Ride the Lightning

FROM THE MAILBAG: A LARGE GRAIN OF SALT

October 22, 2008

In a recent post, I reported on the release of a new litigation hold and e-discovery study from CGOC and Huron Consulting Group. In response, I received an interesting e-mail from a reader who preferred not to be named. A portion of the e-mail reads as follows:

“I have real trouble with this study. It suggests Atlas has a gargantuan installed base (84% of companies with $5 billion or more in revenues) but it omits from the cover the role Atlas’ publisher, PSS, played in the survey and, more to the point, it doesn’t seem to offer any insight on the overall number of respondents. Might it be like Guidance Software polling EnCEs and concluding that virtually everyone uses EnCase? I’m not meaning to pick on PSS, but isn’t it weird how surveys that omit the sample size and response rate so often come out in favor of the sponsor’s product?

The Atlas product is great and almost certainly is the leader in a field that only lately has seen any competitors. But leaving PSS off the cover and failing to share even the broad details of the methodology sets off alarm bells. We all know marketing is suspect, but when you pass it off as something more, you owe something more to readers.”

I agree with my correspondent and, of course, should those involved in the study wish to respond, I’ll be happy to post their comments.

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