As I am writing this article, I am thinking back on the key events over the last 23 years that have led us to where we are today. We have built eight major products over that time, all of which have had some relationship to research. We have a passion for research, and more specifically we have a passion for creating tools that make research easier to conduct, and more engaging for participants.
The next step in our story as a company shows what can happen when we harness all of that passion and focus it on a comprehensive insights platform to rule them all.
Our next big leap is here - say hello to "Qualzy"
Many of us have “taken a breath” over the last year as the world around us has changed. For us as a company, this period has provided us with the opportunity to re-evaluate everything we do through the lens of what our clients really need to meet the challenges they face - including changes in the market research industry that were already happening but have accelerated.
We believe that our Web Creator Suite platform was already at the forefront of this sea change - helping clients to not just survive, but to thrive in an environment where online methodologies are playing an ever increasing role in research projects. Now we are poised to focus even more intently on what we can do to help you provide more compelling insights to your clients.
Our new vision starts with a new name - “Qualzy”. This names evokes the quality insights the platform provides, together with a bit of personality and fun - something our team has always embodied, but our name certainly has not :).
We've kept all the good stuff our clients love…
Everything great about the product and the team remains the same. Our awesome support team led by Rachel will still support you awesomely, and Paul will be on standby for a meeting and a donut as usual :). Our new direction isn’t about changing our existing personnel, approach or company culture - it is about properly harnessing everything that has worked well so far, and providing even more value to our clients moving forward
.… while improving everything else
The continuously evolving needs of people conducting research, coupled with the speed at which changes in methodologies are being forced on everyone in today's difficult environment, means constant improvement is a must for any leading research platform to survive and thrive. We've spent the better part of the last 2 years preparing for these challenges in a number of specific ways:
- Modernising our entire development stack. I realise this is not the most exciting thing for most people to hear about. Suffice to say everything is faster, more secure and ready for the latest developments like machine learning.
- Complete interface and platform workflow refresh. We have focussed on making the existing and new capabilities of the platform easier to find, and more intuitive to use. We have been exposing these changes to users in a staged approach (the final stage will appear as part of the Qualzy rebrand). We appreciate the love we have already received from users for the changes made so far and we are excited to provide the full suite of improvements in Qualzy itself.
- A renewed focus on VIDEO. We have provided video collection and machine-based transcription features for many years, but Qualzy takes video management to a whole new level. Our new video analytics tools can now create high quality transcripts and use sentiment and entity analysis to help you identify important clips and build showreels.
- New Activities and enhancements of existing features. Our relentless pursuit of new capabilities has also continued over this period, with new dashboards, question types and activities (like the new moderator led chat that feels like a Whatsapp group directly in your project) just the "tip of the iceberg".
- Choice of subscription vs pay-per-project. We have created a Qualzy Essentials Subscription as a cost-effective way for anyone to use online methodologies as part of their “research toolkit” for all their ongoing work - one low monthly price, unlimited projects. For those people that still prefer to pay-by-project that option is still there, just like it used to be.
The release of Qualzy is simply the beginning of the next part of our journey. Where we go from here will largely be up to our users, as we continue to improve the platform to meet your needs.
As always we'd love to hear any comments you have about the new product so feel free to contact me or any of the team!
