Cross tab webinar gold standards in outsourcing

Welcome – About the Cross-Tab Webinar Series

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Cross-Tab Webinar Series is designed to update research professionals with trends and issues within the Market Research industry

Address a wide scope of topics from evolving the role of market research within corporations, to developing successful research engagements, to quality of research to making outsourcing engagements work

Will draw on the breadth of experience of our team as well as invite guest speakers and industry experts

Will always attempt to make the webinars engaging and stimulating

Today’s topic:

“Developing Gold Standards for Outsourced Relationships”

© 2013 Cross-Tab. All Rights Reserved

• Cross-Tab is the only market research company on the Fortune ranking of Global Top 100 Outsourcing Companies (3 years in a row)

• Cross-Tab is one of the fastest growing knowledge services company in India according to Deloitte (3 years in a row)

• Ranked as Number 1 Market Research Outsourcer

• Red Herring Asia winner

• Founded in 2000, Cross-Tab is an India-based pioneer offering market research solutionsto clients across the globe

• The first and most prominent online research company in India

• Deep global research operations knowledge

• A strong and seasoned global management team with world class research expertise (Seattle, New York, Bangalore, Mumbai)

• 350+ professionals in the team

• Deep and growing relationships with marquee clients

• High Customer Satisfaction leading to 95% repeat business

• Strong technology orientation towards capability in innovative research solutions/packagescustomized to client needs

An Overview of Cross-Tab

3© 2013 Cross-Tab. All Rights Reserved

Primary Market Research

Business Analysis and Secondary Research

Data Mining and Advanced Analytics

Research Innovations

§ Over 1.5 million surveys last year WW in over 40 countries and 18+ languages

§ Deep expertise and partnerships with global panels

§ Sample and tool agnostic

§ Strong experience in managing large MR process outsourcing engagements

§ Over 100 projects in the past year

§ Experienced 40 member team

§ Access to industry research and databases

§ Ability to productize BI/CI offerings

§ Over 150 projects in the past year

§ Deep expertise and experience in mining survey and transactional data

§ Ability to gain business meaning from data

§ Experienced 50 member team of analysts

§ Café Cross-Tab§ Panel solutions (BRIC and custom panels)§ Blog-mining§ Mobile survey platform§ Mobile metering

Cross-Tab’s Core Service Offering


Recent Trends in Market Research Outsourcing

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Disaggregation of Market Research Services

Corporations are increasingly pulling in best-of-breed suppliers (design and insight, operations, sampling, reporting /visualization)

Multi-vendor engagements are becoming more common

Material Benefits Lead to Increasing Commitment Towards Outsourcing

Research companies are increasing the quantity and scope of work being outsourced

Benefits in terms of cost savings, capacity increases and ability to offer new services

World Class Processes From Outsourced Suppliers

The focus on quality has led outsourcers to develop world class practices to ensure consistency and quality, many are not present anywhere else in the world


Key Drivers for Outsourcing in 2010

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Taking out costs from the system

Providing increasing value to clients through consistent high-quality services

Ability to deploy scarce resources in critical (client-facing) areas

Substantially decrease turnaround time, become more nimble, agile and a better partner to the business

Reduction in management burden, while still holding decision making power

Continue to benefit from the latest advances in technology

Build the capability to experiment and try out ideas with a very low cost of failure


…what does it take to deliver on these strategic drivers

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There are many factors which come into play but some a critical to establishing a successful outsourcing engagement,

Desire to Make it Work

Developing a Robust Approach

Operational Excellence; and

Trust to Overcome Hurdles

Essentially build and deploy the “Gold Standards of Outsourcing”


Building the Gold Standard Relationship


Shared Goals

Ramping Up

Playbooks

Operational Excellence

Conditions of Success

Impact to Client’s business§ End-client satisfaction

§ Increased capacity to handle work; ability to focus on executing core growth strategy

§ Cost Savings

Jointly Defining the Goals

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Customer Satisfaction (Build long-lasting relationships)§ Project feedback from client teams

§ Customer Satisfaction scores at overall relationship level

Quality (Service execution quality)§ Establish and monitor quality goals – survey

programming, sample management, etc.§ Monitor feedback from client§ Identification and action on key pain points

Employee Satisfaction § Ability to attract and retain the best talent




Shared Goals

Playbooks



Ramping Up

Follow a Learn → Crawl → Walk → Run sequence to minimize transition risks in scaling up to steady state

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§ Learning about client business standards, requirements

§ Establishing standards & protocols (comm. shift hours, etc)

§ Monitoring responsiveness

§ Assessing data quality & QA checklists

§ Establish the Success Metrics

§ Consistency of output

§ Evaluating the team’s ability to deliver under pressure

§ Review the operations setup

§ Manage steady state operations

§ Reporting & Reviews at all levels


Develop a Robust Roadmap With Clear Milestones

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Key ActivitiesAugust September October November

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Kickoff, plan and form team

Negotiate and finalize contract

Vendor ramp-up/pilot planning with CT

Client change management

Conduct on-site training, build workflow process

Begin production support pilot

Pilot validation

Full scale-up – prep & Launch

Outsourcing Pilot Timeline – Go Live Sep 20Today

Steering Committee Meetings

Weekly Calls




Shared Goals



Ramping Up

Playbooks

Creating Custom ‘Playbook’

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This establishes clear standards, protocols and processes to be followed by all parties to ensure consistency, error free deliverables and success

The Playbook clearly details roles & responsibilities, timelines, process flows & quality control procedures

The Playbook ensures there are no grey areas and eliminates inconsistencies




Shared Goals


Ramping Up

Playbooks


Focus on COPS

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§ Staff all projects with the right set of skills and

experience

§ Maintain a bench strength

§ Staff with adequate number of senior members in the

team to mentor, troubleshoot and manage

§ Ensure key staff understands client objectives and

pain points

§ Create a strong governance and

communication matrix

ü Quarterly Steering Committee calls

ü Monthly Operations review

§ Ensure adequate use of management

portals and technology

COPS

§ Be transparent

§ Ensure no surprises

§ Nothing gets delivered without following the QC playbook

§ Kick-off meetings/briefing calls for all first-time projects

§ Get timely feedback and close the loop

§ Provide for adequate coverage across client time zones

§ Document communication; document feedback

§ Invest ahead of curve – resources, training, understanding of client business

§ Aim for ‘early wins’ to establish credibility

§ Ensure playbooks and metrics are approved




Shared Goals

Ramping Up

Playbooks




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CoS outlines key expectations of

the relationship, with the objective

to:

1. Define mutual obligation between

Cross-Tab and the client

2. Establish guidelines to develop

and strengthen the partnership

3. Develop A+ quality and

transparency

4. Establish a shared basis of

understanding of what is required

and how it is measured

The CoS document addresses various

relationship aspects such as,

§ Planning

§ Management of project brief/ RFPs

§ Proposals

§ Engagement

§ Commencement

§ Communication

§ Project Management

§ Resources

§ Service Levels and Performance

§ Deliverables

§ Completion




Shared Goals

Ramping Up

Playbooks



§ There are many more elements to building a “gold-standard” relationship, we have focused on the “Big 5”

§ Common theme around shared practices (playbooks, metrics, CoS). Both partners are responsible and accountable for success

§ Only the largest relationships may make the investment in documenting these approaches, however they are important for any size

of relationship.

Thank You
