Interest and responsiveness among the EDD Suppliers we have targeted for profiling has been outstanding.  We are processing the interactive interview portions as we write with the bulk of real-time interviews scheduled for next week.  We are impressed - not with the mere cooperation but with the quality of thinking and dialog.

Among this week's highlights was the on-site interview we conducted with senior executives at Daticon Friday.

Observers of the market space know that Daticon survived a rocky patch (governance not operational) a while back before being acquired by Thoma Cressey Equity Partners, Inc. last year.  They installed CEO Carl Keil who's been around the lit services track once or twice and is an accomplished and seasoned senior executive -- if you have not had the pleasure, words like "pro" and "keen intellect" jump to our lips.  We got some one-on-one time with Carl and then a roundtable with VP Sales & Marketing Dave Barrett, Senior Consultant Chuck Kellner, and Marketing Manager Lisa Rawding.

While saving the content of our meetings and our analysis of Daticon for the actual Profiles we are producing, the point is that we could not have asked for a more open, honest, and focused session with more intelligent, forthcoming and personable executives.

We are really looking forward to our interviews with the other Suppliers ... particularly with the chinning bar being set so high out of the gate.

One of the senior execs we are working with at another EDD Supplier experienced a death in the family last week ... a private matter we note only to progress the study in contrasts story.  Unaware of the personal situation, we had sent an email checking on status and got an automated response that he is out of the office returning next week.  OK -- that's actually very helpful information to us.  AND, an hour or two later we get an email from that executive explaining the family emergency and promising to loop back as soon as he returns to the office.  Way, way, way above and beyond anything we have a right to expect.

As opposed to ...

OK, we understand that our decision to launch a research project is not a drop-everything, earth-shattering event.  We also understand that we can have an unconventional style and approach.

[We are reminded of the Walter Mathieu line in the original "Odd Couple" movie about it taking several weeks before he knew that the "FU" he saw on notes throughout the apartment really stood for Felix Unger.  In our case, the "f/u" in our email subject line stands for "follow-up."  So, OK maybe that was the subject of misinterpretation ... LOL.]

As we did with each of the EDD Suppliers, we sent an introductory email to several members of the executive team at Applied Discovery ... since we don't know who the company wants to use as our liaison, we don't know who's on vacation and, in all events, we don't have time for junior jetson fumble-bumbling.

A good conversation with National Sales Manager (East) Greg McPolin confirms what we had suspected -- Virginia Llewellyn is the goto person.  We send emails ... We wait ... We phone ... We wait ... We send more email -- We make more phone calls ... We wait ....  Maybe she's out of town ... We wait ... Maybe there's some sort of personal emergency ... We wait ....

Mind you, we are taking none of this personally -- business works this way some times.  So we place a call to COO Michele Vivona who answers the phone ... transactional dialog ... response:  "You need to contact Virginia Llewellyn,"  ... yes, we know that and we've been trying to establish contact but ... a chuckle (or maybe a conspiratorial giggle -- it's tough to say which) ... "She's been out of the country and you should try her again," ... CLICK ... But wait -- this gets better ...

Within minutes, we get an email from Virginia Llewellyn as follows:  "My colleagues and I have received your multiple emails and phone messages.  Thank you for your interest, but we are not interested in participating in this survey."

Ooops!  Somehow, we screwed up and we need to fix it.  Some people might be off-put but we have well-developed egos and, after all, it's business.  Under the subject line of "Do Over," we dash off the following email ...

Then-therefore, in this open forum we deliver the following message to Virginia Llewellyn and Applied Discovery ...

NEWSFLASH:  Hello Mr. and Mrs. America and all ships at sea ... getting acquired by Lexis was not the end-game, which we are fairly certain your masters at Lexis would be only too happy to reinforce.  Yes, Virginia, there is  much more to be done and ... we hope you treat your customers better than us lowly guys nipping around the edges of the industry who just wear hats and are trying to bring home the bacon.

Oh, and by the way ... we're not here for the practice ....