PERTH-BASED research consultancy Metrix has signed a software deal that will provide it with greater scope to collect data on its clients’ behalf.
Metrix is often categorised as a market research operation, but founding director Marquis Pohla said the term belied the breadth of the company’s work.
“We don’t view ourselves as a traditional market research company – that’s based on primary research, interviewing people and gaining raw data,” Mr Pohla told WA Business News.
“We do that as well, but there’s a whole other side of data being generated within companies.”
He said Metrix’s consultancy reports differed from those traditionally offered as they incorporated both primary research and information from other sources such as the Australian Bureau of Statistics, annual reports, internal company databases and that available in the public domain.
Mr Pohla said the approach had put Metrix in a position unlike most others in the Perth market.
“To my knowledge, in this market if you went to a market research company they would report on that as their speciality, whereas a data analytics company would report using those tools,” he said.
“There are a lot of people very specialised but not someone that can bring that overall picture.”
The opportunity to also gather information from the internet is not being overlooked, with Metrix having signed a partnership with global software developer Vision Critical to utilise its Community Panel platform.
It means Metrix can offer clients the tool to gathers data from customers via an online platform.
But convincing companies of the effectiveness of such tools has proved difficult.
Mr Pohla said he often had to explain Metrix’s integrated approach to companies content with just market research. And, even once they understood the concept, companies may still only buy the market research component.
“What we’re starting to do is inject these other forms of intelligence into reports to give them a taste of what they could get,” Mr Pohla said.
Metrix’s approach is a result of Mr Pohla’s exasperation at seeing relevant information being overlooked while working with a ‘traditional’ research company.
“(I was) sitting there thinking ‘ok so there’s all this data available’, but quite frequently you would automatically turn the problem into primary research problem, not taking into consideration all the other data that was available to you,” he said.
Mr Pohla went out on his own to establish Metrix in 2009. In the years since, staff numbers have doubled year on year, with nine full-timers now on board.
The plan is to continue growth in the same vein and reach a staff base of about 24 within three years. Expanding into the east coast and Asia is also a possibility.
Mr Pohla, a 2012 WA Business News 40under 40 winner and Curtin University graduate, is also dedicated to growing the local pool of researchers by employing graduates and taking on interns.
“We believe in building talent from the ground up, as opposed to what you can often see is poaching from one place to the other so you’ve got talent moving around but not really growing the industry,” he said. “I got given that opportunity, and as a small, WA-based, business we should be giving people those opportunities well.”