Datamonitor is integrating three technology research businesses under its Ovum brand in a move which it believes will differentiate it from dedicated IT research and analysis companies.

David Meek, senior vice president of IT research at the company said traditional analysts stop at the IT wall and business analysts increasingly provide insight 'that should have been tied more closely in to what IT is being asked to fulfill within the business.'

Meek gave examples of two sectors, retail and energy, which could benefit from the integration.

'People want to engage with the IT department of large retailers but at commercial side retail is undergoing a revolution that depends on IT. Energy companies reply on complex business information about investments or what markets to enter that is increasingly IT dependent.'

The analyst is working under the Ovum Enterprise IT Knowledge Center brand which it says brings together the existing strengths of Ovum and Butler Group's research, and leverages the business research of the wider Datamonitor Group.

"We've developed an approach that we're calling Collaborative Intelligence. It allows us to harness the insight of over 350 business analysts in Datamonitor and combine this with 150 ICT analysts to produce research that really tackles the problem of the business value of IT," said Meek.

The existing Ovum Telecoms research service and all other Datamonitor Group business research services, including Consumer markets & Retail, Energy & Utilities, Financial Services, Automotive & Logistics and Healthcare & Pharmaceuticals, remain unchanged.