Editor's note: Based in Chicago, Jitesh Marlecha is the assistant vice president at Ugam, a data analytics firm.

With the number of available options having exploded in recent years, the universe of marketing research technology has become overwhelming. From cloud-based, low-cost DIY solutions to high-maintenance, multi-server and in-house installations, it’s no surprise many organizations are overwhelmed when it comes to assessing their current marketing research systems. Especially if you’ve been accumulating solutions along the way, there’s a good chance your tool belt is getting unnecessarily heavy.

So how do organizations that are looking to simplify their research operations settle on a single platform for gathering and processing insights? Luckily, there are some criteria that can help identify the right data platform.

Read on to learn more about how to evaluate whether your current technology is delivering what you need and how to plan for the transition to a new platform, if necessary.

Deep dive

Research teams should plan to take a deep dive into their current system to get a better understanding of its reliability and its ability to deliver critical features and support future needs. If the platform is missing key functionality now or in the future, technology change clearly needs to happen immediately.

Here are the things most people need:

Easy-to-use interface. Your data platform should not require technological knowledge to operate and should support all popular research methodologies with a click of a button. This is imperative to ensure agility. It’s also critical your solution provides built-in interfaces and survey designs that are intuitive and are optimized to work across various platforms and devices. Today, this is table stakes and not having this feature could result in a poor respondent experience or lower participation rates.

Strong functionality. The solution must support all your company’s needs without requiring additional builds, which can be lengthy and expensive. Some popular features that boost functionality include geofencing, Web intercepts and alarm and case management.

Geofencing is a software feature that taps GPS or RFID to closely define geographical boundaries. It benefits organizations that are struggling to collect fresh and clear feedback from consumers’ lives. Geofencing can provide more insight and greater data accuracy, given its real-time abilities. It’s now readily available in most industry platforms and not having this functionality may set your business back.

Web intercepts are another emerging feature that is becoming more critical with the increasing adoption of digital technologies. Web intercepts prompt visitors to answer personalized and interactive questions that will enhance product discovery. These capabilities are often found in newer platforms.

Alert and case management capabilities are helpful for their ability to boost the customer experience.

Reliable reporting. If your current solution is unable to accurately report insights, you should upgrade to a newer, more dependable model to ensure business-critical reporting mechanisms are in place. The goal is to give employees back much-needed time they would spend designing, building, managing and publishing the surveys. At the minimum, your solution should support multisource data collection with excellent data management and reporting capabilities. Newer technologies, however, allow for more advanced tools like field management reports and the ability to build dashboards and publish results to a larger audience in real time. These features deliver a competitive edge. However, if your budget is slim, you should at least ensure your system not only provides open APIs and is flexible to integrate with other technologies, platforms and software but is also robust and scalable. This is necessary to support large volumes of data and respondent traffic while simultaneously providing respondents with an uninterrupted and speedy experience.

Many new platforms are starting to offer more automatic insights prompted by advanced analytics or even artificial intelligence (AI). By tapping into technologies like AI, businesses can better leverage more precise preferences and behaviors and adapt their customer profiles and campaigns to better fit their needs. This untapped information benefits retailers that are working to alter their churn rate or lessen cart abandonment, for example.

Clear picture

Once the infrastructure analysis has been performed, you should have a clear picture of whether your current platform is making the cut or if you should invest in a new solution. If your organization is planning to make the switch, the next step would be to evaluate potential vendors and systems to determine who will deliver the best capabilities in the most cost-effective manner. When deciphering which vendor is offering the best value, we suggest taking the cost and on-site vs. off-site assessment into account.

Platform costs typically include both capex investment and opex fees, so before you commit you should consider the additional fees that tend to accumulate, like consideration, transition expenses, ramp-up payments and ongoing administrative costs. In addition to the costs, you want to evaluate the partner’s or supplier’s ability to deliver on the features, support and resources you need to be successful.

Not the last step

By now you have evaluated your current system, explored additional vendors and decided whether your business is ready to adopt new tools or stick with existing technologies. Selecting the right platform is critical but it’s not the last step. Platform transition can create business disruption, so you want to plan for a smooth deployment. For your business to fully benefit from your new solution – and make sure it’s delivered on deadline and on budget – you need to have a transition plan in place.

The first step is to determine and document key foundational aspects of the transition plan. Selecting a target date to stop using the old technology and transition to the new one will ensure timely completion. It also facilitates development of a project timeline so you can think through all aspects of the transition and allocate adequate time for each activity. I suggest then categorizing a book of work and determining which projects should move first. Ad hoc surveys are usually the first to move over to a new system and tracking programs typically go last.

Next, you should put effort into assigning and aligning team members on the execution of the transition plan. Change is difficult, so to guarantee a smooth transition, it’s a good idea to place responsibilities with existing team members who have some experience with the newer platform. Also, before rolling out the platform, it’s wise to have a risk and contingencies plan in place. This is to ensure all team members understand the risks and potential problems they will likely face during the transition and know how to respond accordingly. Make sure you have the ability to roll back to the old platform until the new system is consistently stable.

Once the foundational elements are determined, the team will need to start building out the high-level project timeline. There are four main schedules you should keep in mind: installation, testing, live parallel and final transition. The installation schedule is when you license and set up new technologies, connect them to data servers, etc. It’s wise to update the standard operating procedure during this stage, since workflows are likely to change with the introduction of new technology.

The testing schedule is where you program and review surveys on the new platform in test mode. During this stage, team members should list and share any performance issues they have experienced. Next is the live parallel schedule, which is where the team will host a survey on the new platform and run some live traffic. Fielding the first 10 percent of a study provides a like comparison without compromising the survey in its entirety. Finally, the team builds a final transition schedule for each specific research methodology. For example, build and institutionalize ad test studies or build a data migration plan for tracking surveys.

The final step is to expand your high-level timeline into a full project plan that incorporates all the activities required to deploy the new system and ensure an on-time, on-budget transition. This expansion should include additional context related to installation, training, shell development, data and design standards, ecosystem integration and data architecture. While there is a lot to keep track of, a general rule of thumb is to adapt the platform’s many rules and regulations to best accommodate your company standards. Also, it’s important for the team to name a dedicated project manager who is knowledgeable on the infrastructure and operating procedures.

Reap the rewards

Finished with everything? Congratulations! You are officially ready to reap the rewards of your new marketing research technology platform. Your solution is set up for success, you’re ready to provide your business or clients with the insights they need and your tool belt may be just a bit lighter.