An Infrics.com research consult day: money well spent

Since I took the infrics.com site live last spring, the most popular articles by far have been the ones on planning, buying, and managing research.

Vermeer's "The Geographer"
image from wikipedia.org

I understand this well, because in all my years of buying research for a living, I never did see good objective analysis of the field itself: the strengths and weaknesses of the research companies, the sales and customer service strategies they use, and the best practices for spending research money as a consumer of those services.    The series of articles is here:  The Business of Research.

Those articles are free, and always will be.

At the paid level, an Infrics.com consult day combines that insight with specific advice for your own company, delivers a research strategy and action plan, and acts as catalyst to make best use of the time and money you devote to your research efforts.

These are the deliverables:

• Opening workshop;  your own business research needs, mapped in real time against your organization, culture, and goals. Who are your research "customers?" What do they want?  What do you want FOR them?
  
• The big 3 research companies: Gartner, Forrester, and IDC.  Best practices for choosing, buying, and working with each.
  
• Other research sources: some are free, many are much less expensive than the big three. Learn what they are, why they're important, and how to work with them.
  
• Social tools and expertise sharing in your organization: how they are a "hand in glove" fit with research. Work hands-on with social tools.
  
• The 80/20 rule for research: could it be the best answer for your organization?
  
• Strategic and tactical research: why you need both, how to get highest value from each.
  
• Organizing internally for research value: centralized? federated? distributed?  Ways to envision research management.
  
• What's your RoR--Return on Research? How to know, when standard metrics measure the wrong things.
  
• Walk away with a specific action plan. Entry level, mid-tier, or all-in? We'll create each, and compare cost and returns.
  
• Ongoing support: unlimited followup calls for 12 months after the initial engagement at no additional charge.

The one-day on-site engagement is $2500 plus travel.  While I will happily discount for non-profits, NGOs, and startups, I will NOT gouge a larger corporation for huge consult fees just because it's the standard (a day with an analyst from the big three is typically priced at $10k.)  Please feel free to ask about customized plans,  and combinations with other workshops like Tech Triggers Innovation, or Big Ideas.  

E-mail to discuss scheduling or other questions, or leave a comment below and I'll contact you.