Information Technology Enterprises:
Custom Research Services & Pricing

It's probably best to begin with a quick review of what we don't provide. We're not a systems integrator or computer system reseller. We won't do programming for you, and we won't find those parts of your software that are not Year 3000 compliant. We don't do recruiting for IT companies, nor do we provide motivational speakers to pump-up your sales team.

We recognize the need for all of the above, but also acknowledge that there are many, many firms that can provide those services much better than we can. Our expertise is in providing market feedback to major IT suppliers and large corporate IT consumers, so that they can do more effective strategic planning.

We focus on assessing current markets, and anticipating future ones through the analysis of trends, and more importantly, by gauging user acceptance of (potential) new technologies and services.

If you haven't already downloaded and read our white paper, we encourage you to do so... especially if you're not sure how market research can help you and your business thrive. (You'll need to have a copy of Adobe's free Acrobat Reader, if you don't have it installed already.) It explains how research activities can augment all aspects of the information technology product/service development and deployment cycle.

In that this page you're reading now is intended to complement the white paper (and vice versa), we encourage you to revisit the white paper if anything you read below is unclear.

Services

SURVEYS

We have a long history of designing, implementing and analysing "paper-and-pencil" surveys on a broad range of subject matters. We have the expertise to cope with all of the issues that can make or break a questionnaire's effectiveness...

• Asking the right questions
• Phrasing the questions to eliminate biases
• Designing a survey with the end report in mind
• Determining the appropriate sample size & sampling methods
• Using the right incentives to maximize the response rate
• State-of-the-art statistical analysis methods
• Translating the results into product design or marketing implications
• Depending on the specific circumstances we'll even help you decide which distribution method to use... direct mail or fax, email, or telephone administration.

With the ubiquitous nature on the Internet, we're finding that an increasing number of clients are taking advantage of our online survey facilities. In a fraction of the time required for other administrative methods, data from your customers, potential customers and others can be gathered, analysed and reported.

And, along with all these time and efficiency benefits, online research costs are lower too!

QUALITATIVE METHODS

Many research topics are difficult to implement as surveys... often because the real issues that need to be addressed are ill-defined, or the respondents are not the kinds of people who would even consider completing a survey. There are also circumstances where the best "answers" emerge through interactivity in a group setting

In such cases we can moderate focus groups for you or conduct one-on-one interviews.

COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS

While we generally leave the collection of market sizing, trend and segmentation data on the IT industry to firms like, IDC, Gartner Dataquest, Forester, AC Nielsen, etc, we are willing to carry out meta-analyses to derive this kind of information when your need for market facts and figures is urgent.

Meta-analysis involves the pooling of existing data from secondary sources. It's often not as precise as primary research, but it is less expensive and typically quicker to obtain.

We routinely collect market research statistics on the IT industry from news wires and press releases issued by all the major market research firms. Depending on your area of interest we can often pull-together market data from multiple sources and adapt them to your needs through deductive and inductive methods.

CONSULTING & SEMINARS

Our consulting practice is limited to user/customer/marketing issues. We rarely offer advice on hardware and software selection and implementation. We can, however, provide recommendations with respect to user impacts when deploying new systems and services. We can also help you find "lead users" and "early adopters", since these are the kinds of people that often provide the feedback you need to determine what kind of impact you'll find with the overall market.

For those organizations who would rather keep all of their market research "in house", we can also offer seminars on research techniques, and how they can best be applied. These can be a more cost-effective and efficient way of updating your research staff's skill set, as opposed to sending them off on courses.

We can also provide executive-oriented seminars on how to critically evaluate market research. We can brief you on what to look for in market research, what techniques are best suited to specific questions, how various statistics are interpreted, and how to map market research onto your strategic marketing and corporate development plans.

INFORMATION BROKERING

Everyone knows that the world-wide web and various other online commercial data sources can provide a wealth of information of a variety of topics. But do you know where to look, and is your time best spent doing the search yourself?

As far as information technology topics are concerned, we do know where to look, and can rapidly accumulate a digest of current materials for you.

TECHNICAL WRITING

While not a central offering, we recognize that good technical writers are hard to come by, and we'll occasionally take on writing assignments.

These can range from user guides to white papers on specific technologies. We can even prepare articles for advertising supplements or newsletters for your customers or employees.

OTHER

If we can't handle your specific IT research needs, we can probably refer you to someone who can. We have a network of associates with complementary skills to ours.

There are also a number of activities that we can contribute to that don't fit neatly into any of the above categories. For instance, we've helped underwriters with the "competitive environment" section of their prospectuses when they're taking a company public.

We've helped US firms find the most appropriate distribution channels for their products in Canada.

We're even open to identifying private IT companies that may be reaching the IPO stage (on a finder's fee basis).

Pricing

Our fees are typically negotiated on a case-by-case basis, since the needs of our clients vary so widely.

Surveys are usually priced on a flat-rate basis, once the underlying requirements are established.

Information brokering is billed on an hourly basis, and technical writing on the amount of material required (with a research surcharge if applicable).

Consulting and seminars are billed per diem (plus expenses) with a minimum one day charge. There is no additional charge based on the number of attendees (within reason).

On occasion we have also contracted with clients on an annual retainer basis. Paying a fixed amount up-front guarantees you a fixed number of hours or days of service which you can allocate across all the services we offer on an ad hoc basis. We're essentially there for you, when you need us. This is the most flexible option, but we can only accept a few retainer clients each year so as not to compromise service to others.