LIMRA Streamlines Data Collection Process for Ongoing International Research
Worldwide Financial Services Association Saves Time and Increases Response Rates for Market Research Studies
The Challenge:
LIMRA needs to conduct a variety of external-facing surveys on an ongoing basis to report information on the financial services market to its member companies. The surveys range from short market scans to long benchmark studies with more than 100 questions and 2,000 respondents.
Until recently, LIMRA used basic forms and spreadsheets to create and distribute data and to track response rates. This method was a long, time-consuming process that made it extremely difficult to efficiently manage surveys. Because at times LIMRA was using e-mail attachments, they encountered issues with attachments being blocked, resulting in more work for the LIMRA staff.
Previously, LIMRA chose a Web-based survey solution hoping to solve these problems. However, the survey building process was complex, and it did not support multiple languages. Additionally, IT staff was required to deploy all surveys. This slowed down the survey process for researchers and created additional work for the IT department. Many researchers went back to using the basic forms and spreadsheets due to the difficult process and lack of flexibility.
LIMRA began searching for a new survey system that would simplify survey building, deployment and tracking; conduct surveys in several languages, including support for Chinese characters; and decrease turnaround time in preliminary data reporting. They narrowed the field to three products and completed demos for each - the final consensus was that Inquisite was the only company who could address all of LIMRA's needs.
"We were looking for a strong, professional product that was easy for both our employees and the end users," said Mary Anne Schildknecht, a business systems consultant for LIMRA. "We did a lot of homework and determined that Inquisite's Survey System provided the most control, flexibility and ease of use."
The Solution:
LIMRA chose Inquisite's Survey System because its advanced data collection capabilities make it easy to build surveys and manage, collect and analyze data quickly. In addition, the Survey System has additional features and benefits that weren't available on LIMRA's previous systems. These capabilities include:
- Multi-Language and Internationalization: Allows LIMRA to deploy surveys in many languages, including the support for character sets such as Chinese and Japanese. Additionally, the Inquisite Survey System allows companies to define regional and global settings for publishing and analysis.
- Survey Invitation and Notification Management: Allows LIMRA survey builders to "set and forget" survey deployments at their requested times. The system also tracks who has responded and sends out reminders to those individuals who have not yet taken the survey.
- Branded Templates: Allows LIMRA to customize their surveys to match their corporate identity, creating a professional, consistent look and feel for every survey.
- Integration of Tables: Allows researchers to add sophisticated tables and graphics, a stark contrast from LIMRA's previous system. To streamline the data collection process, tables often need to be included in LIMRA's surveys. The previous system involved coding, which just added to the complexity of the process. Now researchers can easily add tables into surveys, as well as easily manage and track the data.
The Outcome:
After implementing the Inquisite Survey System, LIMRA reduced time to build surveys, experienced a faster turnaround time to report preliminary data and achieved increased response rates.
Because of the Survey System's simple interfaces, LIMRA's researchers can manage the entire data collection process from start to finish. Rather than relying on IT to develop code for such things as tables, they are able to control everything on their own, reducing time to build the surveys by 40%.
The Survey System's support of multiple languages has enabled LIMRA to more easily build, manage and track surveys in other regions. The support of Chinese characters has made it easier to manage and track international data, which previously had only been done using e-mailed forms and spreadsheets.
Without the burden of entering survey data into a spreadsheet, the Inquisite Survey System has given researchers a faster turnaround time in reporting preliminary data.
"IT is really pleased since they don't have to be as involved," explains Schildknecht. "When everyone saw how easy it was to insert tables, there was actually applause in the room."
"The best things about the Inquisite Survey System are the ease of design for the end-user and builder, the ability to easily track participation and the support for multiple languages. We were looking for something that could help LIMRA move forward, and Inquisite has done a great job getting us to where we are now."
About LIMRA International
LIMRA International is a worldwide association providing research, consulting, and other services to nearly 850 insurance and financial services companies in more than 60 countries. LIMRA was established in 1916 to help its member companies maximize their marketing effectiveness.