An alternate to step 4, is that we do move to some type of research contract, but the vendor contact continues to be so distracted that we are never able to make and progress on working on the contract.
The Consistency of this Sequence
This has happened so many times, and the interactions have been so consistent that we thought it essential to write this out. And for vendors to realize we have a long history to know that this is the most likely outcome.
Therefore, the first part of this article is to lay out our requirements, as they won’t be acceptable to most vendors. This can reduce the time we spend in discussions that don’t go anywhere. Then the portion above is to explain the very low likelihood of anything happening. And that once the vendor has been determined to be one that we have an interest in covering, the failure to follow up and make the arrangement work has been due to the vendor not being able or interested in holding up their end.
What We Consider to be The Right Sequence: Showing This Article to Your Senior Management First
What typically happens is the relationship manager schedules a call before discussing with their senior management. Instead, we ask that you send this article to your senior team before we schedule a call. This article lays out exactly what we expect and what we provide. If the senior members disagree with the terms, then we should skip the call.
For this to work, it has to be a very rare vendor that is willing to put effort into a relationship that will not be almost entirely in the vendor’s favor while leaving us with virtually nothing except wasted time.
Conclusion
If you are a vendor and this interests you, and you are willing to actually follow through on the part of the plan where it is sustainable to us, then we can discuss it in more depth. But this won’t be a situation where we can be complemented or otherwise cajoled into providing free time to your company.