Office of the Ombuds

An analyst called the other day and told us that a vendor client called her asking some questions about a specific end-user client — did she know the CIO, was she aware of their IT strategy, did she know whose equipment they had installed. Immediately this analyst became suspicious that the vendor was fishing for information because they were bidding on a deal with that end-user client.

She told the vendor she could respond to questions about the end-user client’s industry and the trends in end-user implementations, but could provide nothing more specific than that, as this could compromise confidential client discussions.

So what? Specific details of inquiry discussions may not be shared with anyone outside of Gartner. Clients know this and therefore feel comfortable coming to Gartner with even highly sensitive questions, because they know they will be held close.