• Maxwell Research, a full-service research firm located in Austin, Texas, specializes in custom research serving primarily the hospitality, travel, and consumer package goods industries. 
• At this quickly growing company, Mike Maxwell, CEO and founder, says that the firm’s success is attributable to providing outstanding service to their clients. 
• For its 15 top key accounts, each key account manager must reside in the city where the key account is located in order to be available 24/7. 
• While sales have increased a minimum of 20 percent annually since 2000, net profits have not and instead have fallen in each of the last three years. 
• Mike knew that his labor-intensive, customer-oriented approach was part of the problem.
• One possible approach to lowering labor costs is outsourcing, and based on things he has heard, Mike is considering a company located in India called Cross-Tab. 
• An examination of Cross-Tab’s website reveals the following: 

Why Cross-Tab Orientation?

• Cross-Tab is a full-service market research agency that also provides outsourcing services for market research and data analytics processes to global marketing and market research organizations. 
• The team has deep knowledge of market research data and its implications. 
• They are active members of key global industry bodies such as ESOMAR, CASRO, MRSI, and AMA and adhere to their respective codes. 

Cross-Tab Experience

• Have experience across all areas of research, including: Online surveys, CATI, and PAPI; small ad-hoc projects as well as large multi-country projects; qualitative and quantitative studies; business and consumer research.
• Working with national and global clients, have experience in managing large-volume data projects. Can integrate and harness data from a variety of sources and platforms.

Cross-Tab People

• Team is equipped with the knowledge, resources, and domain expertise to effectively execute each client’s business mandates.
• Every member of the working team has relevant expertise and experience in research, analysis, advertising and marketing industry, having worked with major companies.
• Every team member goes through training programs to remain updated on best practices.

Questions:

1. What do you think about Mike’s labor-intensive focus on customer service? What are the advantages and disadvantages?

2. What are the advantages and disadvantages for Maxwell Research to engage in outsourcing?

3. What are some key issues Maxwell needs to resolve before it signs an outsourcing agreement?

4. Will outsourcing solve Maxwell’s ROI problem? What might happen to sales revenue?