The document discusses building gold standard relationships for outsourced market research relationships. It outlines five key elements: establishing shared goals between client and vendor, developing a ramp up process to minimize transition risks, creating custom playbooks detailing roles and processes, focusing on operational excellence through staffing and governance, and defining conditions of success to set expectations for the relationship. The webinar aims to provide guidance on developing long-term, high-quality outsourced partnerships.

2. Welcome About the Cross-Tab Webinar Series
2
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

3. 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 solutions
to 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/packages
customized to client needs
An Overview of Cross-Tab
3© 2013 Cross-Tab. All Rights Reserved

4. 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
4© 2013 Cross-Tab. All Rights Reserved

5. Recent Trends in Market Research Outsourcing
5
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
© 2013 Cross-Tab. All Rights Reserved

6. Key Drivers for Outsourcing in 2010
6
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
© 2013 Cross-Tab. All Rights Reserved

7. what does it take to deliver on these strategic drivers
7
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
© 2013 Cross-Tab. All Rights Reserved

8. Building the Gold Standard Relationship
8© 2013 Cross-Tab. All Rights Reserved
Shared
Goals
Ramping
Up
Playbooks
Operational
Excellence
Conditions of
Success

9. 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
9
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
© 2013 Cross-Tab. All Rights Reserved

10. Building the Gold Standard Relationship
10© 2013 Cross-Tab. All Rights Reserved
Shared
Goals
Playbooks
Operational
Excellence
Conditions of
Success
Ramping
Up

11. Follow a Learn Crawl Walk Run sequence to minimize transition risks in
scaling up to steady state
11
§ 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
© 2013 Cross-Tab. All Rights Reserved

12. Develop a Robust Roadmap With Clear Milestones
12
Key Activities
August September October November
18 25 2 9 16 23 30 6 13 20 27 4 11 18 25 1 8 15 22 29
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
© 2013 Cross-Tab. All Rights Reserved

13. Building the Gold Standard Relationship
13© 2013 Cross-Tab. All Rights Reserved
Shared
Goals
Operational
Excellence
Conditions of
Success
Ramping
Up
Playbooks

14. Creating Custom Playbook
14
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
© 2013 Cross-Tab. All Rights Reserved

15. Building the Gold Standard Relationship
15© 2013 Cross-Tab. All Rights Reserved
Shared
Goals
Conditions of
Success
Ramping
Up
Playbooks
Operational
Excellence

16. Focus on COPS
16
§ 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
© 2013 Cross-Tab. All Rights Reserved

17. Building the Gold Standard Relationship
17© 2013 Cross-Tab. All Rights Reserved
Shared
Goals
Ramping
Up
Playbooks
Operational
Excellence
Conditions
of Success

18. Conditions of Success
18
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
© 2013 Cross-Tab. All Rights Reserved

19. Building the Gold Standard Relationship
19© 2013 Cross-Tab. All Rights Reserved
Shared
Goals
Ramping
Up
Playbooks
Operational
Excellence
Conditions
of Success
§ 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.

20. Thank You
© 2013 Cross-Tab. All Rights Reserved