There are many software packages available; all offering something slightly different to the rest, yet you may find that each software package is missing a vital feature or function that is essential to your requirements.

The alternative is to buy each component separately. For example, you purchase the interviewing software from one company, your panel management software from another and so on. This way getting exactly what you need using the best software available.

For many buyers this option can be seen as far too complicated. One of the major hurdles faced by buyers of market research software is being able to integrate the “best-of-breed” tools from multiple vendors into a single system.

To make this approach effective, the most efficient way to do this is by implementing an automated process of data transfer between systems, using a file based system and the industry standard, Triple-S, which is widely recognised and used by many in market research for data processes.

Triple-S is a language for describing survey metadata. The information is stored in a text file and automatically generated by the source package. It is an industry standard that is used by more than 50 software producers worldwide. If two different programs can generate or read the Triple-S format then the survey metadata can be translated automatically, eliminating the need to do it manually.

Integration of two or more software platforms, using an automated process for the data transfer, makes it possible for all data to be kept up-to-date in real time. It also provides a seamless software system to work with and means that market research projects, that are conducted using the multiple software packages, can be undertaken in a more efficient manner.

Another advantage is that it allows you to bring back profile information into the panel database, which is drawn from the research projects. This then enhances the profile information available in the sample selection process.

Some examples of the benefits of automating data transfer processes include:

• Easy automation of data flow between 2 or more programs
• The latest and most accurate information stored in all databases
• The industry standard format Triple-S is used for all data transactions
• Automatically handles data updates such as:
  • Adding new panellist details to a panel database
  • Adding new panellists’ profile information
  • Ideal for building a new panel database from people active in other surveys
  • Updates unsubscribes and removes panellists that want to leave

Our MARSC Generic Refresh tool allows for seamless integration between our sampling and panel management platforms and many of the market research software solutions available such as interviewing software systems, data collection software as well as your own database.

Below are some of our partners with whom, we have integrated systems already in place

NIPO Software (Netherlands) (newly formed partnership January 2012)

Voxco (Canada)

MI Pro (Norway)

For more information please email sales@marsc.com

 
Surrey, UK – January 17, 2012: NIPO Software, industry leader in interviewing software, has been working with MARSC Limited, global panel management software provider, to develop a direct link between the two products. Sample drawn from MARSC.net goes directly into NIPO’s CATI and/or CAWI survey table, whilst MARSC’s Generic Refresh automatically returns outcome codes and other information back into the MARSC.net database. This partnership is aimed at providing current clients, as well as new customers of NIPO Software and MARSC Limited, a seamless software package for market research projects.

NIPO Software, part of the TNS group, offers software solutions to setup, conduct, and manage CATI, CAPI, CAWI, Switch mode and Pen and Paper interviews.

MARSC Limited offers software solutions for sampling and panel management for organisations conducting market research studies.

Sjoerd Gras, Product Director of NIPO Software says “Together we offer a strong combined portfolio to the market with outstanding panel and research capabilities in CATI, CAPI and Web.“

Nicky Forsyth, Managing Director of MARSC Limited says “We are very happy to be working with NIPO Software and look forward to this opportunity of providing clients a fully integrated survey and panel management solution.”

About NIPO Software (http://www.niposoftware.com)
NIPO Software is the premier global software partner for the market research industry. Every day over 15,000 interviewers and many more respondents from all over the world use a NIPO software product to conduct CATI, CAPI, CAWI, Switch mode or Pen and Paper interviews.

NIPO Software focuses on making research operations more successful; by increasing efficiency and by offering tools to create new business opportunities. That is why over 200 leading market research companies worldwide rely on NIPO Software to help secure their long-term growth. NIPO Software’s data collection and data delivery solutions are reliable, highly adaptable, and efficient, and can be used just as easily locally as in a complex international setting. NIPO Software has a long history of outstanding innovation, with its technological firsts including the first CATI and CAPI field forces and the first software that enabled telephone interviewers to work from home.

NIPO Software has offices in Amsterdam, Hong Kong and Buenos Aires.

About MARSC Limited (http://www.marsc.com)
MARSC Limited provides software solutions for sampling and panel management for the market research industry. MARSC.net is a family of unique sampling and panel management tools for market research providing a platform for the provision of sample for all types of research project. MARSC.net enables your researchers to quickly and easily source, balanced stratified sample, and with a host of panel management features, MARSC.net will ensure the most efficient use of your data for all your projects. MARSC.net can exist seamlessly alongside any standard database system, or act as a panel management system communicating directly with a survey software solution.
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Information:
Sjoerd Gras, Product Director – NIPO Software
+31 20 522 59 96
s.gras@niposoftware.com

Lucy Mackins, Marketing Executive – MARSC Limited
+44 (0)1306 621 062
lucy.mackins@marsc.com

With a high penetration of users and a high percentage of mobile users accessing the internet, this makes the mobile phone a viable tool for research studies. The benefits being quick responses, good response rates, a broad demographic reach, instant reactions, mobility plus a valuable link with the youth market.

Mobile phones are generally always on and are usually close by to the user, so high response rates can be achieved almost immediately. They are especially useful for customer satisfaction and feedback surveys, as the participant can be reached at the exact moment their opinion is formed.

The mobile phone has the widest demographic reach and participants can be reached almost anywhere. This has made it a very popular in places such as Africa, where other methods were not so successful, due to the ability to reach areas previously unreachable. Plus, with the permission of the participant, other data can be collected including GPS location and activity with the device.

The youth market has previously been a difficult one to reach, but with the high penetration of users in this age range the mobile is a great way to access this group.

When considering whether this is the right research tool, it is important to keep in mind that surveys on mobiles need to be kept short and simple. If the participant starts receiving long surveys on their mobiles, with too many questions to complete, it is quite likely to put them off. As with other survey methods, such as online, face-to-face and telephone, the same rules with regard to quality, relevance and contact frequency must be followed to ensure you retain your participants.

Mobile surveys should be viewed as an additional tool to online surveys rather than a replacement, as they offer different benefits, whereas mobile surveys could be used instead of telephone and face-to-face surveys, offering cost savings in these areas.

Mobile use is fast becoming a popular way of conducting research. The way in which research is being undertaken is rapidly changing. New and innovative methods are being introduced and existing ones are evolving. Mobile is just one of them.

As well as having the most accessible tools to deliver the research to the end user, it is also, just as important, to ensure that the back-end system is working in alignment. This will determine the difference between poor research results and excellent research results. By using the MARSC.net sampling software you will be able to target the right people, as little or as often as you want and keep the database refreshed with the most up-to-date data.

To find out more about the integration possibilities of MARSC.net with your survey or data collection software, please call 01306 621 062 or email sales@marsc.com.

The aim to create active communities is important for specialist panels which have a natural draw from a specialist interest, but is not necessarily practical for all panel providers because of the need to find enough interesting material to draw a diverse group of people to their site and into a community.

What panel providers are really striving to do is to improve the experience of the panellists hoping it will result in them answering more surveys and staying active in the panel for longer. There are some simple direct ways of doing this which are all too often ignored and it involves controlling the use of a panel for the benefit of both the panellist and the panel provider.

Amongst other things the necessity to select relevant people for a survey is important to avoid respondents from becoming despondent.  For example: don’t ask someone about motherhood and child-rearing when they have answered a previous survey telling the panel that they are single and have no children. Obvious really! But unfortunately it happens all too often.

Another area of true panel management that gets missed all too often is the need to manage the frequency of sending surveys to individuals. Sending nothing out to an individual for 6 months and then asking that person to fill out 5 surveys in as many days is not going to motivate a panellist to respond. Maintaining a steady trickle of surveys going out to individuals and making sure surveys are appropriately targeted, while running a busy panel – is panel management at its best.

This type of control is notably lacking in many panel management systems that focus more on the community building aspects and less on managing what the panellist actually receives. It is important that the user is able to select people on the basis of their previous activity in the panel to maintain that contact frequency: not too often and not too seldom. It also important that the user is able to select people based on their answers to previous surveys thereby keeping the surveys relevant.

Do the community building as well, but don’t miss out the important aspects of sample selection in running a panel.

MARSC.net allows the user to select people on the basis of their previous activity in the panel and to maintain that contact frequency; not too often and not too seldom. It also allows users to select people based on their answers to previous surveys, thereby keeping the surveys relevant, and it can operate alongside any interviewing system receiving information from the interviewing process as required.

For more information about MARSC.net, sampling and panel management software, visit www.marsc.com.

Surrey, UK – September 14th, 2011:  MARSC Limited, providers of software for sampling and panel management to the market research industry, are pleased to announce the release of the MARSC.net v1.3 sampling and panel management system. The official launch of MARSC.net v1.3 will be at ESOMAR Congress in Amsterdam, September 2011.

Enhanced features in this version of MARSC.net include:

• Improved profile and activity filtering  
• Introduction of custom dimensions enabling the combination of interlocking and
  non-interlocking sample selection methodologies
• Introduction of sample prioritisation as an alternative to random selection. (e.g. prioritisation can be determined on frequency of invitation or survey completion
• External files (storing a list of panellist IDs) may be used as the base (or as an exclusion criteria) enabling the precise targeting of sample (e.g. product purchasers over the last 4 weeks)
• User definable Metadata fields allowing users to store more detail against sample jobs (for reporting purposes)

Nicky Forsyth, Managing Director of MARSC says “this new release is a major enhancement of MARSC.net and now provides fully featured sampling for all sizes of panels”.

With the addition of new data tools and sampling enhancements, MARSC.net v1.3 continues to maintain its position within the industry as one of the best systems available, offering an extremely competitive solution for sampling and panel management.

About MARSC Limited (http://www.marsc.com)
MARSC provides software solutions for sampling and panel management for the market research industry. It is used by companies that run online panels be they small or large, either for general consumer research or for smaller panels dedicated to specific topics. The MARSC sampling tool can be used for management of customer satisfaction studies by phone, online or by any other means.

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Information:
Lucy Mackins, Marketing Executive – MARSC Limited
+44 (0)1306 621 062
lucy.mackins@marsc.com

Constantly striving to offer the latest, up-to-date sampling and panel management software, here are some of the new features to be included in the new version of MARSC.net, due for release later this year.

• Advanced filtering in dimensions – now offering the ability to combine interlocking and non-interlocking.
• Load external files – provides extra information/data that can be linked to existing data of panel members stored on the database to act as a filter on the panel.
• Ability to customise description fields for sample projects and prototype (survey) projects which can also be used for reporting and/or activity filters.
• Extra flexibility and functionality being added to the returning of outcome codes, making the link between MARSC.net and the interviewing software more comprehensive.
• Ability to allow for an automatic close – useful for projects where there is no response to survey invites. (For example, for invites that have not been clicked on or have not been completed, they will be automatically closed by a defined date, removing the need to manually close each invite on a project)
• Sample prioritisation - Sample is usually selected at random. this new function will allow you to use another factor to determine who you select, based on the number of interviews the panellist has completed or the number of invitations that have been sent out, ensuring that all contacts/panellists on the database are used effectively.

For more information please email sales@marsc.com

The MRS Annual Research Conference was held at the Grange, St Paul’s Hotel in London. With a grand venue for the conference and a top notch programme for the first day, this was an event not to be missed.

Keeping it brief, based on the seminars attended, here are some of our highlights from the first day:

• The opening keynote ‘Solving Impossible Problems’ from Tim Harford, really got the day off to a good start. Using a toaster project, he illustrated the complexities of the world, and went on to explain how important it is to embrace trial and error, rather than be scared of it. 

• The Online Communities seminar was a favourite and one of the most significant to MARSC in terms of future software development ideas. British Gas, through the creation of their own online community are ‘seeing the power of connectivity’. Connecting with their customers in this way allows them to put ideas in the forum instantly and gain timely feedback from their customers. An area that is gaining an increasing amount of interest.

• Rachel Lawes’ case study for rebranding a product showed how important it is, even for items such as toilet tissue, to consider carefully the changes made or risk losing loyal customers. Who knew that talking about toilet tissue would be so fascinating and that seals were too wet and lions too aggressive to be the face of toilet tissue! A wonderful presentation and warning to those who underestimate the value of good market research when it comes to rebranding products.

• In Behavioural Economics, Paul Kehoe, CEO of Birmingham International Airport, wanted to shake up the current research that they were undertaking. Finding the results from the continuous studies to be ineffective so far as to be able to make any significant changes to improve the airport, they decided to replace them with dipstick testing. This provided real-time feedback and enabled them to make educated decisions to improve the traveller experience from the minute they shut their front door. This along with the other papers in this seminar were great, but left many still unsure as to how behaviour economics was part of these market research strategies

Throughout the day, many of the attendees were tweeting about the conference (#res11) and gave a good indication on how the seminars were being received.

Rounding the day off at the Illuminas Party Casino Night was a great way to unwind and network. The only disappointment felt here in the MARSC offices, was not attending the second day of the conference!

So here’s a little round up of exactly what we at MARSC have been up to during March.

We begin with the WARC Online Research: Now & Next, which was held in London on 1^st March. Nicky Forsyth, Managing Director of MARSC went along for the day and listened to speakers addressing the full spectrum of online research techniques as well as looking at the latest in social media and digital innovation. The day offered a wealth of quality speakers, with one in particular on the subject titled ‘Digividuals – Online Avatars: Understanding consumers “real” lives through virtual tools’ It was certainly a fascinating and innovative way to source data on social network sites, and was presented by John Kearon, Chief Juicer at Brainjuicer.

In another part of London, TFM&A opened its doors to the crowds for its 2011 show at Earls Court. MARSC was located on the dedicated Market Research Pavilion, and was manned by Lucy Mackins, Marketing Executive, who spent the day selling the benefits of a sampling and panel management software system to several interested attendees. With the first day of the show proceeded by a much welcomed after show drinks event, exhibitors had a chance to relax after a long day and network.

Busy with events in the UK, you would think that there was no room to consider anything else, let alone on the other side of the Atlantic, but MARSC was preparing for the CASRO conference held this year in Las Vegas, and was attended by Julian Simpson, Director of Consultancy and Chandler Eaton, US Sales Manager. Their overall feedback from this event was that it was a really worthwhile conference to attend – ‘both from the learning and pressing the flesh perspectives’ said Julian. The main message Julian and Chandler came away with from the conference was, that the future needs to merge sample sources and that panels alone cannot be relied upon to provide sufficient sample due to increased demand and reduced response rates (mainly because internet users are simply not as happy to do online questionnaires as they once were). Plus social media was viewed as a significant area of opportunity and that many are now looking at using this as another means of sourcing data, though this should be used with caution as there is not yet an industry standard to do so and this makes measurement of such information difficult.

More updates of event news coming soon on the MRS Research Annual Conference 2011 and the ARF 75th Annual Conference.

To find out which events MARSC will be attending or exhibiting at, click here to check our events page on our website.

With the threat of personal information being misused, internet users are unsurprisingly anxious about their privacy online. This challenges the market research industry to work even harder to gain trust and respect, so that respondents will feel reassured that their data will be protected and that they will remain anonymous. This industry needs to take the issue of online privacy very seriously otherwise it is at risk of it being taken out of its hands and out of its control.

As the growth of internet users continue, so do the concerns about the misuse of information and abuse of privacy. Yet more and more people are freely and voluntarily offering up all kinds of information that in normal circumstances would remain private. Is it a generation thing I wonder, as the younger generation seem to be more at ease when it comes to sharing this information than the older generation? And is that because they are unaware of the implications and risks or is the way we view privacy evolving? Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook was quoted as saying “privacy is no longer a social norm” and although respondents to a survey conducted by Vovici said “they were concerned about privacy on the web, it appeared that those that were worried did not behave any differently online to others”.

New innovative ways of research are being sought all the time to tackle the fall in respondent numbers and the emergence of social media is an exciting and fresh way of conducting research. Lots of data can be pulled from all the information that is now being shared online. It’s there, its available and its free!

“If the likes of Facebook and Foursquare can attract huge audiences by encouraging users to forget privacy concerns, while surveys are stuck asking a dwindling pool of bored respondents the same questions over and over again, are we going about things the wrong way?” (The Open Secret – Research Live, January 2011)

So we think, great, let’s take this information and also use these models from the social network sites and modify for our own use. The use of web scraping has highlighted concerns regarding the ethical implications. Although people assume that everybody going online has basically agreed to make public their information, and have allowed certain people they want to be able to read comment or share it, many do not expect this information to be searched and used by anyone outside of that community.

Annie Pettit, of social media research agency Conversition Strategies, says “Most people assume that everybody going online has basically agreed that what they put up there is for public consumption. But people really, as a group, understand that. They expect that, within their own small sphere, people will read it, comment on it, share it – but there’s a good percentage of people who don’t expect the entire world to be searching their comments”. (The Open Secret – Research Live, January 2011)

However, a recent news report (8th February 2011) on the BBC News Technology website highlighted that the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) ruled that “Twitter messages [are] not private” after a Department of Transport official made a complaint that the use of her tweets by newspapers constituted an invasion of privacy. However the PCC said the potential audience for these tweets was much wider than her followers, because each message could be forwarded by others, known as retweeting. As a result the commission ruled that the articles did not constitute a breach of privacy.

Users of the internet must ‘think before they speak’ or share, as the internet is a public domain and should be treated as one. Even in our own chosen communities on social network sites, we must not be naïve to think that what we put on our profile is private, as with all of these sites the information can be copied and shared. This does not mean that from a Market Researchers point of view, this information is therefore readily available to be used without permission and we must be careful in how we approach social media. It would be much like sitting in a public place and ‘eavesdropping’ on someone else’s conversation; this is where the ethics of what we do comes in to play. If we want the respect and trust of those we need most to conduct our research then we need to show that we value their privacy.

To read in full the articles referred to in this blog use the links below.
Is it really possible to have online privacy in the internet age? – The Telegraph
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/facebook/7741526/Is-it-really-possible-to-have-online-privacy-in-the-internet-age.html
The Open Secret – Research Live
http://www.research-live.com/magazine/the-open-secret/4004441.article
‘Twitter messages not private’ rules PCC – BBC News Technology
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12393893