PR Sherpa

Ever since the tech wreck in 2000, the media has generally low-balled coverage of technology markets. Perhaps it's a bit of the "fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame
on me" sentiment at work, the media having been burned by all of their frothy tech coverage in the late 1990s. But with the economy apparently coming out of its four-year torpor,
tech coverage may be in for a boost. So, to prepare for the next tech wave, corporate communications departments (and PR agencies with tech clients) should focus on story lines
involving outsourcing and utility computing, among other areas, according to the Context Analytics' Tech 100 Media Prominence Report.

The annual research study measures the media performance of 100 tech companies in 2003, as defined by InformationWeek. The report examined more than 8,000 worldwide news
sources and measured the volume of press coverage per company. While quarterly earnings and economic forecasting drove coverage for most of the Tech 100 companies, four stories
dominated emerging storylines (see chart below). For PR pros "you can mold your coverage to make sure these topics are marketed in your communications," says Forest Anderson,
managing director of Context Analytics (a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tech 100). "In order to gain on the competition you need to associate these topics with your brand, and these
topics can apply to non-tech companies, especially those in a corporate environment."

The report also tracked which tech companies gained/lost the most in rank in 2003, but Anderson stresses that rankings did not take into account whether the coverage was
positive, negative or neutral. "Higher media prominence is not necessarily a good thing," he says.

Contact: Forest Anderson, 415.593.8498, [email protected].

Outsourcing/Offshoring Dominates Media Landscape

• In 2003, coverage of Outsourcing/Offshoring rose 34 percent from January to December, driven largely by announcements from major players such as IBM, HP, EDS and Accenture
  as the companies pushed their outsourcing consulting and services. The topic also gained steam as a political hot button with controversy over offshoring American jobs, as the
  U.S. headed into a presidential election year.
• Information Lifecycle Management (ILM), a sub-set of the storage discussion, increased dramatically (up 839% from January to December) in 2003 partially through coverage of
  initiatives from major players such as EMC and Hitachi Data Systems. In the media's view, storage has often been a difficult expense to justify. The push in this new area seeks to
  bring data management to the forefront, and provide a measurable return on investment for this expenditure. Major acquisitions by EMC (Legato, Documentum, VMware) fueled the
  discussion over the course of the year, but the crux of the discussion occurred in November, as analysts and press coverage highlighted data management as one of the biggest
  problems facing companies. This publicity, coupled with a push from HP based partially on its acquisition of Persist Technologies, sustained the boost in coverage through the end
  of the year.
• Coverage of the Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) discussion showed a strong increase in 2003 (up 218%), as media interest grew in industry analyst comments on how SOA
  changes the ways companies use technology. For SOA, an increase in what Gartner refers to SOA as "business process fusion" which will require companies to create and maintain a
  more flexible computing environment, so that all applications are available on-demand as services. Overall, the topic seemed loosely referenced in coverage throughout the year,
  but was a growing sub-topic of the overall business process management discussion.

Which Company Gained the Most in Rank in 2003?
2003 Rank	2002 Rank	Change in Rank	Company Name	2003 Score	2002 Score
54	71	17	Concord EFS	6,346	2,926
14	29	15	PeopleSoft	77,329	15,696
77	93	16	Marvell Technology	2,601	684
34	45	11	Brocade Communications	15,481	7,826
47	58	11	First Data	8,436	4,585
60	70	10	Documentum	5,377	2,935
44	52	8	Xilinx	8,983	5,824
29	36	7	Symantec	22,791	12,560
67	74	7	Mercury Interactive	4,421	2,531
48	55	7	Business Objects	7,962	4,898

Concord EFS, PeopleSoft, Marvell Show Biggest Gains in 2003

• Much of the coverage of the companies that posted significant gains in 2003 was filled with merger and acquisition news. Seven companies in the top 10 gains merged with
  other companies, made major acquisitions or were targets to be acquired in 2003.
• Coverage of Concord EFS' planned $7 billion merger with First Data to form an electronic-payment processing powerhouse lifted the two companies several positions over their
  2002 ranks (Concord EFS moved up 17 spots; First Data moved up 11 spots).

Which Company Lost the Most in Rank in 2003?
2003 Rank	2002 Rank	Change in Rank	Company Name	2003 Score	2002 Score
85	51	-34	TMP Worldwide	2,226	5,912
57	35	-22	BearingPoint	5,808	13,321
91	81	-10	Identix	1,382	1,683
65	56	-9	Check Point Software	4,630	4,872
42	33	-9	Ciena	9,444	14,200
61	53	-8	Compuware	5,188	5,681
93	86	-7	American Management Systems	1,287	1,349
68	61	-7	Citrix Systems	4,099	3,855
17	10	-7	Ericsson	68,059	97,576
84	78	-6	CheckFree	2,247	1,818

TMP Worldwide and BearingPoint Lose Most Ground

• In terms of losses, with the exception of TMP Worldwide and BearingPoint, most companies on the Tech 100 list remained relatively steady in the rankings from year-to-year,
  with most losing less than 10 spots.
• TMP Worldwide, the world's largest yellow pages and recruitment advertising agency, posted the largest decline of all 100 companies in 2003 (down 34 spots from its 2002
  ranking). The company, which owns Monster.com, has been afflicted by the lack of job growth in 2003 consequently reducing the volume of media coverage its job-posting site has
  been used to in the past.