Market research: do we need and to whom?

The debate seems to me, stumbled at the first question: do we need such studies in principle?.

In fact, the talk ' need -not- needed ' by itself is meaningless unless it is translated into practical plane - you are willing to pay for these goods the money or not? .

A specific example - that some Gartner report on ' my topics '. Free, I 'll download it for 100 rubles - probably, too, for 1000 - is unlikely, for 10000 - definitely not going to.

But again the question ' usefulness ' must also be considered in the plane - who need it?.

See what happens. Opinions expressed only suppliers and vendors, t. e. developers (I want to focus precisely on this point ).
Customers silent, independent researchers - also. Oh, and system integrators (if they exist in this market ) also.

Vendors also have no unity. Al_Bert believes that vendors such studies in principle do not need ( and so they all know themselves ), it is true, then actively advised to read carefully the Gartner:-). Alexander Romanov considers the question rhetorical, t. e. needed, but needed - very different, not about market share....

In the course of the discussion topics of research got one more question. It seems to be terminology, but in fact has a direct relation to research ( who need). How to translate into Russian the word 'vendor'?.

In general, it is clear, the market consists of two halves: the buyers and sellers, users and suppliers. But the fact is that if we want to understand the market better, then such a simple bisection is not enough. Need details.

For example, customers. Al_Bert then distinguishes two groups (who chooses the decision and who pays for it), but I would suggest to distinguish three - the IT department, business users and management ( who pays ). In each group, their interests and their research needs.

But the fact is that IT vendors - this is a very heterogeneous mass ( say the obvious here, but you have to ). IT market is built on a fairly deep division of labor, there is quite a clear role. In the corporate market, there are two basic roles - and the vendor vnedrenets (I'm deliberately omitting many details ).

So, we're talking about someone using the word ' dealer '? .

I have it, in particular, to the fact that the study of the same Gartner talking about the vendors. Moreover, providers did not end application solutions and platforms. And DSS - we are talking about application decisions ( but it is also about the vendor). And because they basically do not have players like, say, IBM and Microsoft.

Use of the term ' sales ' automatically reduces the problem solely in general, the tactical objectives of the organization selling the existing products. At that time, the major problem the vendor - a strategy, while also solving the question of product development, long-term investments.

And in this respect are clear reasons for differing attitudes to research by various representatives ' sales '. It is clear that Russian developer of application software are interested in strategy difficult questions: in what direction to develop products. And the choice of long-term platform provider headache....