The Future of B2B Research

09.30 Opening comments from the Chair

Graeme Cade, Executive Vice President, Savanta

09.40 Partnering with B2B companies in tomorrow’s context
Xero, a fast-growing cloud accounting company, selling software to SME’s around the world commenced a long term partnership with C Space a year ago. Xero was keen for its research partner to mirror the innovation that it valued as fundamental to achieving its own ambitious growth targets. It also wanted a partner to seamlessly integrate within the fabric of the Xero organisation for increased speed and agility.
Hear how C-Space set up an online community of 400+ small businesses, sole traders, accountants, and bookkeepers, from across 8 markets and resourced a team of data, quant, qual and innovation specialists. Leveraging this, the agency worked with Xero’s insight departments; a dozen divisions and close to a hundred stakeholders becoming an integral part of Xero’s innovation and marketing processes.

• Applying a community approach to running digital research with small businesses
• Optimising collaboration across multiple time zones
• What it means to make comms truly customer-centric 

Dale McCarter, Insights Manager, Xero
Amanda Bourke, General Manager Voice of Customer & Small Business Insights, Xero
Joining for Q&A session:
Zoe Bishop, Business Director, C Space
Charles Drury, Innovation Director, C Space
Isabel Parashos, Senior Consultant, C Space

10.10 Noah Roychowdhury, Global Head of Customer Intelligence, Colt Technologies
In conversation with...
Amitayu Basu, CEO, Numr Research
Predicting customer relationship using transactional behaviour
Colt Technology Services (Colt) is renowned for its customer experience. This is borne out by an industry leading Net Promoter Score (NPS) and independent recognition (Frost & Sullivan). NUMR Research works closely with Colt to maintain this vital differentiation.
In 2020, NUMR advised Colt to introduce the Net Easy Score (NES), to measure the efficacy of everyday transactions and to determine how this feeds into the overarching NPS measure.
In this conversation, Amitayu and Noah will discuss the development of their predictive model between transactions (NES) and overall relationship (NPS) which enables Colt to use NES as an underlying driver to improve customer relationship and hence revenue. Hear how, going forward, this NUMR analytical model will enable Colt to anticipate and take action on all aspects of its customer experience. 

10.40 break & networking

 11.00 Ian Holt, Global HDEO & Industry Insight Manager, Shell
In conversation with…
Yana Wilkinson , Vice President – Energy, Kline
When it appears the whole world has stopped working because of Covid-19 how do you find out what is actually happening across the globe?
Shell and Kline will share how, together, they looked for signposts across multiple industries and geographies to understand the impact and extent of market lockdowns and find indicators of re-opening rates. Combining data about infection rates, government covid-19 policies, freight movement, energy usage, fuel sales, rush hour queues and on the ground human intel helped Shell predict what markets and sectors would continue and which would be put on hold.
Hear how this insight enabled the business to make informed decisions on resource focus and marketing messages across sectors as well as identifying practical solutions for local markets to implement quickly.

11.30 Panel - Remote working: has it left its mark on B2B research?
Join senior industry figures as they discuss the impact that remote working has had on B2B research, sharing views on some of the key opportunities and limitations it’s presented. Explore what the lessons have been, and what this promises for the future.

• Considering how B2B research is conducted and what elements of the research experience have changed for participants, researchers and clients
• Examining new techniques and approaches that have been driven by the lockdown situation
• What limitations have emerged in B2B Research methodologies this year?
• How is B2B research likely to transform permanently?

Chair: Sinead Jefferies, Founder, Vela
Panellists:
Maebh Whelan, SMB Insight Lead, Telefonica UK (O2)
Alex Johnston, Research Director, Jigsaw
Tim Pritchard, Managing Director, Customer Experience, Kantar 

12.10 Lunch

13.00 Quentin Dunstan, Organizational Resilience Market Development Manager, BSI (British Standards Institution)
In conversation with…
Paul Kavanagh, Managing Director, Beehive Research
Organizational resilience (in the light of COVID-19)
2020 was a year unlike any other. Many organizations were not prepared for the speed of change that COVID-19 delivered and organizational resilience was tested like never before. BSI surveyed 551 senior leaders to explore how prepared they were for the disruption, its immediate impact and how they responded to such a significant challenge. The survey explored how agile decision making and leadership performance across four key areas significantly impacts the ability of an organization to stabilize, survive, rebuild and thrive. Out of the research came the BSI Organizational Resilience Index.
Join Beehive and BSI as they discuss the research, including internal challenges and the lessons learnt. Hear about the application of new recruitment methodologies and the step change in strategy that the approach and outputs have enabled within the business.

13.30 A new window into a changed world: does an award-winning WhatsApp approach work with B2B audiences?
In 2020, Jigsaw integrated WhatsApp into its B2C digital research platform so that respondents would be better able to express themselves without being distracted by trying to figure out an unfamiliar platform, or being in the harsh spotlight of Twitter. Jigsaw wanted to see if this, award winning, approach would work with B2B audiences as well as it worked with consumers. To test this SMEs were included in a consumer community that ran in the UK and USA for 13 weeks.
This paper compares the responses obtained from the two audiences, in terms of quantity and quality of response. Find out whether WhatsApp works for B2B and in what circumstances, how to get the most out of it for a B2B audience and what to avoid in your research.
Alex Johnston, Research Director, Jigsaw

14.00 break & networking

14.20 The changing face of UK business
2020 was a tumultuous year for businesses in the UK. A global pandemic, national lockdown, the EU Exit, and an evolving cultural landscape have all contributed to changes in the way that businesses operate.
Ipsos MORI has conducted a wealth of research over the past year to explore the latest trends influencing business strategy and business psychology. Gain insights into structural issues affecting work opportunities for different groups, employees’ expectations and views on work life balance and business leaders’ views relating to risk, recovery, investment and opportunity.
These trends show that the business landscape is changing. As researchers, we need to be agile and continue to adapt, to provide a reflective picture of businesses in post-COVID-19 world.
Patricia Pinakova, Research Manager, Ipsos MORI
Krishna Dabhi, Research Manager, Ipsos MORI
Joining for Q&A:
Juliette Albone, Ipsos MORI 
Pascal Roelcke, Ipsos MORI

14.50 Women in business: the future is female
Even before the pandemic, men in the UK were five times more likely than women to build a business of £1 million+ turnover. With it being widely voiced that Covid has set back gender equality by decades the challenges for women succeeding in business are mounting.
In 2019 / 20, Barclays & Firefish undertook a project to determine how more women could be supported to become business owners and mistresses of their potential. The bank wanted to unearth the challenges experienced and how to tackle them. The findings make sobering, and inspiring, reading for all businesses seeking to engage with female business owners.
This session will examine and contextualise the findings in light of how women's lives have been affected over the past year and explore the practical steps Barclays and others can take to give support to women.
Lizzy Moroney, Head of Customer Strategy, Firefish
Margot Goldman-Edwards, Research Manager, Firefish
Juliet Gouldman, Head Of Strategic & External Engagement, Barclays

15.10 break & networking

15.30 Generating a needs-based accounting proposition for the small business segment
This case study demonstrates an in-depth and innovative approach to evaluating the future of Sage’s accounting and payroll category offering for the small business segment.
The multi-step programme of research with 1,200 existing and prospective small business customers and accountants combined qualitative, quantitative and analytical approaches and resulted in the development of a holistic needs-based segmentation.
Hear how the impact of the results were maximised across Sage using further deep dive sessions which helped develop strategies to create a more customer focused proposition.
Dean Tindall, Analytics Director at Boxclever
Matt Coggan, Research Director at Boxclever
Richard Fitzherbert, Pricing Director, Small Business at Sage

16.00 Achieving Functional Effectiveness in Global B2B Research
Consistently generating deeply-local B2B insights across markets with ease and efficiency: this session explores a tangible, tech-driven roadmap to achieving ‘Functional Effectiveness’ for multi-market B2B studies, the robust way of optimising operational efficiency and attaining effective depth of localisation for your client. Session speaker, Ruth, brings 25 years’ experience in insight localisation to the session as CEO of EMPOWER Translate, and is Chair of the UK Association of Translation Companies and MRS ACP Council Member.
Ruth Partington, CEO, EMPOWER

16.30 Panel: Let’s talk about panels: getting to the truth when it comes to corporate business research
Over the last decade, most consumer quantitative research has moved to an online method using panels as this gives reliable, insightful, and speedy findings at an affordable price. Panels have also proved to be successful among SMEs. However, when an online panel method is offered for a specialist business audience or for larger mid-market or corporate businesses, can the results be truly reliable and insightful in the same way?
Join Kathy Ellison, Director at Savanta, who will lead a panel discussion with her guests on the challenges and opportunities of using online panel versus CATI (telephone) methods for corporate business research.
Chair: Kathy Ellison, Director, Savanta
Panellists to be announced

17.00 Close of conference