Discovering a Blog

Technology blog wars are almost as silly as getting your car washed in the rain - what is the point?  One vendor writes something nasty about another vendor.  There are rebuttals and then people actually get back to their day jobs and do some work.  As analysts, we are often asked to get into the middle of such discussions - you know - to throw more gasoline on the fire or to put the fire out.  I, for one, tend to ignore such text-based fisticuffs, but I have to offer an opinion on a recent blog-based skirmish.

The battle started when Kazeon and Attenex announced a partnership to solve electronic discovery process issues for customers.  Kazeon made some claims about how much data it could process (index and search) and for how little (cost).  Clearwell Systems, a feisty competitor to both companies, issues a blog response, and away we go.  I am not even going to dignify the events that followed with links in my own blog because it takes time and I have a real job.  But, I will offer some words in this week's bullets.  And, if I had more bullets, I would put an end to blogs and wikis. 

• Kazeon, Attenex and Clearwell are all respectable companies who have innovative products that happen to facilitate / automate steps in the electronic discovery process.  Just like any other competitive situation, these three companies push each other to be more creative, more precise with pricing, and more efficient in how they do business with customers.  The fact is that nearly half of the U.S.-based corporate counsel that ESG spoke with expect that their electronic discovery spending will decrease or remain flat.  With data increasing at an alarming rate, the only way this will happen is if the same corporate counsel purchase technology from the likes of these three vendors.
• ESG Lab has tested Kazeon's product which facilitates parts of the electronic discovery identification, collection, preservation and processing processes.  I personally have spoken with Attenex and Clearwell customers.  In all of these scenarios, the feedback was straightforward - the products worked and provided value.  The ROI measurements were less than the vendors marketed, but they still existed and they still justified the investment. 
• If you are looking for other validation of these three vendors solutions, NetApp resells Kazeon, HP resells Clearwell, and almost every legitimate legal service provider including Ernst & Young in the U.K. resells Attenex.
• These vendors are not the only games in town when it comes to electronic discovery process related solutions, but they are the leaders.  Its like the current Democratic Primary - all the bickering turns a few folks into Republicans.   If I were Mimosa, Symantec, StoredIQ, EMC, Autonomy, Recommind, Seagate / MetaLincs, Kroll Ontrack, WorkProducts, Applied Discovery, Iron Mountain, Index Engines or any of the others that may not directly complete but could get a few dollars of our electronic discovery budgets, I would encourage the blog bombs to continue.
• My last bullet comes from the Tech Wife as it relates to dealing with conflict - 'Who cares what anyone else thinks - worry about yourself'.  For customers, that means evaluating solutions that make electronic discovery processes easier and less costly.  For vendors, let your products speak for themselves.   

Vendor Olympics

The summer Olympics are just around the corner and I thought I would pay tribute to the 'Games' by sharing my perspectives on activities that involve technology vendors and buyers during the buying and selling process.  I do not believe that I invented the term 'Vendor Olympics' but I use that phrase often with both technology vendors and consumers.  'Vendor Olympics' involve the activities and obstacles that both of the parties go through to finalize an agreement to do business.  Here are some of the events that are part of the 'Vendor Olympics':

From buyer's standpoint:

• Meeting Marathon.  Managing time when your product vendor wants to do lunch, dinner, and spend hours on end 'educating' you on their ROI.  The toughest part is not gaining weight from the meals.
• Liar's poker.  Vendor salespeople tend to 'bend' the truth (I just experienced this with a customer I was advising) making it hard to distinguish what features are real and generally available versus which are promised.  This event is getting harder as vendors blur the lines between what products are shipping and what is limited availability.
• Decathlon dialing.  You are ready to make a purchase and you want to do your homework so you call a few other customers that are already using a similar product.  You really want to believe them, but no two IT shops are the same.  The thing that makes this event tough is there are no set rules on what to do if a reference says 'OK' things about a product (as opposed to raving about it).  And, would you really expect a reference to say bad things about a product that they recently bought and are using?
• Price ping pong.  Presuming you want to buy a product, you usually can negotiate and this can actually be fun.  I equate it to buying a new car when you are in the showroom and the salesperson keeps going back to the boss to get 'approval' for a discount or a better finance program.  I believe you actually wear down the salesperson with all that walking back and forth, and vendors tend to follow a similar pattern.  You just need to have more stamina.

From the vendor's standpoint:

• Budget gymnastics.  Customers set aside money for a project but there are delays, reductions, and shifts that make allocating resources a nightmare. 
• Testing cycles.  This is the waiting game that no one likes, but customers have to / should do 'proof of concept' testing.  This is when you hope the engineers have done their job and the product actually does what everyone has been promising.  If it doesn't, you don't have to worry about playing the next event.
• Finance hurdles.  Your product is selected and the budget is solid.  Now, you get the paperwork, but you have to go through the customer's purchasing department which is paid to hate vendors.  Sometimes this event is much worse than the two before it, but then again, it is the last one and carries the best reward.

Keep in mind that the 'Vendor Olympics' are just the like the real Olympics, any good athlete (vendor or customer) wants to sucessfully participate in as many events as possible.