Onsite Market Research (Secondary And Primary Market Research) For Implementation Of A Digital Sourcing Platform For Its Client (Government)

About Client:

A US-based global consulting firm (Client) is a reputed name with 200+ years of business legacy. The firm provides commercial data, analytics, and insights for businesses worldwide serving customers in government and industries such as BFSI, Consumers, manufacturing and TMT among others. The firm offers services for risk and finance as well as research and insights on global business issues. The firm is one of the market leaders in providing company business profiles advising the unique needs of both, Government and Small businesses through its strong 5,000+ team of consultants globally.

Business Problem:

Client was awarded a contract by the Government of Qatar to develop and implement a digital sourcing platform for small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The objective was to help local SMEs source raw materials, trade supplies and office supplies at reasonable prices through the bid system. Our Client was looking for market research support to be done in Qatar to complete this project. Client was facing an internal bandwidth constraint and a challenge of finding a right research partner with a proven track record of both secondary and primary market research expertise; and with know-how of the regional nuances alongside having vast global research experience. The Client wanted a full time dedicated onsite support for primary market research, attend client meetings and participate in discussions with the Government officials. The client team had consultants with ~15-20 years of experience. Despite the Client having in-house consultants globally, they preferred a team of well-trained market research professionals from ValueAdd to meet their requirements, diagnose the business problems and come up with implementable solutions.

ValueAdd Solution:

Efficient delivery of the research study:

ValueAdd’s team of analysts worked closely with the team of consultants and came up with a multi-phased approach to address the requirements clearly setting project objectives, approach and timelines for completion of the market research. ValueAdd combined its expertise of strong secondary research along with primary research to identify the key business problems facing the SME’s in Qatar and the ideal sourcing platform that should be implemented to support the SME’s based on the global benchmarking study of digital sourcing platforms and their key success factors.

Market Research of Qatar SME Industry:

  • Qatar SME market sizing, growth, industry concentration, key trends, products/services, and regional spread
  • Current sourcing patterns, volumes and price studies across raw materials, trade supplies, and office supplies, challenges, any online/offline platforms leveraged.
  • Studied some of the micro to large SMEs on stratified random sample basis, to understand their services and products, raw materials used, unique sourcing needs, challenges, and pricing dynamics.
  • Conducted interviews with SME owners, SME industry associations, and industry experts to understand the viability of such platform; and the result was affirmative.

Platform Benchmarking Study:

  • Detailed study was carried out to understand the existing global sourcing platforms with a focus on manufacturing related industries.
  • Performed a competitive benchmarking of such platforms implemented by Government of India and private associations like Omnia Partners, Power2SME, OfBusiness, SourceRFX, Zer and Guild CPO
  • Conducted discussions with government officials to understand the critical success factors, implementation risk, adoption by SMEs, and accrued benefits.

Benefits Delivered:

  • ValueAdd offered for the Client a specialized team of business research analysts with strong secondary research and primary research skill sets. This helped the Consultancy firm deliver the required benchmarking study and advice the Government of Qatar the recommended digital sourcing platform solution and its implementation approach. ValueAdd analysts seamlessly integrated into the onsite work environment and offered real-time benefits to the client during the market research and benchmarking study from Qatar.
  • The Project Team (Client’s senior consultant and ValueAdd analysts) completed phase I of this project within budgeted timelines and cost.
  • Client could complete the required market research study and the Government’s project mandate well on time and take the engagement to the next stage of implementation.
  • ValueAdd analysts participated actively in the various presentations and meeting discussions with the Government officials to update on the progress and key research findings.
  • Client Consultants’ bandwidth released for more value-added initiatives such as reaching out to industry experts and engaging for technical discussions for the next stage of implementing the digital sourcing platform
  • Client didn’t have any internal suitable resource for this project; also hiring on time was a big challenge given Qatar’s labor situation.
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