#2009 EDD Predictions

My predictions may be very obvious — but I expect we will see even-more escalated Darwin activity:

1. The collapse of a significant number of vendors, who fail because of overly-optimistic expectations that they will "revolutionize" the market with their "unique" product that has no competitors. (Whenever a vendor marketer tells me the vendor has no competitors I know that company will be gone in a year.)

Vendors will fail if they do not:
* have carefully constructed and realistic business plans.
* have a solid financial foundation.
* understand the challenges of the legal industry (particularly fear in Baby Boomer firm leaders).
* educate the profession (read: talk in plain English).
* listen to their users and offer first-class customer service.
* effectively market so they rise above all the white noise.

2. While the big 3 (Thomson-R, LexisNexis, & Wolters K) will continue to gobble up companies, I will not be surprised if because of the collapsing financial industry, the feeding frenzy slows down a bit next year.

3. Niche vendors will continue to thrive -- especially those who offer stellar customer service, generating fierce loyalty.

As Browning Marean sez, "Fasten your seatbelts, we are in for a lot of turbulence in 2009."