Migrated from eDJGroupInc.com. Author: Greg Buckles. Published: 2015-01-05 19:00:00Format, images and links may no longer function correctly.
eDJ Comment
As a consumer and former creator of these over-simplified market mash-ups, I am always fascinated by how analysts pick the ‘players’ to profile. Radicati Group’s new eDiscovery Market Quadrant 2014 report features 13 providers with one common trait. Each and every one of them has a strong analyt/marketing budget and has a track record of spending it to make sure that they are well represented. I am not commenting on the content of Sara Radicati’s research or conclusions. Rather I am calling out a larger problem with the defacto ‘pay for play’ system that dominates market research. See current and past lawsuits against Gartner, Inc. that spell out the inherent ethical conflicts in doing for profit research on providers who are actively paying clients. I am frankly happy to be out of the analyst game and back to pure consulting. Most analysts work hard to fend off provider marketing pressure and deliver good work product, especially early ‘pure’ researchers such as John Bace. In my opinion, market analysts today are all too often isolated from real world customers and innovative startups in a classic ‘mushroom management’ trap. So be an educated, cynical consumer and read these mystical diagrams and reports carefully to extract the valuable nuggets.
Greg Buckles can be reached at Greg@eDJGroupInc.com for offline comment, questions or consulting. His active research topics include analytics, mobile device discovery, the discovery impact of the cloud, Microsoft’s 2013 eDiscovery Center and multi-matter discovery. Recent consulting engagements include managing preservation during enterprise migrations, legacy tape eliminations, retention enablement and many more. Blog market perspectives are personal opinions and should not be interpreted as a professional judgment.