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Research Rap: What Research Helps Most?
June 26, 2008
A quick peek into the research process ... and a question about what research helps you the most.
Research indicates more then just opinion. It is opinion or hypothesis supported by an investigation that helps to prove or disprove a point. There are a number of research firms on the market that investigate different aspects of the PLM market and the ways that companies are using PLM to improve product profitability.
What the Research Covers
Research can address a number of different things:
- Market - What is the market size, is it growing or shrinking, what are key trends of a software. This is helpful for investors as well as companies looking to understand the market that their software vendors compete in.
- Performance - How companies are doing and the approaches they use to achieve results. This is helpful for manufacturers looking to understand how they perform compared to peers so they can target their own improvements.
- Improvement - How companies have helped to improve their processes and performance.
- Advice - Tips and techniques for using software, for planning or executing a PLM program, for business processes, for implementations, or any other form of help companies are looking for.
The Research Process
For these types of information, you would like to know how the researcher backs up their findings. Some common research types, often found in combination, are:
- Surveys - This process aims to gather information from a broad population to understand trends and generalities. While most of the research firms don't adhere to a strict statistical approach (my wife is an academic and a vet that does medical research governed by the FDA, where precise results can mean life and death) they provide important generalities and directionally accurate information.
- Benchmarks - Benchmarks compare performance of different companies and provide metrics that can be compared across businesses to help companies understand how well they are performing, and where their improvement opportunities and competitive advantages lie.
- Case Studies - This research provides real-world experience from one or more existing companies, providing an example of the scenario of a particular company over time. This helps to allow manufacturers to understand the situation at a real company, as a way to understand how their business might gain the same success (or avoid the same pitfalls).
- Advice - This is research based on the experience of the person providing the information. While it is less pure "research" it often takes advantage of the combined experiences of an individual (or individuals) that have significant knowledge of the industry. The information from this research is only as valuable as the bio of the author.
Net, and Looking for Your Opinion
So with this overview, I will point out that a combination of these is frequently useful for different purposes. My intent is to provide a variety of this information in my "Research Rap" but I thought I would check with you to see what research you would find the most valuable. I am planning to contact a few research firms that I respect to see if they will share a bit of their research with us here, and then I will provide you links to more information (which may require you to log in, register, or pay).
So that is a quick overview, I look forward to your thoughts about what types of information and what forms of research you might find the most valuable.
Posted by Jim Brown on June 26, 2008 | Comments (2)
