Gartner's 2014 Magic Quadrant for E-Discovery Software was released on June 19 and it immediately drew award season, red carpet posturing amongst the report’s market “Leaders.” Generally, Gartner’s research and analysis is an informative resource for entities seeking guidance on eDiscovery service providers. As a crude comparison, it steers prospective clients to legal service providers using defined criteria in the way that Consumer Reports or Angie’s List provides market direction. However, MQ is obviously a more sophisticated tool in that it also assesses the strength of the eDiscovery market, identifies evolving trends (ECA, predictive coding, IG) and provides context for decision-making.
Although MQ is neither superficial nor sleight of hand, it is also not a silver bullet nor a divining rod for vendor selection. Individual matter staffing, corporate or law firm culture, subject matter, technology competency, and existing or historic relationships are just some of the factors that impact the choice of a service provider and that may complicate the “simplicity” of an X-Y axis representation of vendor hierarchy. More than being a product catalog, MQ is a valuable foundation or stepping stone for an organizational RFP process for eDiscovery providers. Every legal services consumer should develop a process for evaluating technology/services providers that incorporates their own unique needs and expectations. As an example, an individualized qualitative process may be more critical in certain circumstances requiring foreign language functionality or social media analytics.
In an ever-increasingly competitive environment, Magic Quadrant is a fantastic resource for the eDiscovery marketplace and although it does not make selections for you like a Magic 8 Ball, it does better enable the consumer to make more educated choices. Incorporating market surveys, business strategy, technology and technology-related services and scalability, MQ assists in setting expectations for consumers and educating the broader industry.
Thanks for this, Jackson. Couldn't agree more. OrcaTec is a smaller company that doesn't yet rise to the MQ's $20m revenue requirement, but I firmly believe we have tools others don't that might not be tried because of things like MQ that we don't appear on. It's a good evaluation tool, but it isn't magic.
Posted by: Tracie Burns | July 5, 2014 at 10:39 AM