Instituto Olhar Turns Around its Business with SurveyToGo

Founded in 2003 by renowned political scientist and Brazilian
sociologist, Dr. Aureliano Luiz Andrade, Instituto Olhar
conducts some of the largest surveys undertaken in Brazil.
The institute specializes in both qualitative and quantitative
research, employing 15 full-time employees and up to 250
field researchers, as needed.
Instituto Olhar conducts between 20 and 30 large field
research projects each year, involving anywhere between
35,000 and 100,000 qualitative interviews a year
The institute’s impressive client roster includes 500
household brand names like Fiat, PwC, and Usiminas, as well
as numerous large universities and government agencies.

Instituto Olhar had been using pen and paper for its field
research when it decided modern software was needed
in order to accomplish tasks that were simply impossible
otherwise: GPS tracking of field researchers, audio recordings
of interviews, and applying logical rules for question ordering,
to name just a few. In short, the institute was looking for a
solution that had the agility, reliability, and feature set they
needed.

A total of six different software solutions were thoroughly
examined before making a decision. “We ended up choosing
SurveyToGo for its robustness, flexibility, and security features,”
explains Fernando Gilberti, Project Manager at Instituto Olhar,
who is responsible for the institute’s marketing organization
as well as the technical planning and results analysis of
the institute’s research projects. “SurveyToGo was the only
solution among those that we looked at that could manage
the complexity of some of our projects. I love the software’s
flexibility: for example, it allows customizing interactions between
variables. Finally, there’s the critical factor of information security.
SurveyToGo proved to be the most robust solution out there.”

Instituto Olhar installed SurveyToGo on 150 devices and the
process couldn’t have been simpler. “It takes us less than a
week to train our staff on the basics of SurveyToGo, even though
it’s a continuous learning process, as the team members learn
how to use the more sophisticated features and options the
software offers,” explains Gilberti. “The responsiveness of the
Dooblo support team always delights us with their availability
and attention to meeting our needs. We’re extremely satisfied
with them.”

Using SurveyToGo has triggered significant changes to how
Instituto Olhar does business today: headcount is down now
that there’s a lot less manual data processing. The remaining
staff is better equipped to handle the modern research tasks
at hand. Gilberti estimates that it took only eight months
to return the investment the institute made in SurveyToGo,
including all software and hardware investments: “Our costs
are down 15-20%, project turnaround is now 25-30% shorter,
interviews take 20-25% less time, and the quality of our work
has gone dramatically up – since there are fewer people handling
the data, the entire process is less error-prone.”
Gilberti summarizes the impact SurveyToGo has had on how
Instituto Olhar does business: “We can take on more business,
we complete research projects in less time, and we need fewer
people in the field. Our entire research planning methodology has
changed for the better.”

When asked what advice he would give other research
firms, Gilberti is very clear-cut: “You need to worry about data
security and the future capacity of the software you’re choosing:
it needs to be able to handle all your current and future needs.
If you’re looking for a flexible, robust system – I would definitely
recommend SurveyToGo.”