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Dufferin Research had been specializing in online survey programming and the hosting of both stand alone custom research projects and continuous tracking studies for more than a decade. The firm was established in 2000 to provide these specialized services to smaller Market Research firms and consultants. Dufferin Research now deals with a wide range of clientele from international research organizations, to direct research buyers and users from global, national and local businesses and organizations (including NFP), in addition to our original target market. 

 When Dufferin Research started online research the industry was in its infancy. If you were online, dial-up access was the norm and rich media referred to the television networks. Fast forward a decade and internet based research is now the dominant data collection methodology globally. Today, broadband access and the use of rich media (in the form of video, audio and high resolution graphics) are the norm. The new frontiers are in mobile computing and semantic technologies. 

 The data collection services at Dufferin Research follow industry best practice principles, not available to those who program surveys in an adhoc fashion. The data is collected and stored within Canada. We can certify where the data is physically stored, where the backup copies are, who has had access. Moreover we can destroy any and all copies of the data upon request. Data stored in a cloud computing environment with head offices in foreign countries can offer no such guarantees.

Dufferin Research provides cost-effective, reliable services that include superior technical skills, excellent project management and have the sort of robust & secure infrastructure needed to succeed in this business. For further technical details see our capabilities page. But while we love the beauty of automation, and are masters of many programming languages, we still view ourselves first & foremost as a service company.

 We are 100% client focused. Your needs are what drive us. It's what we do. This philosophy has a price; service does not scale like technology. So we have come to terms with, and embraced the fact that we will remain a fairly small company. This is simply because what we do cannot be replicated on a large scale cost effectively. For Dufferin Research, hands on, means hands on.

Over the past few years, Dufferin Research has been moving towards providing additional services. In addition to the traditional quantitative online data collection, Dufferin Research provides the full range of services typical found in full service market research firms. If the area of expertise exists in-house, we will provide beginning to end research from the consultative process up front to define your needs and the project scope, project & questionnaire design, to the analysis and delivery of the results.

Should we feel your project requires it, we will collaborate with our network of partners to provide the solution that best suits your needs and your budget. We are experts in quantitative methods but work with qualitative researchers when the numbers alone may not tell the whole story.

Your needs are very likely to be unique, so a cookie-cutter solution is unlikely to be the best one for you. This is where our expertise can come in. We will engage in whatever research methodology is required to turn the data into business intelligence. Unless you can take the results of a research project and make an informed business decision, the exercise has been futile.

Being typically Canadian, we can compromise to reach a solution that meets your needs.

 There is a middle ground between D-I-Y (Do-it-yourself) projects and full service research, that is more than data collection only. Starting with our Research Rabbit product (for employee satisfaction and engagement surveys) we developed a series of products where the client makes some of the design decisions alone within the software framework, then we evaluate, and execute the data collection and report the findings using a templated reporting structure that minimizes our labour thus lowers the cost for the user. 

You do a bit more, you get a lot more, and you pay less.

(1.0 to 3.0)

Traditional secondary research is compiling data from known archival sources, it is akin to the steps you would take when writing an essay in school. 

Version 1.0 was hard copy or electronic records usually in libraries.
Version 2.0 is secondary research online (can I Google that for you?)
Version 3.0 is the semantic web.

 Now we have the growing use of semantic software to scrap or data mine the web and glean insights through "smart" interpretation. Semantic software is used to conduct secondary research on steroids. The quantity of data online is so vast that no one can process it. But it is no magic bullet, like archival research of the past, this is merely collecting, classifying, and intrepeting that which already exists.

Surveys, however executed, are primary research, the creation of NEW data that for the moment at least is yours alone (see data collection, full & assisted service).

 Dufferin Research can assist in helping you choose when primary quantitative research is best, when you need secondary research, and if you do, which type. 

We can also advise you when qualitative research may be better suited to your needs, and if a hybrid methodology would be best, and then of course we can conduct the research needed.