Secondary Market Research Category Procurement Intelligence Report

Several macro changes in the dynamics of overall Market Research as well as Secondary Market Research procurement trends are poised to change the business practices and procurement thumb rules. The market is rapidly showing signs of a great divide - at one extreme is a low-cost market with almost commoditized services and at the other end is the market for high cost specialized services. Secondary Market Research vendors are adopting starkly different business models and cost structures to address both the markets.

Data security and maintaining the confidentiality of client data and other sensitive information has towered over most of the discussions related to the category. Most geographies now have stringent regulations to protect data, privacy and confidentiality. Although suppliers now have a value proposition that puts data security and confidentiality at the forefront of marketing pitches, adherence to these standards have also increased OPEX of suppliers owing to increased compliance methods and requirement to change critical processes.

Proliferation of supply pool in regions such as APAC is expected to intensify supply market competition. This will compel service providers to compete on price points to attract new buyers, which is expected to offset some of the increase in procurement cost arising out of increasing supplier OPEX.

Category managers need to take note of the potential of these developments and reassess the changes required in their procurement practices.

Sometimes, procurement functions are unable to timely alter their practices while responding to market conditions. Industry experts acknowledge that periodically reviewing procurement best practices and adopting learnings from across procurement categories can help procurement teams respond to market needs in a more agile way. This report combines our experience of other categories with Secondary Market Research procurement insights and hand picks best practices that can work for category managers delving in this market.

For example, Buyers should specify a mechanism for agreeing to and recording changes in services provided by the interacting parties, usually buyers and service providers.

Contract should outline the expected levels of service with respect to recruitment of panel, data interpretation, relevance of technologies used, outcomes expected and other related processes by the service provider.

Buyers can optimize the costs by arriving at right sourcing mix through an alignment of in-house capabilities with outsourced functions. Buyers can use in-house capabilities for project-specific requirements that can be resolved internally. Third-party providers should be engaged based on their expertise and project-specific requirements that require capabilities not present in the buyers' organization.

Secondary Market Research procurement managers also need to proactively identify and mitigate potential risks that can arise in the supply chain or contracts for Secondary Market Research procurement. Some examples include: