It’s not uncommon for market researchers to also participate in the technology development at their firm. Confirmit, a market research firm, polls those researchers in its Market Research Software Survey, to get feedback on emerging industry trends and the role technology is playing in companies across the industry. A recent survey identified some changes in reporting methods and how researchers were using software in these areas.

In a single year, Confirmit found significant shifts in the distribution methods being used for research reports. PowerPoint presentations remained the most popular over that period, but fell from being used in 56 percent of all projects to 48 percent. Microsoft Word documents, printed tabs, and Acrobat PDFs all declined as well. Online results delivery remained static, and interactive analysis—the only distribution method to increase in usage—rose slightly, from 8 to 10 percent. And while it appears that many researchers are using multiformat delivery, even that modality appears to be on the decline. Even though 52 percent of companies considered crosstab report production capabilities as essential, only 14 percent of companies actually used them.

Concerning researchers’ wishes for analysis and reporting tools, two main points seemed to emerge. First, 74 percent rated PowerPoint issues as one of their top three priorities, asking software developers to create some solution that would automate the process of having to manually manipulate imported data and charts into presentationquality material. Second, three-fifths of respondents assessed the state of online analysis tools to be unsatisfactory, and they were actively looking for alternate solutions to what was available. A smaller proportion, 38 percent, expressed a desire for better desktop analytical tools as a top-three priority as well.

Questions

1. Which distribution methods do you think would be most useful for research reports? Are some better suited for particular situations? Would you use multiformat delivery?

2. Have you used any software for generating research reports? How well did it work? What would be at the top of your wish list, based on your experience?