Crap Factoid

Chokey the Chimp has challenged two Axios survey "results" in the past as being crap factoids but I think we have a special case here: I don't believe any of the Axios surveys are real.

Chokey the Chimp issues a HIGH Crap Factoid danger alert for the EasyVista claim of "a stunning 271 percent ROI over three years with payback within 12 months ". Stunning indeed.

A while ago on LinkedIn I had this old chestnut quoted at me, so I thought I'd roast it: the Hornbill/HDI/Bruton survey "The ITIL Experience".

Chokey chokes! Chokey the Chimp hasn't seen such a pile of Crap in a long time. Take a look at this classic piece of vendor double-talk. Tell them the joys of owning a MacLaren F1, then describe the value your Mum derived from buying a new Daihatsu to get to the shops. Yours for only a million dollars! In fact this article isn't even describing a MacLaren: it is describing a Jetsons air-car with virtual hyperdrive.

It has been a while since Chokey the Chimp got to issue a Crap Factoid warning, but here we have a Category 2. According to an ITSM Portal report on the EasyVista survey that many of you will have seen around the traps [update: here's the original article from Staff&Line, the vendor of EasyVista], "Nearly 87% of respondents said they felt negatively toward their current service desk solution". I find it a bit rich that the article says "ITSM vendors are deliberately ‘muddying the waters’" [update: and it opens with "They say there are lies, damned lies and statistics. Sometimes though, there’s just no escaping the facts"!!!!] when this vendor survey is based on such a misleading biased statistically-invalid survey as this one, and draws such outrageous conclusions.

We haven't had a Crap Factoid on this blog for a while, so it is time we had a good one. Look at Thriving in the Troubled Economy:
Ten ways you can slash IT costs and innovate in 2009. Firescope take Crap Factoids to a new level with a barrage of unsubstantiated anecdotal numbers. Never have I seen so many "Oh really?"s in one document. Chokey the Chimp had to have a lie-down.

Chokey the Chimp says today's Crap Factoid danger is HIGH. Axios Systems have released a classic piece of crap that will spread rapidly. Watch your shoe soles.

Slightly related to Crap Factoids, take a look at William Vambenepe's Crazy Stats. Love it.

I've got one for William to add: "only 34 percent say that they are more effective at introducing new technologies than their competitors"