The first point that I would like to discuss in my article on Community Panel Software is the need for an in-house IT team and its importance for any organizations to have an IT department. According to estimates, there are around 200 million employees who are using the internet for personal as well as professional purposes. Most of the employees are aware of the fact that they need to have an IT infrastructure consisting of dedicated servers and network hardware. Even though a majority of the employees use the internet for online shopping, research, data analysis or for some other purposes, most organizations still require an IT department to maintain the technological infrastructure necessary for these activities.

There are several benefits of having an IT department including hiring trained professionals such as an experienced CRM analyst who has the required knowledge about the product and how it can be used in real world scenarios. However, most companies overlook this aspect and find it difficult to integrate the information gathered from online surveys with the data they already collect from sales, customer support or other business channels. It is because of the complexity of integrating the data obtained from the surveys with the data coming from the business channels that most companies fail in implementing a reliable Online Community Panel software solution. If you want to succeed in your endeavors to implement an online community panel solution in your organization, you need to have a training program which teaches you how to create an online survey panel using a simple point and click interface. You need to train yourself with all the design features that are provided by this panel software package and how to make it work effectively in managing customer surveys.

The second point that I would like to touch on is about using IT resources for the purpose of online community panel software design and its impact on your budget. You must realize that a majority of the components required for the design of an online research panel and a sample management panel are available in your local office supply store. However, when you are trying to get the best quality product at an affordable price from a wholesaler, you may have to make some sacrifices. For example, when you are looking to order components such as printers and scanners, you will be required to give up on your online research and printing designing capabilities until you can find a local supplier that can meet your needs. In other words, you would have to sacrifice the value of online community panel software in order to get a lower price from a reseller.

The third point that I would like to make is about the impact of online research panel management software on your ability to communicate with your customers. Many online research panels are designed with the so called "list building" functionality in mind. They enable you to build up a database of potential customers over time. Some panel packages include a mechanism by which you can segment your list according to geographic location, income bracket, spending level etc. Once this list is built up, you are then able to send direct email messages to members of your list on any topic of your choosing. Once again, this comes at a cost: you must invest money in purchasing relevant market research information and market research lists in order to properly implement this feature.

The fourth point I'd like to make is around the concept of security and privacy. As I mentioned earlier, most of today's online research panel packages come standard with a built-in subscriber list. This means that each customer that signs up for a particular online research panel is automatically added to the subscriber list of each of the company's resellers. Given this setting, each person who signs up for the reseller hosting account has the access power to view all of the information contained within the subscriber list and can make use of it when they deem appropriate.

As you can see, there are some fundamental issues that exist when using online community panel software. This is a very good thing because it means that you are less likely to be caught out by the security and privacy concerns that tend to surround some of the more 'out there' market research tools. However, you do have to be careful. The problem is that many of these types of market research tools are sold for a lot of money, easily costing in the tens of thousands of dollars. With that said, it is important to always read the fine print so that you don't invest money you cannot afford to lose.