For more information: Call: 1-800-447-3269 E-mail: info-ncs@pearson.com Survey.PearsonAssessments.com

What to Consider When Outsourcing A Survey Project

Outsourcing is a valuable resource in many industries for successfully delivering on short-term, specialized projects—without stretching your staff to the breaking point. Survey projects are certainly no exception.

Selecting the right survey vendor is probably the single most important step in a successful outsourcing engagement. Consider the following:

1. Why Do You Want To Outsource The Survey?

Even companies with internal survey staff frequently need to use outside experts to get answers. The reason to use an external vendor varies but we find they generally revolve around:

Assessing the scope of the project (large sample or multi-region) – You may have the internal resources for a small survey project but need to bring in an outside vendor for a large, complex project.

Avoiding bias – Selecting an outside firm helps you assure that the data is not skewed by internal bias. Internal resources may be predisposed, inadvertently or not, in seeing a particular result. Using an outside firm helps avoid biased results.

Requiring expertise beyond what you or your staff can do internally. For example, extensive modeling or specialized methodologies.

Controlling capital expenditure. Saving money may not be the only reason to outsource, but it's certainly a major factor. Outsourcing converts fixed costs into variable costs, releases capital for investment elsewhere in your business, and allows you to avoid large expenditures in the early stages of your business. And outsourcing may enable you to direct more of your capital into revenue-generating activities.

Increasing efficiency. Companies that try to do everything themselves often have much higher expenses, slower response times, and can find themselves spending too much energy and mind share on peripheral tasks. An outside provider's existing infrastructure and economies of scale can give your organization an important competitive advantage.

Reducing labor costs. Hiring and training staff for short-term or one-time projects can be very expensive; and temporary employees don't always measure up to needs and expectations. Outsourcing lets you focus your human resources and talent where you need them most.

Starting new projects quickly. A good outsourcing firm has the resources to start a project right away. Handling the same project in-house might take weeks or months to research and evaluate options, purchase and install equipment and technology, hire the right people, train them, and provide support to everyone involved. And if a project requires major capital investments (such as purchasing and installing computer hardware and software, or developing software systems internally), then the startup process can be even more difficult.

Focusing on your core business. Every business has limited resources, and every manager has limited time and attention. Outsourcing can help your business avoid shifting its focus to peripheral, non-core activities, and instead maintain focus on core competencies, your areas of expertise and specialty, and the work that serves your customers most.

Leveling the playing field. Most small businesses and individuals can't afford to match the in-house support services and infrastructure that larger companies–or companies dedicated to providing a specific service–maintain. Outsourcing can help small businesses act 'big' by giving them access to similar economies of scale, efficiency and expertise that large companies enjoy.

Reducing risk. Every business investment carries a certain amount of risk. Markets, competition, government regulations, financial conditions and technologies all change very quickly. Outsourcing providers assume and manage much of this risk for you, and they generally are much better at deciding how to avoid risk in their areas of expertise.

2. What Is Their Commitment To Quality?

This may sound obvious, but you will want to see tangible ways that the vendor is committed to quality. An investment in quality products and services shows a commitment to the customer. You do not want to make an investment with a company that does not stand behind and take pride in their products. Anything less than total commitment, is a red flag for your project.

Questions to Ask:

• Do they hire experienced staff?
• What kind of ongoing training to they do?
• How much do they invest in technology?
• Do they survey their existing clients?
• Do they certify their staff or processes?
• Do they follow a formal quality program?

3. What Is Their Primary Expertise And Level Of Experience?

Your survey is important and you want an experienced vendor. Proven experience can provide you a level of security in choosing your vendor, but the expertise they can bring to the table can be immeasurable. Since you are considering outsourcing the project, it's possible you don’t have the extensive knowledge about survey design and implementation that a seasoned vendor brings to the table. They may have an idea or solution you never thought of and may find valuable. It may, in fact, be the main success factor for your project.

Experience

• Project Team - Have they been with this company long? Are they familiar with your industry and/or have they worked on similar projects? What type of formal research training do they have?
• Project History - Has this company worked on this type of project before? A field service firm may have enough interviewers for a project, but may not be experienced in more advanced methodologies.
• Industry Experience - Does this vendor work with other companies in your industry? You may or may not need this industry experience, depending on your internal resources, but if you do it should be identified in the selection process.

The point in hiring an outside vendor for a survey project is to tap into the vendor's expertise. Therefore, it makes little sense to demand that potential vendors conduct a study the same way you would if it were an internal project.

4. What Are Your Budget Requirements?

Most vendors, once you have viewed their recommendations, will be willing to discuss budget issues if you feel their bids are out of your range. Likewise, you should be willing to tailor your questions, sample sizes, and topics according to your available budget.

For example, a tight budget probably won’t work with an 8-page mail survey. You want your survey to be a success so be realistic in your expectations. Work with your vendor to reduce the size and complexity of your survey, without compromising the results you need.

5. What Are Your Survey Specifications?

Prior to selecting a vendor, you should have an idea of your survey specifications. A good way to start identifying what you want to survey is to work backwards. Define what results would give you the best information and tailor your specifications around those results.

Questions to ask:

• Who is the target audience (gender, age, job title/responsibility, product usage, etc.)?
• Where do you want the study conducted (local, regional, national, global, etc.)?
• What would you like to ask them (sample questions)?

6. What Is Your Timing For The Survey?

Consider the following:

• When do you expect to start the study?
• Have you established all timelines and milestones?
• Is the vendor able to accommodate your timing needs?
• Do any constraints exist that require specific timing (i.e. around advertising campaigns, staff not being available, etc.)?
• When will the results be required and in what format (i.e. top-line, draft, formal report or presentation)?
• Do you have long-term requirements? If so, is the vendor established and reliable?

7. Does The Vendor Assign A Project Manager Or One Point Of Contact?

It can be difficult as well as detrimental to the project if you are passed to three different people every time you call. To avoid this it is important to have one point of contact, preferably a project manager dedicated to your survey. Try to avoid the sales representative being your sole contact. Project managers have more hands-on experience and can pinpoint problem areas due to their experience.

Look for project managers that:

• Are responsible for the definition and implementation of the project.
• Will be the central contact for the client.
• Communicate and respond proactively to resolve any issues and initiates the involvement of any additional resources.
• Lead the internal project team, which includes a representative from each functional area. The team should work together to deliver the project specifications.
• Supervise forms and materials printing, distribution, receiving, scanning, and reporting, and provides the data to the client in a timely manner.
• Identify when service requirements change, documenting changes and corresponding fee adjustments in a written change of scope.

8. What Is Their Reputation and Can You Call References?

References are a good way to evaluate a firm, but keep in mind that most vendors will give you names of firms that will say mostly positive things. It is always a good practice to ask specifically for references of firms similar to your own.

Knowing that references will most likely give positive responses, it is also effective to question your potential vendor about their reputation. You can learn a lot and find the information valuable. Years of experience and long-term customers are always a good sign.

Questions to ask the vendor include:

• How long have they been in business?
• How are their financials?
• How many current customers do they have?
• How many surveys do they process annually?
• What is the average size of their survey projects? What is the size range that they typically work within? Do they have any large-scale survey experience?
• What is their longest customer relationship?
• Have they done prior work for your company?
• Do they have similar project in similar industries?
• What is their quality process?

9. Scope of Resources

When choosing a survey vendor, you are trusting that they will be able to deliver on your project. You need to make sure they can meet your needs for the foreseeable future and that you are selecting a vendor that will back up what they promise.

If your prospective vendor can not answer the following questions with ease, you should question their reliability.

• Do they have adequate staff for this project? Can they ramp up their staff quickly, if needed?
• What is their disaster recovery plan?
• What technology are they using?
• Can they handle the volume or complexity of your project? Do they have experience with large-scale projects? Can they give an example of a complex survey that they have implemented?
• What is their backup plan for data? What is their backup plan for equipment failures?
• What level of security do they offer for the facility and the data? Find out from Procesing Services what their current secutiyu status is.
  

10. Data Analysis and Reporting

In the end, the reason you conducted the survey is for the response data. It is the time when you get the information you were seeking and make decisions. You should decide what services you are looking for from your vendor regarding analysis and reporting. You may want to do the analysis yourself or have the vendor offer some analysis and recommendations. At the very least we find that all of our customers want to be able to filter the data and display results in a variety of formats to maximize your findings.

Most survey services offer basic data reporting. This gives you a look at the data but does not allow for further analysis. We find that simple reporting of data is not enough. Organizations want to take different looks at their data to answer questions that arise during analysis. You want to ask your vendor what reporting and analysis options are available for your project. If they only offer stagnant reports without the ability to request ad hoc or further analysis, you should move on.

At the minimum you should see a variety of analysis choices and the further option of a stronger analytics package, if needed. At Pearson NCS, we find that our OLAP tool, Consilio, meets most statistical needs, but we also offer the following analytic methods:

Frequency Variance Minimum Sum Maximum Skewness

Range Kurtosis Mean Confidence Median Correlation

Mode Chi-Square Standard Deviation Confidence Significance

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For more information: Call: 1-800-447-3269 E-mail: info-ncs@pearson.com Survey.PearsonAssessments.com

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