NFO Worldwide is a leading provider of research-based marketing information and advice to the worldwide business community. With more than 15,000 full and part-time employees and operations in 38 countries, NFO is the largest custom marketing research firm in North America and is among the top three in the world. NFO is a member of The Interpublic Group of Companies (NYSE:IPG)
Infratest Burke/NFO Europe is a major European research agency, headquartered in Germany and is a subsidiary of NFO Worldwide. It is the leading custom research agency in Germany and has the world's largest CAPI-equipped fieldwork facility.
Infratest Burke took a strategic decision to provide a comprehensive CAPI service to its customers on a grand scale in order to provide a premium range of research services to its customers. It was essential to select a system that would be able to meet the demands of such a large-scale operation while realizing the benefits sought though adopting CAPI. This included:
After careful evaluation of the alternative CAPI systems available, Infratest Burke has implemented In2quest CAPI software to run on a pool of over 1,000 multimedia laptop PCs distributed to form a network covering most major European markets. All routine communication between supervisors in the office and workers in the field, including instructions, messages and queries, high speed transfer of questionnaires and data, is now carried out electronically.
Interested in NFO Worldwide? Download the PDF
For Germany's leading custom market research agency, implementing a comprehensive CAPI solution was not a question for debate: the question was which CAPI system would best meet all of Infratest Burke's needs. The decision to embrace laptop-based computer assisted interviewing on a grand scale was a strategic one. The decision to implement In2quest on all 1,050 laptops was reached because Infratest Burke judged it to be the most advanced package of its kind — and one that offered a superior solution when it came to its in-built communications facilities.
We try to do everything via our modems. Sending out a new study takes about two hours work - the interviewers dial in and that's it! You have much better control as everything is automatic and queries can be passed back to interviewers while they can still remember what you are asking them about.
For some years, increased competition has been driving down fieldwork revenues, despite demands from clients for evermore complex and demanding research projects. While CAPI-based fieldwork offers the scope to reduce costs through increased administrative efficiency, it also offers the potential to charge a premium rate, because enhanced services can be built into the offering. While the costs of purchasing over a thousand laptops was considerable, Infratest Burke has achieved a good return on its investment by combining cost reductions with premium pricing. In many instances, the agency has won business that otherwise would have passed it by because of the technology it now uses.
One such case is Infratest Burke's ‘EuroTracker' automotive study. This focuses on the sales and advertising of automobiles, including prestige, low volume vehicles such as sports cars and limousines. As the fieldwork is timed to coincide with ad campaigns, it must be carried out quickly — typically within 8 to 10 days. In the past, it was impossible to guarantee that all the low-incidence makes and models would be covered in sufficient detail. By the time the gaps had been identified, it was too late to do anything about it, as the ad campaigns were no longer playing.
Infratest Burke has used a combination of In2quest's in-built quota control and advanced telecommunications facilities to provide a complete solution to this problem. Interviewing is examined daily and success in covering each make and model is compared against the numbers required to achieve a complete spread. Automatically, priorities are adjusted and revised, instructions are sent to the interviewers for the next day. The authority and the value of the project has increased now that Infratest Burke can guarantee to cover even the most obscure models. Some custom programming around the In2quest software modules now means the whole process takes place with little manual intervention.
Dirk Hintreich head of Data Processing Production at Infratest Burke's Munich headquarters, was involved with the original decision to choose In2quest. He explained: "We looked at several other packages. In2quest was very attractive because of the very easy front end it had for programming and also because the communications tool was much further developed than any of the others."
Adopting a package with a graphical design tool to put together questionnaires was a radical departure for his department where CATI scripts are programmed in the Quancept language. Dirk can see advantages in both methods. While Quancept scriptwriters are able to write very complex CATI interviews quickly and accurately, newer members of the team take to In2quest faster. He commented: "Our older scriptwriters used to scripting prefer writing a language. The younger ones that come in from university are much more used to using objects on the computer and not typing everything in — using drag and drop. For newer people it is much easier and the advantages are then much more evenly balanced. The name says it all — it is much more intuitive."
Using CAPI means that Infratest Burke can now turn round projects in much less time — a typical custom research project is completed in two weeks rather than three when working on paper. Even more dramatic savings have been achieved in fieldwork administration. By using In2quest's built-in electronic communications to replace all routine contact between interviewers and fieldwork, thousands of phone calls are saved every year. It all adds up to an estimated saving of some 70% over fieldwork administration tasks, freeing supervisors to concentrate more completely on quality control activities.
All the interviewers have printers at home so they can print show cards and other materials. Dirk explained, "We try to do everything via our modems. Sending out a new study takes about two hours work — the interviewers dial in and that's it! You have much better control as everything is automatic and queries can be passed back to interviewers while they can still remember what you are asking them about. We have developed a mailing system where we can send feedback to interviewers about mistakes and other points such as future appointments all using the In2quest software. They have a special interview they can call up to pass queries on to the fieldwork controllers. The answers are passed back next time they dial in. It was crucial to make the interviewers communicate electronically and not by the phone. Compared to all the physical effort that used to be involved, this is where a lot of time is saved."
Worldwide Offices | Communications | Site Map | Contact Us | Terms and Conditions | Privacy Policy
© 2010 SPSS Inc., an IBM Company All rights reserved.
SPSS Inc., an IBM Company Headquarters, 233 S. Wacker Drive, 11th floor
