The State of Sourcing

In one of my posts titled ‘Recession in market research industry: Pandemic or Infodemic?’, we looked at how the recession has affected the market research industry and what are the possible ways companies would like to re-invent themselves and keep the cash registers full: Ka-ching!!

As per a report by Morgan Stanley, out of the certain areas in research (viz insights, market research, etc.), insights has been one area whose revenues have been largely hit. Insights require high end analytical tools and a consultative approach which companies around the world would rather avoid at the time being, due to budgetary constraints. On the other hand, research companies around the world have been innovating through their use of methodologies and tools to come up with new online survey methods. The use of social media and online tools has  in a way helped research companies keep their data collection costs in check.

Continue reading ‘Real time updates: Companies want to know now!’ »

The booming Islamic finance (Shari’ah banking) industry is spreading across geographies and has seen its presence increase from a handful of countries to more than 75 countries. Changing norms and innovations to offer something more to the customers presents opportunities for IT and BPO companies to tap into a niche market within the BFSI sector.

Along with countries in the Middle East, the South East Asian tropical country of Malaysia has seen phenomenal growth and popularity in Islamic finance services. Add to that, the growing IT/ITeS industry and Malaysia’s success in becoming one of the preferred outsourcing destinations offers domestic and international IT/ITeS companies a chance to grab on to the first mover’s advantage.

Continue reading ‘Islamic finance: Outsourcing or Insourcing??’ »

A “tweet tweet” here and a “tweet tweet” there, here a “tweet”, there a “tweet”, everywhere a “tweet tweet”! Since its inception in 2006, Twitter which is now being called the SMS of the internet has now become a worldwide phenomenon. A social networking and a micro-blogging technique (as quoted by media), twitters are being used by every Tom, Dick and Harry to celebrities ranging from actors to sports personalities to businessmen. So discussions (or as they are called tweets) range from what an individual person is doing/thinking/wanting to do to voicing their opinions about product/service/issue/likes/dislikes……In short, what can be done on Twitter is anyone’s guess. Boundaries are unlimited, except for the character limit of 140

Most importantly, companies around the world are using Twitter to track consumer responses about their company’s product/services or about any feedback related to a company’s website, logo or even the paint on the company’s HQ office building. Although tweets are unsorted comments posted by any one around the world, a collective feedback is largely valuable for companies to understand the ground realities of their online presence.

Continue reading ‘Hear your customer's tweet!’ »

The usability of Digital TV or Direct-to-Home (DTH) services is now not just restricted to being a channel service provider. With an aim to become as interactive as possible, DTH service providers have been tying up with various internet websites and re-writing the very definition of ‘convenience’ for its customers. From ordering movies and pizza at the touch of your button (and a debit from your bank account) to booking travel tickets, jobs or even your better half, digital TV is really trying to do it all!

The first stage of innovation was the introduction of personalized channels, with the customer being able to select channels as per his/her liking. This was followed by interactive channels where customers got to see stats and other data points related to their program offerings (e.g. cricket score card and other statistics shown during games). With the development in technology, the digital services providers have now become a medium to order services with tie ups with Pizza Hut, Bharat Matrimony, Yatra.com and the like. With the advantage of being connected to individual users through satellite, digital services have an abundance of services that they can branch out to offer, to a point where actual TV programs may be long forgotten!

Continue reading ‘Digitally Connected!’ »

Over the last few years, there has been a trend among Indian service providers to build complementary capabilities by acquiring smaller publishing service companies in the US. Naturally, the all-time-low valuations have helped seal deals faster for service providers, who are looking to complete the missing piece of ‘high-value content’ in the end-to-end service provider puzzle.

Some of the recent acquisitions include: Continue reading ‘Small and niche – make a good fit’ »

“Ringing someone’s phone without warning and asking if they have 20 minutes to spend with you flies in the face of everything that’s going on in the world today. I barely have 20 minutes to spend with my daughter.” Says Jay Leve, CEO of polling firm SurveyUSA.

According to him, recorded telephone survey has proven to be a successful method of data aggregation. However Jay lays down some critical points which makes him believe that data aggregation through telephone surveys would pose a different challenge in the coming future.
Continue reading ‘Telephonic and Online Surveys: Next is What?’ »

The H1N1 virus has created a hubbub since the time it has hit India. With the number of deaths rising in the country, people are doing all that they can to keep the flu away, be it following the doctor’s advise or new found belief in grandma’s home-made flu-be-gone concoctions! Companies around the globe have reacted in a similar fashion to the recession -

• Either following the traditional route entailing cost cutting, laying off employees, curbing marketing budgets or
• looking at a solution that would not only help curb costs but also facilitate revenue growth.

Continue reading ‘Recession in market research industry: Pandemic or Infodemic?’ »

Of all the things I look forward to before the end of the current decade, India’s Unique ID (UID) project led by former co-chairman of Infosys, Nandan Nilekani, stands out (and stands tall). The task at hand is enormous and who better than Nandan Nilekani to lead the way.

We’ve always known about social security numbers in the US and I used to think how cool it would be to have something like that in India. The natural extension to this is to wonder how the government will be able to reach out to all parts of India and in what manner. Well, now I think my questions will be answered within the next one year! Considering the redundancies and huge amounts of paperwork that the UID will help to do away with, one also considers the amount of data that would be required to execute the herculean project.

We would definitely be saving our time filling out the KYC forms in banks or any lengthy registration forms, for that matter. We would see various government agencies coming ahead to help the government to incorporate data points within the ID which would eventually help streamline processes across the country.

Continue reading ‘'U'nique-ID 'S'olution 'P'roposed’ »

With every passing festival, I seem to be getting more and more promotional offers and investment tips. I discussed this with my dad who has been in the banking industry for more than 30 years. He told me that 10-15 years ago, you would have been lucky if you received your bank statement on time.

We have seen the banking industry change over a course of time along with its operations. A distinctive change in its approach to customers has not only made me happy as a customer but has also intrigued me as to why it took so long. Banks which always made you stand in line for every small request now build policies so that customers can stay at home and seamlessly access their accounts online/telephonically.

As we all know, one of the driving forces for the change in the way the banks operate is the evolution of technology and the role it has played in the banking industry.
First wave of technological change saw the introduction of ATM machines which spared us the agony of standing in lines and waiting for your number to ping on the red LED screen to take out money from your own account. Once ATM machines started performing a host of functions (right from cash withdrawal to cheque deposits to bank statements), we saw the introduction of online banking. With the increase in the number of internet users and online security norms, people have found online banking as a boon in the world where 24 hours never seem to be enough.

Continue reading ‘Banking on analytics’ »

Quality of work, data security and cultural differences are the key concerns for companies offshoring their market research activities. This is one of the findings of a research study by ValueNotes titled, “Market Research Outsourcing – Buyer Survey”.

Quality of work and data security are concerns for all services that are being offshored, including data collection, data processing, data analysis & analytics, report writing, panel services and project management.
Interestingly, a discussion with a senior manager of a global market research firm revealed an interesting fact echoed by other full service research companies and field work and tabulation companies. According to him, clients prefer to outsource data collection work to local companies.

To illustrate, a Singaporean client would get skeptical about offshoring his Computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) process to a company in India who would be calling guys in Singapore and Hong Kong for information on their shopping preferences.

Continue reading ‘Cultural differences keeping data collection clients at bay’ »