It’s Silly Season Again…

Yes – it’s my annual post about awards.

I just got an email from an associate editor at a US-based magazine informing me that ComTech had been identified by its review board as one of the top ETRM vendors in the world. To celebrate this fact, if we just pay the $3000 fee, they will be proud to feature us as such in their special ETRM software edition and award us with a rather nice trophy as well to put on display where people might be impressed.

Well, just a couple of problems…

1. A magazine that has a special edition around ETRM software yet doesn’t actually have a clue that ComTech is not a vendor of said software but rather an independent analyst firm in that space really has destroyed any credibility it may have had don’t you think?
2. When did we have to pay for an award?????? Well, when it isn’t an award but an advertorial paid-for pretend award.

I did respond stating that we weren’t a vendor and anyway if we wanted to advertise, we’d request their advertising prospectus. But how many firms reached for their wallets? When this issue comes out, there will be a bunch of announcements no doubt about having won an award…….. but what they really did was pay for advertising.

Now, there are some good awards in this industry where you all get to vote. So, this particular magazine, and those like it, are also damaging the credibility of bona fide awards by engaging in this sharp practice of selling editorial space.

It’s a bit like the screen-scraped free content ‘reports’ being offered as well for exorbitant fees. Again, these also seem to believe that ComTech is a vendor along with several other vendors no longer in existence. That should tell anyone that the report has no value whatsoever. But what if you are new to this industry? You pay $2500 for a report that is essentially a pull together of scraped content you could have had for free or you are influenced by an award made by a magazine that is actually paid for advertising……..

Am I the only one offended by this activity?

 

 

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