FocusVision offers free privacy agreements; enhances videostreaming service

In response to increasing concerns about privacy compliance and a lack of clear guidelines, Stamford, Conn., research firm FocusVision Worldwide created three sample privacy agreements and is offering them to the market research community through its Web site at www.focusvision.com (click on the Web Services tab). The agreements include: respondent participation (an agreement to be signed by respondents before participating in any interview; lists respondent rights and responsibilities when participating in a focus group); intent of use (describes conditions upon which one party is transferring confidential information to another party - examples include video or audio recordings, respondent information and documents); non-disclosure (should be signed by employees or any other persons who may be exposed to or possess confidential information).

Separately, FocusVision has launched 2-Channel Audio, a new feature of its videostreaming service to be used on projects that involve a translator. Viewers can choose between hearing the translator’s voice or the native language by selecting their preference. Available upon request, 2-Channel Audio is offered at no additional cost.

Service uses employee surveys to measure corporate health

Invoke Solutions, a Waltham, Ma., research firm, and EMERGE International, a Cave Creek, Ariz., consulting firm, have partnered to deliver a new assessment tool to help a business measure the health of its organizational culture. The product, called CHI LIVE, uses Invoke’s real-time researching platform and EMERGE International’s Cultural Health Indicator (CHI) methodology to deliver insights about an organization’s cultural health. The CHI measures seven dimensions of organizational culture and evaluates issues related to employee engagement, satisfaction and motivation levels. Its methodology allows senior management to assess their organizational culture, formulate action plans and implement changes needed to support their strategic goals. Using Invoke’s research platform, employees are engaged anonymously in live feedback sessions with a CHI LIVE moderator during which they provide quantitative and qualitative responses in an interactive environment. Because the sessions are live, management teams can also participate by watching results as they unfold and inserting additional questions in real time if unforeseen topics and/or issues arise. For more information visit www.invoke.com/chilive .

Audio file transcriptions from ASDE

Quebec-based ASDE Survey Sampler, Inc. is now offering an audio file transcription service. The firm built a network of independent freelance transcriptionists and offers the service in English, French and Spanish. Audio files are received either as e-mail attachments or through a download from the client’s site. Each project is managed through software which allows ASDE to: register and manage all the files of a project; send out the audio files one by one to each member of the network of transcriptionists, who transcribe the audio into text in a telework setting; verify the results to ensure quality control during the transcription process (a second verification is conducted immediately before delivery); return to the client an actionable file containing each audio file’s name with the attendant transcribed text. For more information visit www.surveysampler.com .

New packaging research service from AcuPOLL

Cincinnati research firm AcuPOLL is now offering Packaging Optimizer, which provides a holistic view of packaging options and is designed to help clients understand the total appeal of their packaging options including breakthrough potential, equity impact, benefit and feature communication and emotional connection. Packaging Optimizer can be used to screen packaging graphics, structure design, names, logos, brand identity and shelf sets. AcuPOLL provides companies with recommendations based on the data presented from each study. For more information visit www.acupoll.com .

E-Tabs, Pulse Train collaborate on Web-based survey tool

U.K.-based research firms E-Tabs and Pulse Train have integrated their products the E-Tabs Reader and Pulsar Web. Pulsar Web is a Web-based survey analysis tool. The forthcoming release of Pulsar Web (version 3.16) incorporates full support for the E-Tabs suite of reporting products with no intervening import/export or reformatting steps required.

The E-Tabs Professional Reader is a productivity tool for researchers (both supplier and client-side) designed to maximize their use of and access to quantitative research tables. By replacing traditional tabs with a flexible electronic E-Tabs version, researchers can disseminate research analysis among clients and colleagues, check tables for accuracy, collaborate and directly transfer key data into their Excel, Word or PowerPoint reports and presentations.

The integration of Pulsar Web and the E-Tabs Reader allows for instant charting and reporting with E-Tabs’s Enterprise solution. Users may take their previously-created tables, generated in Pulsar Web, and with a couple of clicks, see their preferred PowerPoint presentation updated with the correct figures. The E-Tabs Lite reader is a free download; the Professional version offers advanced capabilities. For more information visit www.e-tabs.com or www.pulsetrain.com/solutions/application/pulsar_web.htm .

Zoomerang offers employee survey resources

San Francisco-based Zoomerang announced new Employee Survey Services and an Employee Survey Resource Center designed to help companies and organizations develop, distribute and manage employee surveys globally. The new Employee Survey Services include confidential survey distribution to help organizations survey employees and increase survey participation rates as well as the quality of employee feedback. The Zoomerang Services Team, acting as a third party, sends out employee surveys, thereby allowing for anonymous feedback.

Zoomerang offers employee survey templates, programming and translation services, providing best practices in creating effective and comprehensive employee surveys. Zoomerang’s Employee Survey Resource Center provides customers with tools, technical resources and survey examples and can be found at www.employeesurveyresource.com .

SurveyGold 7.0 from Golden Hills Software

Golden Hills Software, Inc., Colorado Springs, Colo., has released SurveyGold version 7.0, an upgrade of its Windows-based survey application. The firm is also offering SurveyGold 7.0 Professional Edition, a collaborative surveying solution that allows surveys and results to be shared amongst a geographically distributed community of interest.

Surveys authored with SurveyGold Pro can be exported and subsequently imported by any other SurveyGold user, allowing surveys to be authored centrally and distributed remotely. SurveyGold Pro surveys are distributable to any other SurveyGold Pro 7.0 or SurveyGold 7.0 user. Survey results collected by SurveyGold Pro users can be exported and shared with other Pro users, allowing results from remotely-conducted surveys to be centrally gathered for reporting and analysis purposes.

Other new 7.0 features include a compact user interface with a full-featured spell-checker that supports 12 languages, support for ranking questions, improved Web survey form and confirmation style consistency, and other enhancements and usability improvements.

SurveyGold also provides custom Web formatting of colors and fonts, Web survey responses submitted using secure socket layers (SSL), and enhancements when filtering survey results. Additionally, this version lets users publish Web results in a browser and offers enhanced filtering of results and improved processing of Web survey responses. SurveyGold supports printed and telephone surveys as well as surveys on the Internet. Users can create an unlimited number of questions, responses and respondents for each survey.

For users who are printing and distributing a questionnaire, it can be imported into Microsoft Word or any word processor for customization and printing. In addition to supporting printed questionnaire forms and telephone surveys, SurveyGold supports creating and implementing surveys on the Internet.

The software lets users view survey results in full-color 3-D pie, bar and line charts. Data can be mined by drilling down on the charts to examine the results in more detail. SurveyGold’s filtering capabilities let users segment data and discover relationships between responses. For more information visit www.surveygold.com .

Monitor Software updates MarketSight

Monitor Software, Cambridge, Mass., has released MarketSight 5.0, a research data analysis application that enables business users and market researchers to analyze research data and find insights needed to make business decisions. MarketSight offers a collaborative, Web-based interface and self-service approach that allows users to analyze quantitative research and iteratively explore data as new questions and hypotheses emerge. In addition to usability enhancements, other new capabilities include: interactive banner runs; support for tracking studies; statistical test automation and optimization; an automated variable creation process for “top box” and other common groupings; expanded export capabilities and homepage and navigation improvements. For more information visit www.monitorsoftware.com .

New Asian online panel

London-based media firm MindShare and Pulse Group, an Australia-based research process outsourcing company, have joined forces to design mPulse, a pan-Asian online research panel study. MPulse will track consumer media trends, habits, perceptions and attitudes toward a variety of time-sensitive issues, both quantitatively and qualitatively. It will also produce both longitudinal and latitudinal insights utilizing Pulse Group’s proprietary online panels, Planet Pulse, as well as using qualitative vehicles such as Pulse Blogs. For more information visit www.pulse-group.com or www.mindshareworld.com .

Measure celebrity influence on purchase intent

Dallas research firm i.think inc. is now offering a celebrity evaluation index for brand marketers and ad agencies that determines a celebrity’s ability to influence consumer purchase intent. Created in partnership with consulting firm Davie-Brown Entertainment, the Davie-Brown Index (DBI) is compiled and managed by i.think inc. based on quarterly surveys from its online research panel. More than 1,500 celebrities are included in the index. It evaluates celebrities based on eight attributes: appeal, notice, trendsetting, influence, trust, endorsement, aspiration and awareness. DBI scores on any of the 1,500 celebrities in the pool are immediately available via online access. In addition, celebrities not part of the 1,500 pool can be indexed within 48 hours via i.think inc.’s online research capabilities through an add-on service called DBI Express. All data is nationally balanced based on census demographics with an error range of ± 3 percentage points. For more information visit www.dbireport.com or www.ithinkinc.com .

BuzzBack approach measures reactions to non-verbal stimuli

BuzzBack Market Research, New York, has released Imagic Response, an online consumer research technology platform developed to enable product developers, brand managers and others to tap a consumer’s subconscious to better understand their attitudes, emotions and what motivates their buying behaviors. Using the platform, survey participants react to a new product, brand design or concept theme through non-verbal stimuli including images, sounds and video.

One survey tool using the Imagic Response platform is BuzzBack’s eCollage. With eCollage, participants create a multimedia collage of how a new product, concept or brand makes them feel, how it inspires and energizes them. These multimedia collages act as a catalyst to reveal personal feelings, memories and emotions which respondents can then describe in words through personal, associative meaning. Follow-up questions on why the participants selected a certain image or arranged them in a particular way can help reveal further associative meaning. In the final report, the client can view the collages individually via an online gallery. In addition, reporting includes key quantitative data, such as: how many images are selected by respondents, the most frequent images used, locations of images in the overall collage, etc. These can be crosstabulated and further analyzed with other survey data, such as demographics or purchase behavior. For more information visit www.buzzback.com .

New version of virtual focus group environment

Artafact, a Fremont, Calif., research firm, has released a new version of its virtual focus group environment.   The new release includes improvements to the software’s built-in drawing tools, which allow participants to show researchers what they mean in addition to telling them. It also provides improved ease of use, enhanced security features and toll-free international calling for Artafact tele-Web sessions. The new client portal is now a personal, branded meeting room - Artafact clients can bring research participants into a session by way of a page that features their logo and hyperlinks to the corporate Web site. For Artafact clients that are research firms, this integrates with the rest of the firm’s offerings. For more information visit www.artafact.com .

Measure loyalty by asking one question

QuestionPro, a Seattle research firm, announced a new feature designed to enable businesses to calculate customer loyalty. The feature is based on a methodology discussed in the book The Ultimate Questionby loyalty expert Fred Reichheld, which postulates that knowing a customer’s answer to the question “Would you recommend us to a friend?” can help companies determine whether they are heading in the right direction. QuestionPro has introduced a feature that automatically creates this type of methodology and incorporates answers into a report that shows users what percentages of customers are “promoters” and “detractors” and then calculates the score. For more information visit www.questionpro.com/the-ultimate-question/ .

Qualview uses Webcam interface

20/20 Research, Inc., a Nashville, Tenn., marketing research firm, is now offering Qualview, an online program that lets researchers interact with consumers over the Internet in real time. Qualview uses a Webcam interface for virtual interviewing of respondents, who participate on their own computers from home. This interface provides researchers with visual cues such as facial expressions, movement and gestures, in addition to the convenience of online participation. The software allows researchers to show images of advertisements, Web sites and PowerPoint presentations during the interview. A “white board” can be offered, allowing participants and moderators to “draw” on the stimuli. Clients can monitor the entire interview and communicate with the moderator during the interview without the participant’s knowledge. The entire interview is saved on a secure server for clients, allowing access for referring to the interview at a later time. For more information visit www.2020research.com .

Briefly

The Results Network, Inc., Harrisburg, Pa., has opened a new qualitative research facility featuring an in-house Webcasting system. Housed in a 100,000-square-foot building with a new concept called a communications mall, the facility offers clients access to services such as production, graphics, management consulting, marketing communications and PR - all located in one place. For more information contact Lori Aulenbach at 717-526-4601 or visit www.theresultsnetwork.com .

India-based data processing firm Dexterity and U.S.-based Megaputer Intelligence Inc. have partnered to offer PolyAnalyst, a suite of data mining tools. PolyAnalyst incorporates abilities in automated knowledge discovery to analyze both structured and unstructured data. The platform is an end-to-end analytical solution - from data importing, cleaning, manipulation and visualization to modeling, scoring and reporting. For more information visit www.megaputer.com .

Seattle research firm Global Market Insite, Inc. has launched Research Analyzer, a desktop analysis, reporting and publishing tool. Without any scripting knowledge, market researchers as well as marketing managers can import very large datasets from various sources, generate complex crosstabs with up to two million respondent records, and publish real-time, presentation-ready reports using Research Analyzer’s drag-and-drop feature. For more information visit www.researchanalyzer.com.

Orem, Utah-based data collection firm Western Wats has debuted its Opinion Outpost Internet panel. For more information visit www.opinionoutpost.com .

The U.K.-based Independent Consultants Group (ICG) is now offering a search tool on its www.indepconsultants.org site called Find A Consultant which helps buyers of market research locate ICG members - research consultants based mostly in the U.K. - in a variety of niche industries.

New York-based research firm Ipsos is offering the Ipsos Minute on its Web site, which features one-minute streaming videos and two-page Q&A sessions with practice leaders and subject matter experts from Ipsos member companies in North America. The first Ipsos Minute is titled “New Technologies: The Move Toward Radical Personalization” and deals with the increasing control people want to have over their media content. For more information visit www.ipsosinsight.com/IpsosMinute/default.aspx .