Ride the Lightning

EDD VENDOR RANKINGS, NEVERMORE! THE SOCHA-GELBMANN SURVEY MORPHS

August 13, 2008

The influential Socha-Gelbmann EDD Survey has been under fire for some time for its methodologies and rankings. Every year, I groan when my Inbox fills with the chest-beating of firms who get a good ranking based on unverified information that the firms themselves submit.

My own criticism of the survey has been somewhat muted. I like George and Tom – they are gracious colleagues who have always been quick to courteously answer any questions I posed to them. I was also aware of my own self-interest. The way the survey was structured, it simply didn’t reflect the virtues of small firms like my own. “Big” simply looked “better” in the survey. To their credit, George and Tom have consistently said “anyone who makes buying decisions primarily on these rankings is a fool.” But as they also said, “so much for the effectiveness of warnings.” Too much was being made of the rankings, and unintended harm resulted. So they have decided to dispense with rankings and to retool their survey.

I’m not quite ready to say “The king is dead, long live the king” – it’s a terrific challenge to try to get an objective perspective on EDD vendors. But I salute George and Tom for recognizing that change was needed and trying to reinvent their survey. I look forward to seeing what they come up with.

If anyone has suggestions, George and Tom ask that they be sent to .

George’s posting announcing the change may be found at http://commonscold.typepad.com/eddupdate/2008/08/the-socha-gelbm.html

Thanks to reader Sean La Roque-Doherty for making sure I paid attention to this while I was at the ABA Annual meeting!

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