Why Systems Insight?

25-year track record assisting businesses, academic establishments and others involved in leading edge technologies, products and services.  Underpinned by a background in technical roles.

Over 25 years in market research and strategic marketing consultancy means we can be confident about how best to achieve clients’ objectives cost-effectively.

Our team is also highly experienced in working and communicating with a wide range of individuals:

• as clients;
• as participants in in-depth interviews.

Whether dealing with highly specialised technical staff or the most senior management levels of large companies, our ability to engage means that the experience is always positive.

We never simply call people up and ask for an instant interview.  All interviews are booked in advance (unless the interviewee suggests otherwise).  And all approaches start with a “warm-up” email explaining the purpose of the interview and why we feel it’s relevant.

Our proven track record of achieving the highest response levels that could reasonably be expected – typically:

• a 30% to 50% response in “tick-box” surveys;
• over 50% co-operation from individuals targeted for interview.

Interviewing and consultancy work is always led by our two Directors – Peter Dunsmuir and Jeanne Ferguson.  Both have been involved personally in every project in the company’s 25-year history.  Associates are only used rarely – usually only if demanded by interview volumes.  And even then, we hand-pick them to suit the specialisms required for individual projects.

Our tried and tested core approach is highly structured, interview-based and very effective:

• delivering an objective, believable view of target markets and market potential;
• generating strong strategic conclusions – e.g. on market drivers, potential barriers, competition and priority markets;
• highlighting tangible, interesting and potentially lucrative business opportunities.

We’re often asked about our network of contacts in pertinent markets.  Invariably the answer is “We don’t use them”.  Mainly to avoid unwanted bias in the feedback, we always identify interviewees from scratch – not from our own contact base.

Our history of successful projects is testimony to our ability to identify appropriate fresh contacts – whatever the sector and job function – and secure their participation.

Interview responses are always entered in full text, question by question, in a database.  (No pre-filtering by ticking predefined boxes, and so no pertinent information thrown away).  Then we develop our key findings and conclusions via a rigorous pseudo-quantitative analysis process based on categorisation.

We take great pains to ensure our analysis is uncontaminated by assumptions or opinions.  For example, we do not define response categories in advance – categorisation is based on rankings and themes that emerge naturally from the interview responses.

…such as:

• markets for abstract technologies (mathematical algorithms, etc.);
• requirement for professional services (inherently intangible);
• assessing opportunities for previously unheard-of technologies and services.