Welcome to PR Vibes™, created by Calysto Communications to provide you with key insights into the publications and events in the telecommunications industry. Today, we’re featuring an interview with Ray Mota and Eve Griliches, managing partners of ACG Research.
ACG Research is a consulting and services company that addresses clients’ strategic and technical product planning needs, “the what” as well as “the why” to help them sell and manage at the business level.
To help you better understand ACG’s focus, we asked Ray and Eve to share some of their insight on the firm and on the future of telecommunications. Enjoy!
Who is ACG? What does ACG stand for? When did you start the company?
ACG Research is a private analyst firm, which was started in October 2009 but publically announced in December of 2009. There is no real mystery behind the name ACG—it stands for Advanced Consulting Group. We didn’t want to use our names, so this seemed like a good alternative. As Ray likes to say, “We are ACG, and we’re bigger than you think!”….We have a production team, a marketing and sales group, as well as analysts that we refer to as eco members because our analysts are spread out globally.
We are looking to expand our focus, which is entirely service provider centric, by adding key analysts to our team this year.
What was your motivation for starting ACG Research?
Eve: We noticed a gap in the market. The recession has reshaped the analyst community. Our client base is looking to improve efficiencies and get more for their dollar, and these companies don’t want a 60-page reports anymore; they want something more succinct that can tell them simply and quickly what is happening in the industry. Ray and I believe we can fill that gap. We both enjoy pulling together complex pieces of information and putting it into a format that is easy for the client to understand.
What need are you trying to fill? Why now?
ACG is focused on understanding and addressing not just the technology innovation in the service provider sector but also the entire value chain and economics, which includes not just tactical but also strategic thought leadership for middle to high-level executives. We do this by engaging with service providers around the world, which gives us a good pulse on the market.
Tell us a little bit about yourselves. Where you came from, your experience in telecom and other industries.
Ray: I have more than 25 years experience in the telecommunications industry. Prior to ACG, I worked at various companies, including Aberdeen Group, ManageAll, Micros-To-Mainframes, Advanced Technology Group and Eastman Kodak, providing advice on networking issues, specializing in design, implementation and troubleshooting. I later joined Synergy Research Group as a chief strategist. Because I was training a lot of the service providers on troubleshooting frame relay and ATM networks, it was a smooth transition switching from designing and implementing these networks to being an analyst in the carrier infrastructure space.
In October 2000, HispanicBusiness.com selected me as one of the top one hundred most influential Hispanics in the United States. This was quite an honor; they also selected Sammy Sosa of the Chicago Cubs and Alex Rodriguez of the Texas Rangers.
Eve: I started out after college in the restaurant business, which I think has helped me in two ways: I’m very customer centric, always have been. The other aspect is that whenever the telecom market has fallen apart, I’ve always been able to go back and be a wine steward in top restaurants. I got my MBA at Simmons Graduate School of Management and joined Thinking Machines (one of the few parallel processing supercomputer companies) and spent four years there. I joined Wellfleet Communications just as the market was split evenly between Cisco and Wellfleet for routers. Wellfleet turned into Bay Networks, then Nortel Networks where I began concentrating more on optical transmission. That lead me to PhotonEx, a 40G startup.
I ended up at IDC, where I spent five years covering routing, switching and optical. It was an easy transition to working as an analyst because I had experience forecasting, writing and working with numbers. I met Ray the first year I was on the job and we clicked and stayed in touch. I’ve always been amazed at his extensive knowledge and simple understanding of what’s behind the markets. When he asked me if I wanted to join him, I said yes, and have never looked back.
Also, Ray and I started talking about baseball given his love for the game. But since he’s an avid Yankee fan, and I’m a Red Sox season ticket holder, the fact that we started the company after the season ended was a good thing. But seriously, we love to watch the games together, and Ray has been involved in extending that love to helping children with cancer. There is so much more to this world than just analysis, and sometimes it helps put things in perspective when you see a child who you can help. That’s a part of our company that we discussed early on; we wanted to make sure we give back and give back often.
What is the mission of ACG Research?
Ray: Our focus is to set up a team that could address not only what a product is but also why it is important. A lot of firms are good at the “why” aspect, and most are good at the “what.” Our goal is to merge the two together. Our niche is really the convergence of the routing, switching and optical markets. We focus on the service provider space where we have relationships, connections and contacts and can have a greater immediate impact.
Eve: Ray has some skills that are completely unique that he has been utilizing, such as finding new ways to deliver data. He is working on interesting ways to highlight the most important data and more efficient ways to search it.
Who is your target audience/key customer segments?
Our coverage focus and expertise are related to the service providers, as well as the vendors that sell to them in the service provider space. We look not only at what technology is driving innovation there but also what constitute the top business initiatives taking place in the market. Business initiatives related to technology and the market are the key focuses.
What are some of the key technologies you cover? How many analysts do you have in your company? How do you divide out responsibilities? What are your specific coverage areas?
Eve: We are a small but very focused niche firm that is strong and well respected in the service provider space. Our expertise is optical, routers and switching on the carrier infrastructure side. However, we are establishing practices in mobility and video components as well, so we are in the process of building those two areas. We currently have four full-time analysts: Ray Mota, carrier infrastructure; Eve Griliches, carrier infrastructure; David Dines, service provider consumer video & manage service; and Christina Counts, manager of the quantitative data department. But we also have a range of eco-analysts who are best-of-breed in their space, and we leverage them on special projects. Their expertise ranges from WiMax, Mobile Backhaul, IPv6 to Mobility. We have analysts in the UK, Germany, India, China and Brazil.
We focus on carrier Infrastructure, data center/cloud computing, packet optical transport, managed services, WiMAX/microwave and sustainability. Both Ray and I have covered the routing and switching space for years, and both of us have been involved in the optical market as well. I love optics; Ray hates it, so it’s perfect. I have a sounding board for the transitions I’m seeing in the market, and he sees the business cases evolving out of that. It’s a real complement of styles.
Do you issue quarterly reports? If so, what are they?
Eve: Yes, we have quarterly market share reports on Router, SP Video infrastructure, Carrier Ethernet and Optical space.
How does ACG try to distinguish itself from other research firms? How is the firm unique?
Eve: Right now, we’re seeing our clients move around from analyst firm to analyst firm to get the targeting work they need. There is no one firm today that can satisfy a major client completely. So we provide the best in our area, which is the converging of routing, switching and optical transmission for wireless backhaul, video distribution and the evolving packet networks.
Ray: Our quality, time to market and flexibility differentiate us from other analyst firms. We have a clear focus on the service provider market, the competition and major disruptions that are anticipated to take place. Part of it is our high quality level. When clients hire us, they know that they will receive top-notch deliverables. We stay focused within the service provider sector, and they know we are doing our due diligence and have a good pulse on the industry.
People underestimate the importance of responsiveness in this industry. A broker can tell you exactly how much money he is losing when the network is down. Immediate response is vital, and I take pride in continuing that same mentality in this industry. Our goal is to treat every customer so well that they feel like they are our only customer. If they feel that way, then we are doing something right.
Eve: Our clients rely on us. Being responsive to them and giving them what they are looking for is important. Sometimes people forget about customer service. The more you understand the customer, the more you understand the urgency of their request. A lot of being good in this business is listening and acting on the little gems that appear. Listening to clients is underrated and often forgotten. Not with us. Clients often thank me for being so responsive, which I think is so basic. I have to wonder what other people are doing.
What is your vision going forward? Where do you want to take the firm?
Ray: This business is about reputation. We would like to stay small but be known as the lead analysts in our space—Eve for optical and switching, and I want to be the lead person globally for routers and service provider economics. Our vision is to stay focused in the service provider space and build a company that addresses what I call the vertical and horizontal of SPs’ businesses. Any new analyst we bring needs not only to understand the technology but also the executive business value requirements. We are also looking to develop Web 2.0/3.0 applications that will be unique in this industry. As we become thought leaders in the space, in the long-term we will look to partner with a larger firm or let them acquire us.
The goal for anyone we hire is for that analyst to be number one or two worldwide in their coverage area. We are very selective about who we bring in and look for best-of-breed-type folks. For us, it’s not so much the size of the company that is important but our connections and competencies. We want to be the elite group clients call to solve their problems—like a SWAT team.
If you weren’t in telecom, what would you be doing?
Eve: I would own a wine store somewhere.
Ray: I would coach for the Arizona Diamondback baseball team.