Special International Research · Research
little more than 30 years ago, in the afternoon of June 15, 1989, iI boarded a train and travelled from Debrecen to Budapest. The next day was the ceremonial burial of the heroes of the Hungarian Revolution of ’56, in Heroes’ Square. At just 11 years I was old enough to fully appreciate the significance of such an event, I knew it would be a historic day. This was a once in a lifetime experience which would have a great influence on me. There were 250,000 people there, in silence, in dignity. The crowd filled and continued along Andrássy Avenue, as the vast majority of the country followed the events on TV.
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surveys. Necessary, for example, when household-level data is to be collected and then different household members surveyed separately using information which is already known at the household level. Effective database connectivity is also via a company’s BI system – a common requirement in 2019. Connecting to, writing to, and reading an SQL database requires a high level of expertise, even when projects use a suitable software (in our case, the tool is Askia, whose development team we keep close contact with, as with other teams). It is clear that such systems can only be effectively built and maintained if there is 100% understanding of the project and the business objective.
The Future – in Our Hands
Keeping Up with Changing Market Needs
That day was especially important because we knew that if the truth of the Revolution of 1956 was declared publicly, the old system would come to an end and a new one would begin. Our future was in our hands: here was our chance to rejoin the European mainstream. A few weeks later, with the spirit of liberation in the air, along with the open border, our family could visit Germany on holiday. In the evenings, we watched German TV news reporting from the Hungarian-Austrian border where East German citizens were trying and succeeding to get to Austria and (West) Germany. For me, hearing the Hungarian interviewees was an interesting experience, while those around listened intently to the German translation. It was a wonderful time – but long, difficult years would follow.
Here is another example of a holistic approach to data visualization: If a well-functioning project has been running for years with a successfully established system and a satisfied customer, why develop it? With time, market needs change and so too do the functions and capabilities of the software, so we cannot miss the opportunity to improve our existing projects, as it means that we can then offer our users a new experience while also increasing efficiency. But to do this, it is essential to know the customer, the market and the software. With our extensive portfolio, we at DataExperts can always provide our clients with the right tools. This is also why we work a lot on data visualization with Dapresy, who are leading the way in continuous improvement and keeping up with changing market needs. Market research is continually evolving, with new trends appearing that not only software developers but also users need to keep pace with. Consider a three-year-old project, used by one of our clients daily. How can we offer our client something new when they use it every day and are satisfied with it? Having the knowledge and understanding of software and market trends plays a huge role here.
A Growth Environment Many years later – in 2006 and 2007 – and fueled by such experiences, Zoltán and I started building DataExpert. We knew our place was among the best in Europe and we would have to work very hard to get there. After such an uplifting period comes the daily struggle; where the values of Europeanism, freedom, and professionalism must be upheld by our young community of colleagues, born in the 1990s and who take working in a growth environment for granted. How can we carry this on today at DataExpert, one of Europe’s leading operations companies? What can we give our customers, be they European or global players? Thanks to the growth of recent years, adopting a holistic approach has been a key value which we enforce in every project.
Holism – the DataExpert Way It means that when working with customers we need to understand the business challenge as a whole, as well as the entire process leading us to a solution. But an indirect consequence of this is that we have one of the widest software portfolios among ops companies – the 2019 Research & Results trade show serving as a great opportunity to get to hear more about that, from us and others. However, we don’t just focus on the means, but also on working effectively with our customers on our shared goal, thus enabling us to deliver high quality through multiple tools. To better illustrate this aspect of our business philosophy, I invited some of DataExpert’s senior colleagues to share a few examples. DataExpert has of late technically supported a number of jobs requiring a range of mixed mode methodologies for professional data collection; telephone, internet, and in-person access. On top of this, data was to be stored in a database which could be accessed through www.research-results.de
Providing Solutions There is a growing need for automated processes and DataExpert has extensive experience in this. Dapresy is also great here as it can download data directly through many different market research software products via API or FTP. Automation is more than just using the API, it also provides a solution to data processing and applying analytics (automatic data upload is in the more secure mode: no file sharing or emails are required). And, delivering the right information to the right person improves the user experience – results are available in real time so users can act faster. We also maximize efficiency with full collaboration between the DP team and the visualization department; working with quality data minimizes further work within the visualization software, whilst also speeding up setup and loading time. Having several scripting software options within the company is a great advantage as it allows us to provide the external DP team with specific plans to guarantee a successful result. It is also important to have a great personal relationship with the customer; it’s essential to know what the users are using and how they are using it, because only then can we provide them with more. For example, in some instances 5% of maintenance time could be replaced with a single question: “Are they actually using that feature?” And, in the case of a large or multi-module project, that 5% is very significant. esearch &
esults 5 · 2019
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