ARInsights – a provider of the market-leading SaaS platform for managing analyst relations (AR) and B2B influencer relations programs – announced the acquisition of The Wind Communications Agency, a premier, full-service analyst relations services firm and consultancy. Through this acquisition, ARInsights expands its ServicePlus AR operational services to now address companies’ full spectrum of AR needs.
ARInsights provides its high-impact and popular AR productivity software and offers, through its expanded services, a complete AR program strategy and operations and peer review management. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.
For 20 years, ARInsights has been helping companies drive analyst relations productivity including through its core platform ARchitect and complementary products like Analyst Portal, services like ARchitect administration and operational support, and AR community-building forums and events. And the largest AR teams in the world, as well as single-person AR programs, depend on ARInsights to measurably improve analyst relations and business results.
Wind Communications likewise works with some of the world’s largest and leading technology companies, and the acquisition significantly expands ARInsights’ service capabilities with complementary offerings.
This includes:
1.) AR strategy – Developing and assessing goals and metrics, mapping AR activities to overall business objectives, etc.
2.) Program execution – Developing and maintaining relationships with analysts and other relevant influencers, project-managing vendor evaluations, planning and supporting analyst day events, etc.
3.) AR operations – Researching and tracking key analysts and influencers, developing and following consistent processes, recording and sharing analyst insights across the organization, reporting on metrics and results, etc.
4.) Peer reviews management – Driving and responding to user reviews across platforms, highlighting trends, improving competitive positioning, identifying potential references, etc.): a growing focal area in AR programs in collaboration with customer marketing teams
The new services ARInsights provides through the Wind Communications acquisition will be additional offerings under ARInsights’ ServicePlus and all Wind Communications staff will become ARInsights team members under the continued leadership of Patricia and Greg Wind.
KEY QUOTES:
“Wind Communications has been a longtime and valued partner of ours, with a well-deserved reputation for excellence in AR strategy and execution. Many of our customers have already benefited from their expertise and services. Bringing their founders Patty and Greg Wind, along with their talented team, to ARInsights is a natural and exciting fit for our business and an important part of ARInsights’ evolution. Together, we’ll offer unparalleled, end-to-end AR solutions and services. As we seek to support companies and their evolving AR needs, we look forward to serving them from a single, trusted brand with deep AR experience and comprehensive insights across their AR activities.”
– Andy Zimmerman, ARInsights CEO
“Over the last 10 years, we’ve helped companies and their internal AR stakeholders drive business value through strategic analyst relations programs. Now we can provide even more value to clients, backed by the flexibility and capability of ARInsights to add structure, data and visibility to any AR program. We’re longtime users of ARInsights’ industry-leading AR software and share a common vision to enhance knowledge-sharing among AR professionals, executives, the analysts and other influencers. We look forward to executing on that vision together, with a full suite of solutions and services to meet companies’ varied AR and customer advocacy requirements.”
– Patricia Wind, co-founder and principal, Wind Communications and now VP of Services, ARInsights
“We’ve worked with both ARInsights and Wind Communications to strengthen our analyst relations program, adding structure, information and efficiency through ARchitect and AR expertise through Wind Communications. With their combined strengths now under one roof, we can realize even greater benefits from tighter integration of services and software, and their deep understanding of our AR program.”
– Theresa Davidson, director of analyst relations for Forcepoint