Like other organisations Market Research companies inevitably contain disparate systems using disparate hardware and software. In Market Research there is often a stark contrast between the systems used for storing information such as questionnaires, written reports, presentations, project plans, fieldwork reports, tables, graphs and respondent level data. This can often include many of the following storage formats: databases, word documents, PowerPoint documents, spreadsheets, plain text documents and specialised data formats. There is an increasing need for companies to make this valuable information more accessible, both internally amongst research departments and externally to clients.
Within agencies, service departments need to communicate information about the status of a project to research departments who in turn need to communicate research findings to the client. Because there is often no common ground between the software systems begin used, in the past it has been challenging to bring this information together.
This paper examines solutions for tackling these issues and will consider the use of open standards such as XML and Web Services, recent technologies that provide a useful mechanism for ‘black boxing’ software systems, allowing information from disparate systems to more easily be integrated.
The paper will explore a service based approach as part of building a web based reporting system for BMRB. This system pulls together existing reporting software applications and existing project management systems into a client data portal. The incorporation of industry open standards such as Tabs ML from the Open Surveys group is also considered and demonstrated, as well as interfacing with the SPSSmr Ltd. Dimensions library.
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