Ecorys taps Confirmit Horizons solution for market research work
Consultancy firm Ecorys has selected Confirmit Horizons as its platform to support its research and project work on behalf of central and local government, not-for-profit, and multi-national private sector clients across its international operations. Migration to the solution was completed earlier this month, with engagements conducted in over 100 countries making use of the new platform.
In order to help clients with the formulation and evaluation of social and economic programmes and policies – one of the firm’s key services – Ecorys’ experts need to survey people from various backgrounds and countries, using a wide range of data collection methods. They also need to be able to interrogate that data and provide customised reports, aimed at delivering sound analysis and supporting the decision-making processes of clients.
To facilitate the research and analysis process, Ecorys has implemented Confirmit Horizons – a solution of Confirmit, one of the world’s larger Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) vendors for voice of the customer (VoC) and market research solutions. The new solution, which went live in May, will enable Ecorys to develop, deploy, manage and report on multi-channel, multi-lingual research projects from a single, end-to-end platform and to scale capacity to meet project peaks as needed. It will have the ability to burst between 5,000 to 6,000 seats to conduct major annual surveys for 1-2 months each year.
“Adaptability is a very important quality for our clients. In order for us to provide a highly flexible and scalable service that is capable of meeting their changing needs, we needed to invest in a research platform that provides us with exactly the same qualities,” said Ray Lindley, Associate Director Policy and Research at Ecorys.
Key to the selection of Confirmit Horizons was its ability to offer CATI (Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing) and CAPI (Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing) data collection alongside online, mobile, SMS and paper-based methods, said Lindley. Other critical considerations were its easy-to-use survey authoring and programming capabilities, streamlined panel management and customisable reporting and dashboards.
Commenting on the partnership with the consulting firm, Tim Hannington, Excutive Vice President at Confirmit said: “We’re delighted to be supporting Ecorys. A single-system approach to research will undoubtedly enable Ecorys to streamline and centralise many aspects of the data collection, analysis and administrative processes behind the scenes and to encourage increased collaboration between research teams and clients at the same time.”
Lindley added that the firm’s research team is already benefitting from the “intuitive nature” of Confirmit Horizons, enabling staff with different skill sets to “design, conduct and deliver survey results quickly and easily.” He added, “There are no restrictions on our choice of data collection methods, we can create highly attractive surveys that drive response rates and can offer a superior survey experience for respondents which is essential for policy and programme development. The research service enables to focus on the consultative nature of our work.”
Other clients that use Confirmit’s Horizons solution include Aurora, British Airways, British Standards Institution, Copart, Dow Chemical, GfK, GlaxoSmithKline, Nielsen, Research Now, RS Components, QRS, Sony, and Swisscom.
