I had an excellent conversation with Katie Paine yesterday about how VendorRate is part of the new model of Public Relations. Katie blogged about this http://kdpaine.blogs.com/kdpaines_pr_m/2008/02/one-more-sign-t.html
Katie emphasizes one of VendorRate's core premises; business customers need a confidential & safe platform to speak their minds about their REAL vendor experiences while maintaing the integrity of the information. "Most companies have policies about talking about vendors, but the completely anonymous environment changes that dynamic. You have to register and qualify to rate, so the system prohibits vendors from rating themselves."