When small analyst relations (AR) teams have big goals to execute on — not to mention a staggering number of analysts to keep updated and an endless list of to-dos — it can help to have an extra set of hands. By offloading some activities (especially tactical, day-to-day and reporting-related tasks), AR teams can better “come up for air” and make more time to direct and manage the strategic aspects of their programs.

Just ask Kim Dossey, who directs global analyst relations at Teradata, recognized as a leader in the “2020 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Cloud Database Management Systems” and a leader in “The Forrester Wave™: Data Management For Analytics, Q1 2020,” among other impressive report placements. Planning for and coordinating the many activities and “moving pieces” around major analyst evaluations like these takes up a lot of her team’s time, as does using analyst advisory services. But what about all the other to-dos?

Kim found she could extend her team’s capabilities, reach even more analysts and execute on other priorities by bringing in extra help (courtesy of ARInsights ServicePlus). We were thrilled to connect with her recently to hear about her experience using this service.

Kim will also be among the featured speakers at ARchitect User Forum 2021. Check out our Q&A with her below to learn more about Teradata’s AR program and its goals, and the many activities (from newsletters to portals to metrics-tracking and more) ServicePlus helps support.

Q: What is your title? Can you please briefly describe your role as it pertains to AR?

A: I’m the senior director of global analyst relations at Teradata. In my role, I manage our company’s industry analyst and influencer relations program. 

Q: What is the mission of your AR team? What value does your company place on analyst relations?

A: Our AR team works to support our overall company objectives and goals, looking for ways to provide value through the AR program. We leverage analyst insights to provide guidance to support our strategy and go-to-market and marketing teams. We also work closely with our field marketing teams to help the sales organization better understand how to use the analyst program.  

Q: What AR challenges does your organization face?

A: Analyst relations teams rarely have enough resources to meet the needs of the business and the market. At Teradata, our team of four people is responsible for global industry analyst relations, independent analysts and academic business influencers, as well analyst event strategy. Our team spends a great deal of time on analyst evaluations and analyst advisory conversations, so we leveraged ARInsights ServicePlus to help us with many of the tactical activities we had not been able to get done ourselves.  

Q: How do you use people, process and technology to solve these challenges?

A: As I mentioned, we turned to ServicePlus to augment our team resources cost-effectively – getting planning, project support and ARchitect software administration directly from ARInsights. ServicePlus has enabled our team to:

  • Increase communications with analysts, including through the creation and roll-out of our analyst newsletter, as well as the design and launch of our Analyst Portal – where invited analysts can centrally access Teradata presentations, news, product information and more.
  • Measure the value of our AR program, including through regular metrics tracking and reporting.
  • Increase AR’s value and visibility within our organization. 

Q: What is the tentative title of your User Forum presentation? What’s the single most important thing people will learn from it?

A: My presentation is called “How ServicePlus Extends the Capabilities of our AR Team.” Attendees will learn how we’ve been able to cost-effectively offload some AR activities to ARInsights, and the productivity and performance benefits we’ve seen from doing so.

Q: Are there any AR or technology productivity “hacks” you can share with our blog readers?  

A: When we learn of announcements that need to be shared with analysts, we queue them up in ARchitect and have them ready to go out at the same time that the external announcements are shared publicly.  

Want to hear more from Kim and other AR pros? Join us at ARchitect User Forum Dec. 7-8, from 9 a.m. – 12 p.m. PT each day. The virtual event is an opportunity to learn new AR strategies, listen to real-world success stories and share ideas with other AR practitioners across the globe. We hope you’ll register and join us!