The Wall Street Journal-20080205-Hey- Our Research Is Objective and Fair

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Hey, Our Research Is Objective and Fair

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Your recent Portals column "Vendors Still Paying for IT Research That Flatters Them" (Marketplace, Jan. 30) conflicts with the fact that Aberdeen Group's core research doesn't mention vendors, their products, or services. As a consequence there is no inherent flattery, directly or indirectly, to the vendors. In addition, your column failed to mention the more than 1,000 research reports published last year that weren't sponsored and were made freely available. Our referenceable readers, including MetLife, Best Buy, Kawasaki, Tyco, Nike and General Dynamics, leverage Aberdeen's research to make informed decisions. Unfortunately, their voices aren't represented in the article. I am confident that our community of 2.5 million readers would disagree that somehow the "sponsored research" model undermines the value of the fact-based research we deliver. Also, the article fails to acknowledge that Aberdeen doesn't conduct single-sponsor, custom-research, or sponsor-initiated reports.

This year Aberdeen will publish over 250 core research reports that originate from interviews and surveys with the 410,000 end users who participate in our research panel. Our research isn't predicated on "some new technology trend." In fact, the comprehensive research agenda for 2008 controverts the very notion that emerging technology is anywhere near the forefront of topics selected. Our reports "invariably discover" how the market is behaving, what changes they perceive, the vehicles by which they are tracking and measuring progress, and the actions they are taking to manage their business. This insight isn't grounded in some "new tech trend," as you state.

I agree that "the new Aberdeen is better than the old." It would have been useful to provide insight into how sponsored research has reinvented and reinvigorated objective, quantifiable, actionable insight that educates end users to action.

Stephen Gold

President

Aberdeen Group

Boston