Custom Research & Strategy Consulting

Make your next strategic decision with stronger evidence.

Starfleet Research combines original market research, independent analysis and technology expertise to help solution providers and business leaders evaluate opportunities, set priorities and make informed decisions.

Our analysts have a front-row seat to technology innovation and firsthand insight into how organizations adopt it. We apply that knowledge to the decision you need to make.

Discuss your research needs

More than a decade of best-practices IT market research. Starfleet Research, the IT market research arm of Starfleet Media, is a globally recognized name in benchmarking technology-enabled business initiatives across hospitality, retail, healthcare and enterprise markets.

Research built around the decisions you face.

Whether you are developing technology or putting it to work, we help you understand the alternatives, examine assumptions and identify where to focus.

Where and how to compete

For technology solution providers

Market opportunity & competitive analysis

Assess priority segments, adoption patterns, buying triggers and competitive capabilities. Define the opportunity and the assumptions that need testing before you commit resources.

Product strategy & roadmap priorities

Investigate unmet needs, test product concepts and evaluate feature priorities. Understand which capabilities buyers value and what could prevent adoption.

Buyer insight & go-to-market strategy

Understand buying groups, selection criteria and barriers to a decision. Test positioning and messages against the problems and outcomes your target customers care about.

What to invest in and improve

For technology buyers & business leaders

Technology strategy & investment priorities

Assess capability gaps, operating requirements and organizational readiness. Prioritize initiatives, including AI and automation, around business value, dependencies and available resources.

Buying guidance & solution evaluation

Develop requirements, compare platforms and evaluate tradeoffs. Bring structure to demonstrations, shortlists and business cases with criteria tied to how your organization works.

Benchmarking & performance improvement

Get more from technology already in place. Examine workflows, adoption, training, data and measurement to understand performance differences and identify practical improvements.

The Starfleet advantage

A front-row seat to technology innovation.

Our analysts hear directly from the people developing new technology and the practitioners using it. We interpret what we learn through years of survey research, proprietary market intelligence and ongoing industry coverage.

Research into what practitioners need

Across dozens of research surveys, we have examined buying priorities, technology use, operating challenges and business outcomes. That evidence helps us understand how needs differ across markets and which technologies, processes and management practices are associated with stronger performance.

Firsthand insight into competing solutions

Leading providers regularly brief our analysts and demonstrate their platforms. These discussions give us a detailed view of features, integrations and product direction across competing solutions. We can ask how each approach addresses a business problem and what a buyer would need to put it into practice.

Proprietary market and audience intelligence

Our proprietary databases provide a detailed view of organizations and decision-makers across multiple industry sectors. This intelligence helps us understand market structure, segment opportunities and identify the audiences a study needs to reach.

The perspective of leading industry publications

Starfleet Media’s industry-leading publications, Hotel Technology News and Restaurant Technology News, keep us close to provider developments, operator priorities and the issues shaping technology adoption. This ongoing coverage adds current market context to our hospitality research and advisory work.

Taken together, these sources help us test assumptions, compare alternatives and assess new capabilities against actual business needs. Clients gain access to accumulated research, a detailed understanding of competing solutions and analysts who know which questions to ask.

From a focused question to a practical course of action.

The research approach, scope, timing, confidentiality requirements and deliverables are agreed at the outset.

  1. Define the decision

    Establish the business objectives, questions to investigate, stakeholders and evidence needed to move forward.

  2. Develop the evidence

    Tailor the study using surveys, interviews, stakeholder discussions, secondary research and product assessments as appropriate.

  3. Examine the alternatives

    Compare relevant segments, capabilities and practices. Make the basis for recommendations clear, including assumptions and limitations.

  4. Set the priorities

    Discuss the findings with your team and translate their implications into strategic options, recommendations and next steps.

What you receive

Research findings and recommendations your team can use.

Your deliverables reflect the assignment, from a focused assessment to a broader study with decision tools and a strategic roadmap.

A detailed report can document the evidence and reasoning. Executive working sessions give your team space to challenge assumptions, consider tradeoffs and agree on priorities.

Research reports & executive briefs
Findings, analysis and recommendations, with supporting data and comparisons.
Evaluation & planning tools
Capability matrices, requirements frameworks, buying-group profiles, scorecards or business-case models.
Prioritized recommendations
Actions, dependencies, measurement criteria and questions that require further validation.
Executive presentations & working sessions
Discussion of what the research means for your organization and how to apply it.

Explore our research methodology or read more about our custom research and consulting work. For research-based content to share with prospects, see co-branded eBooks and Benchmark Reports.

Bring us the question your next decision depends on.

Tell us what you need to decide, who will use the findings and when. We will recommend a research and advisory approach suited to your objectives.

Let’s discuss your project