About Merlinco
Merlinco develops and supports a range of software packages used for survey design, data collection and analysis, by agencies, consultancies and end users throughout the world. We were established in 1991, and have built our reputation by being responsive to user requests, and implementing enhancements very quickly. We also pride ourselves on the quality of our support and training (which is a very important aspect of any software decision), and our users consistently give us ‘excellent’ ratings in these areas.
Merlinco software is powerful, flexible, user-friendly, cost-effective, and manages all types of survey data. It also has links to and from other systems and applications, thus avoiding duplication of effort.
Merlinco are members of the following organisations, and are also sponsors of
MERLINCO’s users include anyone who wants to conduct marketing research or opinion surveys:
Merlinco Personnel
Managing Director, with particular responsibility for Support and Training. He joined Merlinco in 1991. For 19 years prior to that he worked at MAS Research (which latterly became part of the Taylor Nelson Sofres group), in the data processing department. As a specification writer, he used several analysis packages including MERLIN, and was responsible for converting the entire DP operation to MERLIN. Eventually becoming DP director, his responsibilities included data entry and CATI as well as survey tabulation. An excellent speaker, he has always taken a special interest in staff training and user documentation, which is clearly reflected in the work he now does at Merlinco.
Software Development Director. His career began in 1965 at MAS Research, where he attained the rank of Research Assistant before his interests began to focus on computerised survey analysis methods. After working in the bureau divisions of ICL, CRC and Libra he became a consultant in 1973 and co-authored the prototype version of MERLIN. In the 1980s he helped found the Tab Shop and Market Research Software, which he left in 1991 to start Merlinco, where he has been in charge of software development ever since. He is directly involved with both the design and the implementation of all Merlinco’s in-house software, but his chief interest and responsibility remains with MERLIN itself, a role he describes as being “a bit like painting the Forth Bridge, with the added complication that the banks move further apart every year”.
Production Director. She joined Merlinco in 2008 to manage our new Production Department. Kathy has over fifteen years experience as a MERLIN specwriter, and has worked for a wide range of clients – but her particular expertise is in healthcare research. As well as looking after MERLIN analysis jobs, Kathy also handles our web survey service, setting up projects for clients who do not have our web software themselves.
Business Development Director. After a degree in Business and Marketing, he has spent his entire career in the application of technology to survey data capture and analysis. This experience has mainly been on the supply side, providing CATI / CAPI and web software packages and tabulation systems to international markets, and running bureaux specialising in analysis of survey data. Additionally, Peter spent two years at AGB developing an IT strategy and designing and implementing the technical side of their Superpanel, with 10,000 panel members. He has extensive experience in managing large projects to ensure they are right and on time, and in running small bureaux providing personal service. Peter is a Fellow of The Market Research Society, and is a past Chairman of The British Market Research Association.
IT Director, who joined Merlinco in 2006 to work on our Support Desk, but soon took on many other tasks. Mark is our resident technician – maintaining our hardware, network and this website – as well as manning our support desk and advising our clients on a range of technical issues. In 2017, Mark was made an Associate Director of the company. He is from Kent and is a keen all-round sportsman.
Support and Production Executive. She joined Merlinco in 2017 from Bryter Research, where she set up a new DP Department using MERLIN. Prior to that, Reeta worked at Perspective Research Services, Fieldwork International, and GfK NOP, with over 20 years’ experience in market research data processing. Reeta works at our Support Desk, answering queries on MERLIN and other products, and also assists in our Production Department.
, who has worked with Merlinco since 1999 when he developed the MTW (MERLIN to Word) program. As well as maintaining MTW, Andrew also looks after the MERLINPLUS Questionnaire Export to Word, and the various interviewing modules. His own company specialises in technical documentation, and he has assisted Merlinco in this area as well.
“I have been a user of MERLINPLUS for around 10 years and have always found it very easy to use. The support service is excellent, if I ever have any difficulties they are always on hand to help and I usually get a response to my query in minutes rather than hours. I also use the web interviewing system which is very simple to use when you have a good understanding of CSS.”
“SwissPeaks conduct a variety of complex data analysis projects that would simply not be possible without MERLIN as a data processing application. The company has been using MERLIN for over 10 years and cannot fault the products or the level of support. The marriage of MERLIN and MERLIN Toolkit meets all our data management and processing needs, and our appreciation of the support from experienced staff cannot be overstated. Moreover, John and Keith have recently gone above and beyond expectations in order to create a bespoke solution for SwissPeaks that will benefit all MERLIN users.”
A close relationship with the Merlinco team means that whenever we have a query the answer is very quickly at hand, and in a way that is easy to put into practice. When we have development needs the software is updated within a very short timeframe.”
