The Unique Value of Consverge: What Consverge brings for Heavy Users of Expert Network Services

What is Consverge? 

Consverge was set up with a singular mission: to streamline and improve access to the right people who can assist customers looking to conduct primary research – particularly for organisations that use Expert Networks.  

Consverge acts primarily as an ‘aggregator’ of Expert Network services. We partner with Expert Networks globally to provide customers with access to experts from all of these networks in one place and with a single point of contact. These Expert Networks include regional and sector specialist networks as well as more generalist Expert Networks. 

As far as customers are concerned, working with Consverge is very similar to working with a single Expert Network. Consverge does all of the aggregation work – including choosing the best Expert Networks to work with for each specific brief, vetting all experts put forward etc. – behind the scenes. Customers can work either through our state of the art platform or via a single project manager. Furthermore, Consverge customers only need one agreement with Consverge to access the resources of all of our Expert Network partners. Everything is charged on a ‘pay as you go’ basis, with no upfront commitment or hidden charges. 

We offer a full-service solution and provide many ancillary services around our core solution as standard. These include a full project management service, compliance checks where needed, free automated transcription, single automated billing, expert ranking, etc.  

Consverge for Large users of Expert Networks

The challenges organisations face when conducting primary research using expert networks differ depending on several factors. The two most significant of these are generally the types of an organisation looking to conduct the research and, importantly, the size of the organisation looking to conduct the research. For the remainder of this article, we will be addressing how Consverge works for bigger organisations. 

For large users of Expert Network services, it is usually the case that no single Expert Network – no matter how big – can satisfy all of the customer’s needs. Really big users of Expert Network services often find themselves having agreements with tens, or even twenty or more, individual Expert Networks because of this. This may sound like an awful lot; however, in a fragmented industry such as Expert Network services – where there are over 130 individual suppliers – the biggest organisations are still not necessarily getting access to the highest quality of experts available in a manner that works for them. 

This is particularly true outside of mainstream expert requests. There are many countries and sub-sectors worldwide where it is much more difficult to find true expertise on particular matters. This is often simply because the people really ‘in the know’ do not have their profiles on LinkedIn or similar platforms. Therefore, it is more difficult for generalist Expert Networks to find the right people. Because of this, the knowledge of smaller specialised Expert Networks – often started by individuals with direct knowledge – is particularly important. 

Large users of Expert Network services have complex primary research needs. Consverge does not seek to act as a ‘one-stop shop’ for large clients such as these. We are, however, able to provide significant value and assistance to such clients in their primary research activities. Our extensive list of Expert Networks partners includes a large number of regional and/or sector specialist Expert Networks. Many of these Expert Networks are too small or specialised for it to be warranted or worthwhile for larger organisations to go through the process of setting up agreements. Managing multiple expert networks is, after all, a legal and logistical headache for even the most prominent organisations, including those that have teams in place to deal with precisely this. No company can justify on-boarding more Expert Networks than is strictly necessary.  

By working with Consverge, large users of Expert Network Services can access experts from multiple providers that they would never usually have the time or wherewithal to engage individually – and they can do this all in one place. In addition to providing access to multiple mainstream Expert Networks, Consverge’s ability to offer large clients access to the ‘best of the rest’ Expert Networks that adds perhaps the most value to large clients.

Whether you are a user / customer or an expert network, if you want to participate in the Consverge transformation you can register on our platform at https://portal.consverge.com/ or reach us at: solutions@consverge.com