Netacea, a Manchester-based cybersecurity startup, protects websites, mobile apps and APIs with a revolutionary server-side approach to bot management.

Forrester Research, a leading analyst firm serving security professionals, won Netacea’s attention when the analysts decided to produce a Wave report about bot management solutions. Netacea had not been mentioned in Forrester’s previous overview of 19 major bot management providers.

Challenge

Despite enthusiastic adoption by household name brands in its domestic market, the United Kingdom, Netacea has not been able to win the attention of the mostly-American industry analyst firms and did not have an analyst relations program. Having seen the lost opportunity of a Forrester report that failed to mention them, Netacea knew it needed to raise its profile and become an internationally-recognised name in its fast-growing market.

However, Netacea understood that aiming to win Forrester’s attention could have both risks and benefits. Forrester Waves are highly competitive to place well in, and it is difficult for vendors outside the USA to overcome the proximity effect.

While any placement in a Forrester Wave is an advantage, Netacea also understood that new entrants to a Wave are unlikely to be seen as a mature player. A relatively poor placement could be used by competitors to confuse prospective customers. When Forrester offered the firm a briefing deadline, they had just a few weeks to decide whether to participate and how to assemble their narrative.

Consultancy

CCgroup understood Netacea’s caution. While placement in a Wave makes more prospective customers consider a vendor, the risk was that the Netacea solution could score poorly on some criteria. However, our view is that it’s better for analysts to mention you than not. CCgroup and Netacea agreed a plan of action that aimed to rapidly prototype and develop Netacea’s pitch to Forrester.

  • Review the Forrester documentation about the Wave and other content by the Wave authors.
    • Goal: understand what Forrester is looking for
  • Review the draft submission.
    • Goal: focus Netacea’s time on the areas where it has the biggest opportunity for improvement
  • Provide written recommendations and suggestions for the firm’s draft presentation, and a scorecard to visualize how well each section meets Forrester’s needs.
    • Goal: clarify what they need to do to improve in the key areas
  • Intensive activity to review the draft and comments.
    • Goal: make sure they understand our feedback

Consequence

CCgroup’s in-depth review of the Forrester materials allowed us to give Netacea a detailed evaluation of the initial presentation with slide-by-slide suggestions for meeting Forrester’s information needs. In a face-to-face meeting in Manchester, CCgroup and Netacea reviewed the second draft of the presentation and made further corrections. A third review was conducted prior to the presentation to Forrester’s analysts.

Forrester’s analysts engaged fully with the presentation by the Netacea team and re-evaluated their understanding of the firm’s offer. As a result, Netacea entered the Forrester Wave strongly. It was not only placed in the Leader quadrant, but no other firm was better placed in that quadrant. The Wave has become a powerful tool for the firm’s marketing.

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