Day: February 9, 2010

Gilbane Group joins Outsell, Inc., Deepens Coverage of the Technologies Underlying the Transformation of the Information Industry

Burlingame, CA, Cambridge, MA and London, UK—February 9, 2010—Outsell, Inc. of Burlingame, CA and London, the leading research and advisory firm for the information and publishing industries, and Gilbane Group, the leading analyst and consulting firm covering content technologies, today announce that The Gilbane Group, based in Cambridge, MA, has joined Outsell.

The addition makes Outsell the only research and advisory firm with 360-degree coverage of the information industry—established and disruptive information providers, users, enterprises, advertisers, libraries and the technologies underlying the industry’s evolution.

“This event joins two leading analyst firms and broadens Outsell’s coverage in a very important area, where content meets technology,” said Anthea Stratigos, Outsell’s Co-founder and CEO. “In the next decade, the information providers who succeed will ensure content is accessed and experienced in new and unique ways. Technology is fundamental to this strategy, and The Gilbane Group is the acknowledged authority in this important area.”

Founded in 1987, Gilbane provides fact-based, vendor-neutral coverage of advances and trends in content technology, looking at such areas as web content management, multilingual content, enterprise search, enterprise social media, publishing, XML, and XBRL. It also sponsors conferences on content and information management technologies in North America and Europe, including the upcoming Gilbane San Francisco conference (http://gilbanesf.com), and publishes reports on the same subjects that are read worldwide.

The organization will now operate as The Gilbane Group, a division of Outsell, Inc., under the leadership of founder Frank Gilbane, who will remain President. He will be joined by the full team of Gilbane analysts and consultants, led by Mary Laplante, Vice President Client Services and Senior Analyst, and Bill Trippe, Vice President Content Strategies and Lead Analyst.

“As a result of our two firms coming together, Outsell will be better able to serve our core markets of publishers, information providers and enterprises making content technology decisions, as well as investors looking at emerging content technology companies,” said Greg Chagaris, Outsell’s Co-founder and Corporate Development Officer.

“We have enormous respect for Outsell as one of the first firms to define the information industry, and predict the radical transformation in content delivery and consumption patterns that the Internet would bring. We’re delighted that by combining our industry and technology expertise and resources, we’ll be able to deliver even deeper, richer and more complete solutions to our clients,” said Frank Gilbane.

This is the third transaction that Outsell has completed since its 1998 founding. In 2006, Outsell acquired EPS (Electronic Publishing Services Ltd) of London, broadening its global coverage. In 2008, the firm also acquired the Business Research Division of Eduventures to strengthen its coverage of educational content and technology providers.

The Gilbane Group will remain in Cambridge, MA. With Gilbane, Outsell will now have a professional staff of 50 worldwide, in addition to nearly two dozen affiliate analysts and consultants.

See posts by Anthea Stratigos and Frank Gilbane.

ABOUT OUTSELL, INC.
Outsell is the only research and advisory firm focused on advancing the publishing and information industries. Our international team provides independent, fact-based analysis and actionable advice about competitors, markets, operational benchmarks, and best practices, so our clients thrive and grow in today’s fast-changing digital and global environment. Outsell tracks and analyzes over 7,000 information industry companies, as well as the needs, habits, and spending patterns of advertisers, enterprise information buyers, and end users. Outsell’s headquarters are in Burlingame, CA, with offices in London and in Cambridge, MA. Visit us at www.outsellinc.com.

About The Gilbane Group
The Gilbane Group is an analyst and consulting firm that has been writing and consulting about the strategic use of information technologies since 1987. We have helped organizations of all sizes from a wide variety of industries and governments. We work with the entire community of stakeholders including investors, enterprise buyers of IT, and technology suppliers. We have organized over 60 educational conferences in North America and Europe. Our next event is Gilbane San Francisco, May 18-20, 2010 – gilbanesf.com/. Information about our widely read newsletter, reports, white papers, case studies and analyst blogs is available at https://gilbane.com.

Many of you have seen the unofficial advanced coverage on Twitter yesterday, announcing that Gilbane Group has become part of Outsell Inc. Today is the day of the “official” announcement. You can also read a post from Outsell CEO, Anthea Stratigos. Here I provide a little additional information in the form of FAQs. Feel free to send me additional questions.

FAQs

Q. Why did Gilbane Group and Outsell decide to do this?
A. Gilbane Group and Outsell have been tracking each other for years, as we have served slightly different segments of the information industry; Outsell is focused on the business of information, and Gilbane Group is focused on the technology of information. Outsell co-founders Anthea Stratigos and Greg Chagaris and I often talked about how complementary our businesses were, and we finally decided it was time to do something about it. Why now? The simple answer is customer demand. Not that our customers were telling us to join together, but they were asking us for a broader set of services, that our new combined organization will be able to deliver.

Q. Why Outsell specifically?
A. We complement in other in many important ways:

Topic coverage – Outsell focuses on the business of content we focus on the technology of business content.

Customers – Outsell’s customers are about 70% information providers and 30% Enterprise information consumers and managers, Our customer base is 75-80% enterprise IT and information managers, and 20-25% content providers. Together we provide the full spectrum of business and technology. Also, Outsell’s customers are largely C-level executives, Gilbane customers are mostly VP, Director, and Managers of IT and line of business units, so we are now able to help organizations at multiple levels, and help coordinate far-reaching information strategies or technology deployments.

Products – Outsell revenue is mostly from subscription advisory services and C-level councils, and research on information usage and business model trends. Gilbane revenue is mostly from strategic consulting projects advising on technology usage, practices and trends.

Business Model – Both companies have a combination of complementary revenue streams, and utilize both deep in-house expertise, complemented by a broad base of expert affiliates.

Ethics: We have the same commitment to business ethics. Outsell’s published Ethics policy expresses the same values that our customers, partners and competitors are used to receiving from us.

Q. What does this mean to Gilbane Group personnel?
A. All Gilbane Group personnel except for finance and HR remain in their current roles.

Q. What does this mean to Gilbane Group customers?
A. All Gilbane Group customers will continue to receive all the products and services they have signed up for and are used to receiving, and all coverage areas will continue. Additional products, services, resources and coverage areas will be available as we move forward.

Q. What does this mean for the Gilbane conferences?
A. The Gilbane Group will continue to partner with Lighthouse Seminars to produce the Gilbane events. (Our next conference is Gilbane San Francisco, May 18 – 20).