Inside Info-Tech’s Coverage, Advisory, Events, and SoftwareReviews Strategy - Moving Upmarket into the Large Enterprise
AR Intelligence: Live | In the Hot Seat | April 2026 · Replay · Transcript · Chat Log
AR Intelligence: Snapshot
The April 2026 “In the Hot Seat” session featured Info-Tech Research Group Chief Research Officer Gord Harrison — a 25-year Info-Tech veteran who spent his first decade at the firm as its CIO before moving into research leadership. The webinar was not a product pitch, rather it was a methodical walkthrough of how Info-Tech actually does the work: who it serves, how it builds research, how SoftwareReviews is constructed, how vendors engage, and where the firm is heading geographically and across adjacent buyer roles. Gord opened with a frame the AR community should sit with: “from information advantage to decision advantage.” Knowledge, in his telling, is no longer scarce — AI has commodified it. What remains scarce is judgment about what to do next, and that is the wedge Info-Tech is positioning into.
The conversation covered Info-Tech’s actionable-research model and the Blueprint deliverable; the iconic IT Management & Governance Framework (the periodic-table graphic that anchors the firm’s taxonomy); SoftwareReviews as a data-driven, end-user-only ratings platform deliberately positioned against vendor-influenced quadrants; the seat-based, no-contingency commercial model; the geographic footprint and the live-events flywheel from Las Vegas to Brisbane to Barcelona; the expansion beyond IT into McLean & Company (HR) and a newer marketing practice; and the Top Vendor Research initiative aimed at the vendors that matter most to Info-Tech’s membership.
Info-Tech didn’t announce a new product or AI narrative. It made a more durable case: that practitioner-rooted, methodology-driven research, anchored in 50 codified IT processes and unbiased end-user data, is what mid-market and enterprise IT leaders actually buy and use. The strategy is mature, the execution is global, and the AR-engagement model is unusually open.
Replay: Click here for Zoom replay
Passcode: Pj#7R.3X
Webinar held April 23, 2026
Host: Carter Lusher
Guest: Gord Harrison, Chief Research Officer, Info-Tech Research Group.
Paid members (aka subscribers to AR Intelligence Substack): the full transcript and chat log are below. The chat is worth reading on its own — attendees pressed on outcome-based pricing, mid-market buyer mix, vendor access to SoftwareReviews analysts, persona and industry breakdowns, vendor briefings, category creation, and how SoftwareReviews integrates into Info-Tech member contracts.
Dig Deeper
Full Transcript — From Information Advantage to Decision Advantage
Gord Harrison walks through Info-Tech’s 25-year arc, the actionable-research Blueprint model, the IT Management & Governance Framework, the SoftwareReviews data quadrants and Emotional Footprint Reports, the seat-based commercial model, the global live-events footprint, the expansion into HR (McLean & Company) and marketing, and the Top Vendor Research initiative.
Chat Log — The Community Presses on Models, Markets, and Methodology
◦ Attendees probed outcome-based pricing, the vendor-versus-end-user revenue split, mid-market versus enterprise positioning, vendor access to SoftwareReviews analysts, persona/industry/geo breakdowns, briefing logistics, category creation, and how SoftwareReviews flows into ITRG member contracts.
AR Intelligence: Conclusion
Info-Tech is doing what mature analyst firms do when they’re comfortable in their lane: explaining their methodology in operational detail, naming what they don’t do, and pointing AR teams to the door (Vendor Services, run by Alan Neal) that actually opens. The strategy isn’t a pivot. It’s the patient compounding of a 28-year-old practitioner-research model that now runs at global scale, with a SoftwareReviews engine deliberately built to look unlike Gartner’s Magic Quadrant.
For AR teams, the implication is concrete: Info-Tech is one of the few firms with structural visibility into mid-market and lower-enterprise IT buyers in North America, Australia, and an accelerating EMEA presence. If your buyer profile sits in that band — and your category is covered by SoftwareReviews — ITRG influence on shortlists is real, data-driven, and contractually wired into the member relationship.
Slides: Info-Tech presentation slides referenced during the session are available upon request — inquiry@LusherAdvisory.com.
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