Late last week I had an interesting meeting with Dell. They commented on the amount of work that must go on behind the scenes in order to produce the content that we do on the front end; the inference being that with so much content at the interface there must be even more substance in the boiler-room. In effect, they recognised that the website is just the tip of the iceberg and cemented our difference in their mind from many other portal-based content companies. 

That was an important observation for us as it recognised so much of what we have been striving to achieve- a traditional analyst firm focused on the Australian and near-shore markets and serving the explicit needs of local companies.  Yet perceptions about what traditional means in this business vary. I heard one analyst say the other day that traditional analyst firms do research "by the kilo", and while at the time I didn't wish to debate it in front of the client it's certainly a statement that deserves more comment. 

One of the common forms of positive feedback Longhaus receive is about the content, data, commentary and general insights we provide for free. Some of it is research but by-and-large we call our opinion opinion, editorial is editorial, a blog is a blog and tweets belong in twitter. We occassionally do free events and even post those presentations for free on our website. But when it comes to research, we ask that our clients pay because research is all together different. And they all get that. It is only when syndicated opinion and generalised reports are passed off as customer-specific that research loses its mojo, and analyst firms lose their customers.