Paul Papadimitriou

Constellation [ˌkɒn.stəˈleɪ.ʃən] from Latin constellātiō  cōn, with, and stēlla, star, astral body.

That word actually has many meanings. Here are three.

- A formation of stars perceived as a figure or pattern.
- An image associated with a group of stars.
- The configuration of planets at a given time.

Here’s one more.

Constellation Research is a next-generation research firm.

And, starting today, I’m joining this network of member analysts who seek to approach research from a cross-disciplinary approach.

Now, wait. Don’t I have my own consultancy? Yes, and it stays. How?

You see, there’s a lot to say about being a next-generation network. The idea here is to maintain independence of the members -who all have their own practices- while (net)working together to better serve those who seek insight, guidance and advice. Better serve clients in a word. Eating my own dog food: I bark often enough about bad customer service not to apply my own advice to my own self -open leadership, shared resources, honesty (I sometimes call that one the no BS policy), rigor and else. You can work with me alone or get access to the network. It’s customizable.

But independence has an even stronger meaning here. Independence as a group means independent research. Independent guidance. Independent minds.

And what minds. It’s very humbling to bealong those who joined this opening wave of member analyst. Just read on.

• R “Ray” Wang, the driving force behind Constellation. A former Altimeter, VP and Principal Analyst at Forrester, he has a long history with enterprise applications as well as other leading-edge technologies. He headed up the analyst relations program for PeopleSoft, and at Oracle, he served senior product management roles for both the ERP and CRM product lines. He was voted Analyst of the Year for both 2008 and 2009 by the prestigious Institute of Industry Analyst Relations (IIAR). [Twitter | Blog | RSS]
• Phil Fersht, a well-known industry analyst covering business process outsourcing (BPO) and IT services worldwide. He is the founder of the acclaimed global sourcing blog “Horses for Sources”. Before that he worked for 15 years at AMR Research (now Gartner Group), Deloitte Consulting, Everest Group, and IDC. [Twitter | Blog | RSS]
• Maribel Lopez with her deep industry knowledge in covering the communications industry. Over two decades of marketing and industry analyst experience, covering the massive shifts in the communication market. Maribel has worked in marketing at Motorola and Shiva corp and as an analyst for IDC. She also put in over 10 years at Forrester Research, most recently as Vice President of the tech industry strategies group, covering network and service strategies, enterprise communications, and consumer markets for voice, video, and data. [Twitter | Blog | RSS]
• Oliver Marks, partner at the Sovos Group, who provides consulting to end-user organizations on the effective planning of collaboration strategy, tactics, technology decisions, change management and roll out. Oliver previously managed the Sony WorldWide collaboration extranet, and has worked with the American Management Association, Sun, Docent/SumTotal Systems, Harvard Business School and McKinsey on major initiatives around knowledge transfer and change management. [Twitter | Blog | RSS]
• Vinnie Mirchandani, a thought-leader on trends in software, outsourcing, and offshoring. He has personally assisted clients in negotiate technology contracts valued in excess of $5 billion and has advised companies on IT risk management, globalization and sourcing issues. Vinnie is the founder of Deal Architect and is a former Gartner analyst and an outsourcing executive with PricewaterhouseCoopers. [Twitter | Blog | RSS & RSS]
• Sameer Patel, a partner at the Sovos Group. Sameer is a recognized expert in accelerating business performance via the use of collaboration and enterprise social software. He has more than a decade of experience managing initiatives for large organizations to help drive sales and marketing intelligence, partner network optimization, innovation, customer acquisition, and employee productivity via communication and collaboration technologies. Sameer’s clients have included Ingres, Sun Microsystems, Computer Associates, KPMG, McKesson HBOC, WR WrigleyCo., The Sabre Group, Grupo Televisa (Mx), and Cardinal Health. [Twitter | Blog | RSS]
• Frank Scavo, the co-founder of Strativa, a management consulting firm providing business and IT advice to end-user organizations. He has over 20 years of experience in IT strategy, IT management metrics, enterprise applications, and business process improvement, serving end-users in a broad range of industries, including manufacturing, life sciences, consumer products, high-tech, distribution, retail distribution, and information services. He is especially skilled at aligning business and IT strategy, developing the business case for new systems, and facilitating the selection of enterprise systems, such as ERP, CRM, and supply chain management. He is also an expert in benchmarking IT spending and staffing levels for end-user IT organizations. Frank is a Certified Fellow in Production and Inventory Management (CFPIM) by APICS, the Association for Operations Management. He is also the President of Computer Economics, an IT research and metrics firm, founded in 1979. [Twitter | Blog | RSS]
• Alan Silberberg, a leading analyst in Gov 2.0. He speaks on transformational change, crisis and brand communications, and government 2.0 and the crossover into business and technology. Alan has government and private sector experience, having served in the U.S. White House, at Paramount Pictures and numerous technology companies as an advisor, founder or investor. His clients have included the Vatican Global Licensing group, currently elected officials, and former elected officials as well as numerous technology startups. He is focused on the business side of Government 2.0 and how the technology platforms create commercial ventures and new markets. He is the founder of Gov20LA which is the first west coast un-conference for Gov 2.0 tech. [Twitter | Blog | RSS]

Not to mention the board of advisors: Paul Greenberg [Twitter | Blog | RSS], Dennis Howlett [Twitter | Blog | RSS], Erin Kinkin, Esteban Kolsky [Twitter | Blog | RSS] & Brian Solis [Twitter | Blog | RSS].

Ok, humbling was not enough. Seriously.

Here’s a handy RSS bundle for all their blogs (on Google Reader). And a Twitter list of the current members & advisors.

The research agenda includes a number of emerging trends and technologies: enterprise applications, legacy system optimization, cloud computing, mobile computing, social networking, business analytics, game theory, and unified communications. Knowledge provided both in open and syndicated forms.

Knowledge is the keyword here. And you guessed it, I’ll be focusing on my traditional areas of expertise, brands and consumer interaction. More details about the services are on the Constellation website. Management consulting, executive sessions, thought-leadership, private and public keynoting will still be a focus of mine, don’t worry. That’s my forte -along with being opinionated- and will remain as is.

I have to add a more personal twist here. Many of those who know me are aware of the immense admiration I have for Altimeter -the firm Ray just left- and my personal friendship with Jeremiah Owyang, one of its main partners. I’ve already been asked a dozen time the question and, in the spirit of total transparency I’ve taken for some time now, I want to be clear on that one. I haven’t changed a iota about what I think about Altimeter. I”m in total admiration of Charlene Li, I love my good friend Debs -too long I haven’t seen you!- and I’m still in awe about Jeremiah’s skills all the while I remain a close friend. Those who are looking into something more there are just taking a road to nowhere, sorry. And just go reading what both Ray and Charlene are saying about their new relationship.

Talking about what everyone is saying, I’m the press contact for EMEA/APAC while Brian is the one covering North America. Just feel free to contact us for more.

Official press release