The update, due by the end of 2010, will allow end clients to gain restricted access to the technical infrastructure of their research agencies via a web portal, where they can write their own questionnaires, manage sample, analyse data and produce reports.

Nipo pitches the upgrade as a response to the DIY research trend. Cheap access to simple questionnaire writing and data collection tools, and the cost pressures of a down economy, have led research buyers to insource work they would otherwise have outsourced.

Debate rages as to whether research agencies need to adapt to this trend and embrace it, or warn clients against it by citing concerns over quality. Nipo managing director Jeroen Noordman says: “While some view DIY as a threat to the research industry, our solution allows professional MR companies to focus on where they add value: delivering insight through high quality research.”

Nipo’s software might help to keep research agencies central to the research process, where what is ostensibly a DIY project can still be run through an agency, but without the need for extensive agency involvement.

“Because the overall costs go down, it means the research customer will get more for the same budget,” says Noordman.