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New York - According to a recent survey of 123 US-based hedge funds and mutual funds, expert networks are widely used by the buy side to perform channel research projects. 56% of all the respondents claimed to use an expert network for channel checking—more than double the number that claimed to use channel checking specialists, sell-side brokers and other types of firms for their channel checking work.

The survey results further indicated that money managers use expert networks for channel research in a variety of ways. Some money managers use expert networks solely to identify unique channel participants. Others use expert networks to conduct channel surveys on their behalf. In some cases, expert networks will take part in all phases of the channel research project, including survey design, list generation, data collection and results analysis.

Not all expert networks will provide custom survey research on behalf of their clients, but discussions with expert networks indicate that many are beefing up their capabilities in this area.

To date, Integrity has identified more than twenty providers of expert network services. These providers are profiled in our recent ResearchFocus report on the expert network space. Our next ResearchFocus report, which will cover the channel checking industry, will also have information on expert networks and their channel checking capabilities, as well as information on all the other types of providers that a money manager can go to for custom survey work: channel checking specialists, sell-side brokers, market research firms, KPO firms and boutique industry consultancies.