A new phase in our life
After these three turbulent years with the problems at the UvA and the immediate success of the SRF a new phase followed in our life. The Foundation now had enough research money for some years but the students with whom we did research during the last years moved to the Market Research Company NIPO. Their task was to run the telepanel of the NIPO. In some sense we had to decide again how we would continue our life. It was clear that Willen had to continue his teaching task at the university but that he would do his research at the SRF. Irmtraud was managing the SRF which was necessary because rapidly new activities were started at the SRF.
New SRF activities
The SRF had a telepanel of 100 households using the Atari computers we had bought for the test of the procedure. NIPO started its telepanel with Philips MSX computers. We decided that we should continue a small panel of 50 households in order to be able to stay in contact with the development in this field and to do small experiments. This panel was managed by Martin Verwey. He made contact with the respondents if necessary and worked on the development of new questionnaires for small experiments and tried out some new procedures especially with respect to income and expenditure research. He was at that moment the only person who had a paid job at the SRF.
New SRF activities
The SRF had a telepanel of 100 households using the Atari computers we had bought for the test of the procedure. NIPO started its telepanel with Philips MSX computers. We decided that we should continue a small panel of 50 households in order to be able to stay in contact with the development in this field and to do small experiments. This panel was managed by Martin Verwey. He made contact with the respondents if necessary and worked on the development of new questionnaires for small experiments and tried out some new procedures especially with respect to income and expenditure research. He was at that moment the only person who had a paid job at the SRF.
New students at the SRF
Already during the first courses Willem taught at the UvA several students who showed interest in his approach to social science. These students asked him if he had suggestions for their research. Now he had the time to start the fundamental research he was planning to do after his last visit to Milton Lodge at Stony Brook. With some of these students he started the research on “variation in response functions” which intrigued him because it creates a lot of doubt on the comparability of survey data if people express themselves in different ways. He did experimental research with the new research assistants Bas van den Putte, Kees Maas and Harry Seip, the mathematician of our department. Besides the students mentioned, also Joan Manuel Batista from Spain, who had assisted Willem´s course in Essex, joint the group in this research. Most of this work was done at the SRF. As can be seen in the photo above the atmosphere during that research was much better than at the University.
Promotion of computer assisted data collection
Given the success in the Netherlands of the Telepanel procedure and the computer assisted data collection in general we thought that we should use this opportunity to see if other market research companies and possibly even national statistical offices would be interested in the data collection methods and the software we had developed. So we decided that Irmtraud would visit a number of market research companies in different countries to sell the computer assisted data collection procedures also there. Irmtraud would present the procedures and software and possibly could obtain contracts. For this purpose Willem and Marius de Pijper published also a paper about the telepanel procedure in the journal “European Research” of the European Market research organization ESOMAR.
Given the success in the Netherlands of the Telepanel procedure and the computer assisted data collection in general we thought that we should use this opportunity to see if other market research companies and possibly even national statistical offices would be interested in the data collection methods and the software we had developed. So we decided that Irmtraud would visit a number of market research companies in different countries to sell the computer assisted data collection procedures also there. Irmtraud would present the procedures and software and possibly could obtain contracts. For this purpose Willem and Marius de Pijper published also a paper about the telepanel procedure in the journal “European Research” of the European Market research organization ESOMAR.
Irmtraud as sales woman
Irmtraud phoned larger marketing research companies in Germany, Switzerland and Italy. If they were interested she made an appointment to come along for a presentation. First she went with a computer and our software to Germany, Hamburg and Frankfurt. After that she went to companies in Switzerland, Zurich and Bern and finally she went to Milan to the Gallup Company. In general the companies thought that it was too early for an investment in computers. They still were collecting data using "paper and pencil questionnaires". Only in Milan she got a more positive reaction. With this company she made a contract for a license of our software for telephone interviewing. The general impression was that we were too far ahead of them. They did not see the advantage of our approaches for their work.
Irmtraud phoned larger marketing research companies in Germany, Switzerland and Italy. If they were interested she made an appointment to come along for a presentation. First she went with a computer and our software to Germany, Hamburg and Frankfurt. After that she went to companies in Switzerland, Zurich and Bern and finally she went to Milan to the Gallup Company. In general the companies thought that it was too early for an investment in computers. They still were collecting data using "paper and pencil questionnaires". Only in Milan she got a more positive reaction. With this company she made a contract for a license of our software for telephone interviewing. The general impression was that we were too far ahead of them. They did not see the advantage of our approaches for their work.
Later that year we also went to the USA at a conference organized by the American Census Bureau. We had got permission to have a space outside the room where the conference took place. There we presented the software and the information about the procedures we had developed. The interest in our work was also here very minimal.
Our big chance
The biggest surprise came when we were home again. We were contacted by GFK, a big German company on panel research. They asked us for a visit to be informed about our software and procedures. We made an appointment for the next Friday the same week at 10 O´clock at the SRF.
Since we came back from the USA we still had problems with the time table. We slept longer than normal in the mornings. This also happened on the day we had the appointment with GFK. Fortunately Bas van den Putte came early to the SRF and woke us up, knowing about the meeting. At 10 a.m we were ready.
It turned out that a GFK director and a technician came by plane that day to Amsterdam to talk about our software about which they had read in the Esomar journal. Our presentation was sufficiently well that they asked us how much it would cost if they would take an exclusive license of our software for the whole of Europe. We were so surprised by this question that we did not know how to answer. We had no idea about these matters. It was also complicated by the fact that we had already a contract with two Gallup organizations in Europe. In the end we said that we would answer this question by mail. We don´t remember how we answered but in the end no contract has been made with GFK
Comment
We have to be happy that we did not end up in the software business. It would have led to a lot of software development which was not our main interest. Besides that this market was very competitive and was changing by the day. Surely at that moment we were far ahead of all others but that was just a matter of time. For example the Dutch Statistical Office (CBS) developed her own software (Blaise) which was provided for free. Only later they started to ask money for the maintenance of their software. With such a competitor one can´t compete, even though we pretended that our software was much user-friendlier than theirs.
Our big chance
The biggest surprise came when we were home again. We were contacted by GFK, a big German company on panel research. They asked us for a visit to be informed about our software and procedures. We made an appointment for the next Friday the same week at 10 O´clock at the SRF.
Since we came back from the USA we still had problems with the time table. We slept longer than normal in the mornings. This also happened on the day we had the appointment with GFK. Fortunately Bas van den Putte came early to the SRF and woke us up, knowing about the meeting. At 10 a.m we were ready.
It turned out that a GFK director and a technician came by plane that day to Amsterdam to talk about our software about which they had read in the Esomar journal. Our presentation was sufficiently well that they asked us how much it would cost if they would take an exclusive license of our software for the whole of Europe. We were so surprised by this question that we did not know how to answer. We had no idea about these matters. It was also complicated by the fact that we had already a contract with two Gallup organizations in Europe. In the end we said that we would answer this question by mail. We don´t remember how we answered but in the end no contract has been made with GFK
Comment
We have to be happy that we did not end up in the software business. It would have led to a lot of software development which was not our main interest. Besides that this market was very competitive and was changing by the day. Surely at that moment we were far ahead of all others but that was just a matter of time. For example the Dutch Statistical Office (CBS) developed her own software (Blaise) which was provided for free. Only later they started to ask money for the maintenance of their software. With such a competitor one can´t compete, even though we pretended that our software was much user-friendlier than theirs.