We revisit our conversations on customer engagement, CX, and industry analysts. We focus the first of our CX Insider guests, Steve, a former Gartner analyst. He shared his views on the real purpose of analysts, the work behind Magic Quadrants, and how analyst events have changed. Steve's "three wishes" give great advice for the CX industry and beyond. We reinforce that bringing people and operations together is vital for seamless customer journeys.

Here are three things we learned:

• Analysts, especially at big firms like Gartner, primarily focus on helping end-user clients spend their money wisely, not just serving vendors.
• Creating seamless customer journeys depends on the convergence of people and operations. Technology isn't the main blocker; internal silos and personal agendas are.
• Industry reports, such as Gartner's Magic Quadrant, are often out of date by the time they are published. The lengthy production process means they can be "ancient history" in today's fast-moving market.