Populs Data Solutions

About Populus Data Solutions

 

The aim of Populus Data Solutions (PDS) is to provide state-of-the-art data capture and delivery solutions to market research clients and enterprises working with market research data – through solutions that remain true to the ethos of robust survey research. PDS is a part of the high profile UK-based market research and polling organisation, Populus.

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PDS’s motto is “Method Driven by Innovation”, and it fulfils that by offering a wide range of solutions based around data processing, programming, research project management and data delivery to a loyal group of customers that range from other research agencies through to major enterprises often with internationally recognised brands.

 

The Challenge

 

Increasingly, PDS’s clients were looking for data to be delivered electronically, through portals and in particular, interactive dashboards that would be continually refreshed with the latest data, and that would allow clients to view and interrogate the data in ways that were meaningful to them. It was essential that clients, who are not specialists in data or analytics, could use these dashboards as a part of their everyday business management and decision-making.

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Patrick Diamond, managing director of PDS, explains: “The demands we face are constantly evolving. Every client has their own unique set of needs. The chief difficulty we had was to be able to interrogate data.”

 

Patrick had found that although many software products existed that would create dashboards, “if you want to do significance testing or run rim weights, or other things you need to do on survey data, then the processing power isn’t there.”

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When a major client approached PDS who had been running a tracking survey and wanted a portal for the historical data and any new data, for their product managers to use directly it became clear that new software was required that satisfied both the client’s presentational demands, as well as the technical data processing capabilities that PDS would need to prepare the data for presentation.

 

The Solution

 

PDS selected Dapresy Pro to deliver this first client portal, and has subsequently gone on to deliver 40 different dashboards to as many clients, all using different capabilities within Dapresy Pro.

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“There were four things we liked in the product, explains Patrick. “the data repository, the cross tab solution, the infographic solution and the charting solution. Other tools tend to focus either on the visual, or the data processing nuts and bolts. With Dapresy you have both in one box."

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Patrick adds: “I have found the people involved in it to be extraordinarily helpful and flexible – and in terms of the development of the product since 2012 they have been very much with us, moving the product in the direction we need to move in."

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A Voice of the Customer programme Populus Data Solutions co-created with research agency Red C for the airline Aer Lingus, centred round a Dapresy Pro portal, went on to win the MRS Operations Award in 2015 in the category ‘Best Data Solution.’

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“We just don’t have issues with the software,” Patrick reports. “The data is pre-populated and the system is totally efficient if it has been built by Dapresy. It allows you to manipulate very large amounts of data – both historical and fresh.”

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Among the clients PDS has moved over to the new portals, Patrick has seen people at every level in those organisations making better use of research data for themselves. He attributes this to the power of visual reporting and presentation in making data more accessible.

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As to where he intends to take Dapresy next, “That is driven entirely by our clients,” he says. “But I am confident that we will be able to respond, because to their credit, Dapresy has shown they are willing and capable of rising to whatever challenges we have presented.”

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Outcomes Achieved with Dapresy

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• 40 different dashboards each for different clients with different requirements all successfully provided using Dapresy Pro

• Visual presentation of data has become the norm when providing access to decision-makers and end-users of data

• Every new presentation challenge has been met with a solution within Dapresy

• Individuals at all levels empowered to use data for themselves.

• Prestigious national award won for a Voice of the Customer program delivered using a Dapresy data portal