CASRO

IT spending as a percent of revenue in market research companies is 6.5%, double the rate measured in general industry studies, according to the first-ever IT Spending Survey, recently conducted by CASRO (The Council of American Survey Research Organizations).

“Our findings indicate that the IT function is highly valued by MR companies and they back up this sentiment with dollars,” commented the survey’s director, Christian Super, Vice President, Information Systems, of CASRO member company Ipsos North America. “The many statistics compiled in this report provide valuable benchmarks that help market research companies better understand their IT spending.”

Other CASRO 2007 IT Spending Survey report highlights include:

About 70% of IT investment is in infrastructure, while software development spending for research companies is about 40% below other industries.

Research companies allocate most of their IT spending to staff (31.9%), followed by hardware (20.6%) and networking/communications (15.5%).

More than 92% of respondents’ external spending goes to U.S. firms - a surprising stat considering all the talk of off-shoring.

Researchers consider improving efficiency (45%), data storage and handling (43%) and software upgrades (41%) their top IT challenges.

Only 7 percent have conducted ROI analysis on IT.

The report also identified the most popular online survey, CATI, data analysis, tabulation, CAPI/CASI, and paper survey software used.

The survey was conducted from May 16 through June 15, 2007. The data was collected online via Voxco ASP. Survey results should be analyzed with caution due to small base size and response rate.

2007 CASRO IT Spending Survey Report

IT Spending Survey Final Table