We are pleased to announce the completion of two new integrated software systems for collecting market research data over the Internet: ACA/Web (Adaptive Conjoint Analysis for the Web) and CiW (a general survey administration tool for the Web). These two programs are components within a developing suite of Web-based software products that we are calling SSI Web.
Sawtooth Software and MarketTools (www.markettools.com) have formed a strategic alliance to integrate specialized versions of Sawtooth Software's analytical tools within Market Tools' on-line ASP (Application Service Provider) offering. MarketTools has developed a product called zTelligence (www.zTelligence.com), a "one-stop" ASP solution for collecting, analyzing and reporting market research and relationship information over the Web. zTelligence is built on a powerful array of multiple high-speed Web, database and application servers offering superior speed, bandwidth and security.
Just short of a year from now, we will hold our ninth Sawtooth Software Conference, on September 12-14, 2001 in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Our research conference brings together some of the best minds in our industry to talk about practical issues in computer/Web interviewing and quantitative market research. It is not a sales-oriented event, but a chance to exchange ideas and receive education from a variety of sources and perspectives. Papers presented at our previous Sawtooth Software Conferences are cited frequently in journal articles.
About five years ago, we published an earlier version of this article in Sawtooth Solutions. We've updated that article here and have condensed it somewhat. We hope this advice will help ACA users avoid the pitfalls and produce consistently good results.
Over the last three decades, conjoint analysis has blossomed as a valuable technique to measure people's preferences for products and services and to predict how markets might react to different product offerings. In 1985, Sawtooth Software created one of the first commercially available software package for conjoint analysis, called ACA (Adaptive Conjoint Analysis). ACA soon became the most widely used conjoint research technique and software system (based on industry-wide studies in 1992 and 1997).