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GLOBALPARK INNOVATIONS 2008 – Focusing on the customer
At this year’s customer conference, which took place on June 13 in Cologne’s MediaPark, employees from various Globalpark departments held workshops for the first time to demonstrate how solutions in the Enterprise Feedback Suite (EFS) can be employed at companies and institutes to create innovative survey processes. Guests were able to compile a personal conference program from some 20 lectures and presentations in four parallel series of lectures with different focal points. The comprehensive range of lectures was complemented by a series of practical workshops led by experts from the field of scientific research who have links with Globalpark through the academic Unipark program.
In his keynote speech, Andreas Sternowski, Chief Operating Officer of Globalpark, welcomed more than 100 guests to the Customer Day in the conference room at the Komed communication and media center in the Cologne MediaPark, saying, “I hope you take away a lot of useful information from today’s event”. Twenty lectures in four series of workshops dedicated to different specialist topics promised to meet this claim. The guests were also given the chance to exchange information with other users in an informal atmosphere.
Introduction to future product developments
Before the lectures got underway, Dr. Lorenz Gräf, Managing Director of Globalpark GmbH, said a few words about the recently announced decision to convert Globalpark to a public company limited by shares (“Aktiengesellschaft”), and took the opportunity to introduce the Supervisory Board of the future Globalpark AG. He emphasized that the company will maintain its focus on customer interests, explaining that the appointment of Olaf Hofmann, founder and Managing Director of the market research institute Skopos, to the Supervisory Board will ensure that the customer’s view is heard.
Gräf also unveiled the future Release 6.0 for the Enterprise Feedback Suite, which takes the Internet solution to the next level. It includes several functions that support the community concept of “Web 2.0” and additional improvements that raise the software’s already high security standard. In this context, Gräf also made mention of the new BSI-certified data center that is scheduled to begin operations in the middle of the year. He also presented new design options for surveys that will be available with the next software release, e.g. a set of Flash question types. In addition, he introduced innovative administrative functions that will speed up the process of creating surveys, such as the “Copy tree function” that can be used to copy entire project areas. The software’s user interface has been given a new look and optimized for ease of use. It will also offer software users integrated feedback options for the first time. The redesigned and revised customer center is also devoted to intensive customer communication.
Online surveys from an academic perspective
This introduction was followed by the practical workshop program. Thanks to Globalpark’s links with academic departments, external speakers were on hand to give practical tips on working with online surveys in a series of four fascinating lectures. Dr. Manuela Pötschke from the Chair for Applied Statistics at the University of Kassel showed how panel members can be motivated to take part in surveys. She presented the results of a study conducted among members of the Sozioland panel who performed a conjoint analysis to investigate their reasons for participation. In a preliminary conclusion, Ms. Pötschke determined that panelists were most likely to take part in surveys when their anonymity is ensured, when the topic is worthwhile, and when questions have a clear and simple structure. Participants also like to feel that their opinion counts and that the feedback can actually bring about change. This is more important to them than material rewards, which are regarded as a nice bonus, but not necessarily an incentive. Another key finding was that panelists like to have fun while taking part in a survey, which, said Pötschke, could have far-reaching implications for the design of future questionnaires.
Dr. Mirta Galesic’s workshop provided useful information about how questionnaires can be optimized to avoid methodological distortions. Her findings were based on the results of studies conducted among more than 100 participants using the eye tracking method. She made a number of recommendations on the basis of her results, including using images only where absolutely necessary and integrating them clearly into the question section. She also said that, where a number of answers are available as an option, they must all be visible at the same time. In general, said Galesic, the key to a successful questionnaire is to keep the participant’s workload as low as possible.
Experience from day-to-day project work
Alongside the methodological lectures, Customer Day also featured joint presentations from Globalpark employees and project managers from well-known customer companies, showcasing their collaborative projects. For instance, Dirk Bergmann from the HR and Management Development department at the RAG energy group and Florian Reiss, a Globalpark consultant, showed how RAG implemented a company-wide feedback process for managers using the Globalpark EFS Leadership software. Bergmann explained how the software’s straightforward interface plays a key role in ensuring that the software solution enjoys a high level of acceptance among users and administrators alike. Moreover, he said that the results of the regular survey processes create an excellent basis for employee feedback reviews and serve as an invaluable tool for gauging the management climate. It generates “creative unrest”, which in turn raises the motivation levels of managers.
Sandra Schmidt, project manager for market research at the airtime marketing company IP Deutschland, reported on the results of a user survey for mobile terminals conducted on the RTL portal. For the first time, as part of a cross-media campaign by Sony Ericsson, IP Deutschland was able to collect well-founded information on user structures, surfing habits and advert recognition among visitors to the cell phone portal. Dr. Tanja Pferdekämper, Head of Consulting at Globalpark, explained the benefits of EFS Mobile Extension, which IP Deutschland used to conduct the entire survey directly by cell phone.
An insight into Globalpark
Most of the workshops were held by Globalpark employees, who outlined new developments, project experiences, and tips for working with EFS from an insider perspective. Here’s just one example of the many presentations on offer: Jan Steemann, project manager for panel software at Globalpark, demonstrated application examples for the EFS Web Services interface module in real-world scenarios. Release 6.0 will include almost 50 different standard services. As Steemann showed in a live demonstration, EFS Web Services enables the automatic synchronization of databases in Globalpark software with external applications. EFS Web Services eliminates manual data reconciliation and is an excellent example of how online feedback processes can be optimized using automation processes.
After the closing words from Dr. Lorenz Gräf, who was delighted with the many “fascinating conversations” held between the workshops and the positive feedback, the participants were given the opportunity for further discussion over a beer and a warm buffet.
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