The People Behind the Data Never Got a Cut
Techstrong IT, Wednesday, May 27th, 2026
Futurum Group's acquisition of ETR integrates analyst expertise with direct survey data from IT practitioners.
Alan Shimel explores Futurum Group's acquisition of Enterprise Technology Research (ETR), a firm that conducts large-scale surveys of IT decision-makers to track technology spending and vendor momentum.
While Wall Street has long used ETR's data to validate investment theses, the practitioners providing the underlying survey responses have historically not benefited from the value they create.
Shimel argues the acquisition represents a structural shift in the analyst business, combining traditional expertise-based research with direct field evidence to create tighter feedback loops. The integration challenges analyst firms and research firms to merge their different epistemologies and business models into something that serves both institutional investors and the practitioners themselves. The success of this experiment will ultimately determine whether the analyst industry can evolve to match the accelerating pace of technology cycles.