Interrogare is a full-service market research agency based in Germany. They support clients across a wide range of research areas, with a particular focus on tracking studies, ad hoc research, pricing, product and innovation research, including dedicated conjoint analysis. Their expertise also extends to market segmentation, target group research, personas and mental availability, including implicit perception measurement through reaction time-based methodologies. Learn from Julia Fischinger, Consultant, Interrgogare, about their journey to high-precision reporting.
When Automation Still Needed Manual Work
Before E-Tabs, Julia explained that Interrogare had already experimented with several forms of report automation, including in-house VBA programming and other software developed by external programmers. These solutions brought some clear advantages. The custom software, for example, was directly connected to Interrogare’s database, while the in house VBA approach allowed for fast communication and quick troubleshooting with colleagues who were nearby and familiar with the process. The VBA solution also avoided additional licence costs.
However, these came with important limitations. The custom software was expensive to maintain and every change required manual intervention from programmers. For the Interrogare team, the system itself felt like a “black box” – complex, difficult to understand and hard to adapt independently. Despite the automation, many projects still required manual work afterwards because not every reporting requirement could be handled by the existing tools. Both the VBA and custom software approaches also depended heavily on single-person knowledge, meaning that only a small number of individuals had the expertise needed to manage or adjust the process.
“Every change we had was manual and the programming stuff was a black box for us. This was a big downside as it was very complex.”
Julia Fischinger
Consultant, Interrogare
Combining Internal Control with E-Tabs Expertise
With E-Tabs, Interrogare gained a more flexible approach to report automation. The team now has access to the E-Tabs’ DIY tool, allowing them to programme automated PowerPoint reports in-house, Julia explained, “We had trainings to be able to DIY the tool.” This means they can manage and adapt reporting workflows themselves when they have the time and capacity to do so.
At the same time, Interrogare can also draw on E-Tabs’ Bureau expertise as an external service. When internal capacity is limited, E-Tabs Bureau Service can programme complete reports on their behalf, giving the team the option to balance in house control with external support.
This combination has been a major advantage compared with previous custom software development. E-Tabs brought both programming knowledge, deep PowerPoint expertise and 24/7 service helping Interrogare create automated reports that were better aligned with the realities of market research deliverables. Julia explained, “I’m always in loop in the emails and there are everyday multiple emails going here and there, so, yeah, high communication flow.“
“Now that we are using E-Tabs, we have a DIY tool where we can do the programming ourselves, but we can also book programming through E-Tabs when we don’t have the time internally.”
Julia Fischinger
Consultant, Interrogare
Turning 1,300 Slides into a Scalable Reporting Workflow
One example of Interrogare’s crucial use of E-Tabs automation was for their Product of the Year 2026 Project. Julia explained, this was “a large scale consumer survey among respondents aged 18 to 65 who were responsible for purchase decisions.” A key part of the research was Interrogare’s reaction time measurement, used to assess implicit perception and mental availability.
The need for automation was driven by volume. The project covered 36 product categories, with four reports per category and 20 to 40 slides per report. Even after accounting for duplicated slides, the team still needed to produce around 1,300 individual slides. Manually, this would have required more than 400 hours of work.
Because the reporting structure was highly reproducible, the project was ideally suited to E-Tabs automation. Interrogare was able to automate reaction time measurement results across categories and products, including winner comparisons, product level detail and deviations from the winning product. This enabled the team to report a large volume of data efficiently, consistently and at scale.
“We ended up producing about 1,300 individual slides. Manually, that would have been more than 400 hours of work, so this is why we decided to automate.”
Julia Fischinger
Consultant, Interrogare
The Results: Lower Costs, Faster Checks and Delivery
The impact of E-Tabs automation was clear. Compared with a fully manual reporting process, “Interrogare reduced reporting costs by up to 75%.” This allowed the team to offer more attractive pricing to the customer, strengthening the commercial viability of the project. Without automation, the reporting effort may have made the project too expensive to deliver competitively.
With a more efficient process in place, Interrogare was also able to approximately double its delivery volume per week, helping the team deliver faster and improve the customer experience.
“E-Tabs provided us with seventy-five percent lower costs compared to fully manual reporting.”
Julia Fischinger
Consultant, Interrogare
Automation That Keeps Delivering
Automation revolutionised checking time. Interrogare only needed to check the first reports before moving to random checks for systematic errors, “the quality check time is nearly halved, as we are mainly doing random checks.” It also approximately doubled weekly delivery volume, allowing reports to reach customers faster. “The delivery volume per week is approximately doubled, so you can just deliver faster to the customers and the customer is happy.”
The long term benefits were even stronger in follow up waves. Because the programming could be reused, there was no need to repeat the initial setup. Julia explained, “we update our tables, we click on a button and we have our new reports.”
“We click on the button, we get the reports and they can be sent out after some checks because of the reusable programming.”
Julia Fischinger
Consultant, Interrogare
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