For organizations that have not yet begun using the Internet as a tool for gathering and disseminating information on marketplace dynamics, customers, employees, and other organizational stakeholders, Burke recommends a three-stage process of preparation, augmentation, and replacement.

Burke believes in looking before leaping into online data collection. Few rules about the Internet can be applied across all research topics and industries. Begin by learning the Web usage incidence of your target audience.

Once the Internet-enabled portion of your target population has reached a critical mass, it is time to begin the process of side-by-side comparison. Connected individuals might be a majority of your market, but how well do they represent the whole? Are there differences in the data based on the collection methodology? Some companies claim they have designed calibration techniques that can be applied to all research topics and respondent types. Our research to date teaches us to resist this panacea. The only way to decisively assess the impact of the Web on your research is to conduct a controlled side-by-side experiment, where everything except the method of collection is held constant. Building calibration functions relevant to your specific situation will allow you to transition research that you have built up and invested in over time from one firm foundation to another.

The differences between your target audience offline and your target audience online will eventually diminish, and respondent data can be captured as easily online as offline - with well-understood differences relating to survey method. Until that day, we suggest that you partner with a company that is looking to protect the value of your data investment every step of the way.