1              Overview

This certification program is based on AS4752, and is targeted at organisations working in the market research field.

The Standard covers 4 core aspects:

- Systems structure and management

- Project Management and Reporting

- Data collection

- Data management and processing

AS4752 is a very comprehensive document and has a number of informative and normative terms: this means that some clauses are prescriptive whilst others are for guidance.

The aim of our certification program is to provide organisations operating in the field the ability to prove their commitment to quality and ethics, and compliance to an industry recognised standard.

Our certification program will assess if an organisation complies with the standard.  It will include a document review, on site audit (we call it a business review), witnessing data collection activities and reporting, as appropriate.

2              In simple terms

Most purchasing organisations are keen to have confidence in the credentials of the market research companies with which they will contract.

Certification to AS4752 an industry specific standard allows market research firms to prove and support their credibility, by putting themselves, their people, systems and processes to an independent (and on-going) examination.

AS 4752 was developed by Standards Australia (SAI Limited) and in association with a number of industry bodies including market research buyers and suppliers. The standard is distributed by SAI Global.

3              Specific program conditions

3.1         Scope of activities

Organisations involved in market research can seek certification that to the following scopes (or combination of scopes):

• Research practice – qualitative and/or quantitative
• Project management
• Field and data collection
• Data management - including data entry, processing and coding
• Recruitment for qualitative research

Other categories may be defined, as needed.  Other categories may be defined, as needed.

3.2         Outsourcing design activities

If your organisation outsources design and development activity, the design requirements of the standard cannot be excluded, and we will expect you to have controls in place to demonstrate that you are responsible and have controls for and on the design and development process.

The design function must relate to the design of the research which is within the scope of certification.

4              What documents/records are needed to understand this program

In order to understand our program, you should also access and be aware of the following documents:

·         G-00: Client Pack

·         MSP-00: Introduction to our management systems

·         MSP-01: Nomenclature and definitions

·         MSP-24 Appeals