Markus Offers Inexpensive Competitive Intelligence for Law Firm Marketing
There’s a new entry in the field of competitive intelligence sources. Markus Research Services is taking on the established triumvirate of LexisNexis AtVantage, Thomson Monitor Suite and ALM Research with a persuasive proposition: it costs less. (An annual subscription to AtVantage can cost $20,000, according to marketing directors).
I read Markus’s 29-page report on Dell, Inc. and was impressed. It reveals that:
· The Texas-based computer maker spreads out its legal work among 46 law firms (so much for talk about “convergence”) for federal litigation.
· The lion’s share of the legal work goes to 7 law firms: Vinson & Elkins (M&A), Baker Botts (patent and trademark), Call Jensen and Ferrell (contracts, civil rights and product liability), Fulbright & Jaworski (securities, stockholder suits and patents), Hamilton & Terrile (statutory actions and patent), King & Spalding (trademark), and Nixon Peabody (product liability, personal injury, fraud and contracts).
· Dell was a party in litigation in 61 US and international courts, and in 16 state courts (half of all of Dell’s cases were in Dell’s headquarters state of Texas).
· Between August 7 and December 21, 2007, Dell acquired 6 companies. The deal values totaled more than $2 billion.
· Dell has a worldwide portfolio of 1,890 patents and has an additional 2,100 patent applications pending, including almost 800 in the US.
· The company is experiencing significant copyright levy issues in Germany.
· Dell’s big patent dispute with Lucent Technologies is “resolving favorably for Dell.”
Markus’ website -- just launched today -- is an e-commerce site where law firms can quickly buy SEC filings, company press releases and company diversity statements “for CHEAP (as little as $15), said an enthusiastic spokesman.
Markus offers CI reports, like the one for Dell, for the fortune 100, plus diverse attorney and lateral lists, for law firm hiring and HR purposes. Markus also does research for RFP support, internal firm analyses, and analyses of clients, competitors, markets and industries.
“We are able to offer research and analysis at affordable prices because we have extensive experience in providing high-quality work products on a small budget,” the spokesman said. “We take advantage of technology and alternative resources, such as offshoring to offer savings to law firm.”
More juicy stuff about Dell...
Dell is designing and manufacturing products in China, India, Poland, and Brazil, creating a need for international corporate and commercial legal work. The same need exists in the US, where Dell began selling products at Best Buy and Staples stores. In August 2007 The U.S. Department of Veterans affairs leased Optiplex desktop computers with monitors in a $248 million deal.
44% of Dell’s net revenue comes from overseas, requiring lawyers who can help with foreign labor laws, political and regulatory instability, trade protection measures, tax law and copyright levies.
Dell has “business centers” in Canada, El Salvador, Oklahoma, Panama, Tennessee and its Round Rock, TX headquarters.
Dell has recently undergone SEC, federal and internal investigations. Its audit committee identified “material weaknesses” in the company’s financial controls that forced it to restate its financial reports to the public for 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006.
Dell is “going green and embarked on Zero Carbon, to become the greenest technology company on earth for the long term.
In sum, Markus’s report on Dell was a hunter’s paradise for a targeted marketer in a law firm.
