For those of you who are not aware of the annual Electronic Discovery Survey, George Socha and Tom Gelbmann have produced this highly valuable ranking of vendors for six years.
Now, they have announced that it has become so valuable that clients sometimes choose a vendor based strictly on the survey without regard to doing their due diligence i.e., carefully analyzing the services or products, checking references and substituting the work that they should be doing themselves in vendor selection.
Last week, Socha and Gelbmann announced a change in direction because they are aware that their results a) "can affect the share prices of publicly held companies" and b) "they are sometimes the most important factor in determining which provider is selected to take on a project or deliver a software program."
We have also heard from a few vendors that because the cost of e-discovery is so high, fewer paralegals have the actual buying power anymore. However, contrary to what we hear from vendors and now, in part, from the Socha-Gelmann report, many, many paralegals have told us that they are the ones that do the fact finding regarding selection of the vendor: issuing an RFP, interviewing and reviewing product, overseeing the dog and pony show and then presenting a selected list to the attorneys. So, we’re wondering, who is selecting vendors based only upon the Socha-Gelmann report? Have paralegals lost their buying influence? Or, are they deeper in the background then ever before?
We need to hear from you. Paralegals, let us know: what kind of buying influence do you have when it comes to litigation support, technology, e-discovery and other vendors?