ReachTEL is a

market research Market research is an organized effort to gather information about target markets and customers: know about them, starting with who they are. It is an important component of business strategy and a major factor in maintaining competitiveness. Ma ...

company founded and based in Australia, now owned by the American multinational company

Equifax Equifax Inc. is an American multinational consumer credit reporting agency headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia and is one of the three largest consumer credit reporting agencies, along with Experian and TransUnion (together known as the "Big Thr ...

. It conducts regular

opinion polling An opinion poll, often simply referred to as a survey or a poll (although strictly a poll is an actual election) is a human research survey of public opinion from a particular sample. Opinion polls are usually designed to represent the opinion ...

for Australian politics.

History

ReachTEL was founded by James Stewart and Nick Adams in 2008. In September 2015 the company was acquired by the

data analytics Analytics is the systematic computational analysis of data or statistics. It is used for the discovery, interpretation, and communication of meaningful patterns in data. It also entails applying data patterns toward effective decision-making. It ...

company

Veda upright=1.2, The Vedas are ancient Sanskrit texts of Hinduism. Above: A page from the '' Atharvaveda''. The Vedas (, , ) are a large body of religious texts originating in ancient India. Composed in Vedic Sanskrit, the texts constitute th ...

, which was also the largest credit reference agency in Australia at the time. Veda was subsequently sold to the American multinational consumer credit reporting agency

in February 2016. James Stewart resigned from ReachTEL in 2018, and subsequently acquired a third share in the market research company UComms, co-owned by union bosses

Sally McManus Sally McManus (born 31 July 1971) is an Australian trade unionist, feminist and political activist who has served as the Secretary of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) since 2017. She is the first woman to hold the position of Secre ...

, secretary of the

ACTU The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), originally the Australasian Council of Trade Unions, is the largest peak body representing workers in Australia. It is a national trade union centre of 46 affiliated unions and eight trades and la ...

, and Michael O'Connor, national secretary of the

CFMMEU The Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union (CFMMEU, though most commonly still referred to as CFMEU) is Australia's main trade union in construction, forestry, maritime, mining, energy, textile, clothing and footwear producti ...

, both non-beneficiary shareholders of the company on behalf of their unions. Although

opinion poll An opinion poll, often simply referred to as a survey or a poll (although strictly a poll is an actual election) is a human research survey of public opinion from a particular sample. Opinion polls are usually designed to represent the opinion ...

s were often recorded as "uComms/ReachTEL" opinion polls, and UComms' logo formerly included the phrase "Powered by ReachTEL", the only relationship is the use of ReachTEL's data and the use of its original robo-polling and

SMS Short Message/Messaging Service, commonly abbreviated as SMS, is a text messaging service component of most telephone, Internet and mobile device systems. It uses standardized communication protocols that let mobile devices exchange short text ...

technology.

Description

ReachTEL is wholly owned by Equifax and is not affiliated to any other group or interests. Along with

Newspoll Newspoll is an Australian opinion polling brand, published by ''The Australian'' and administered by international market research and data analytics group, YouGov. Newspoll has a long tradition of predicting Australian Federal Election resul ...

Roy Morgan Roy Morgan, formerly known as Roy Morgan Research, is an independent Australian social and political market research and public opinion statistics company headquartered in Melbourne, Victoria. It operates nationally as Roy Morgan and internatio ...

, Essential,

YouGov YouGov is a British international Internet-based market research and data analytics firm, headquartered in the UK, with operations in Europe, North America, the Middle East and Asia-Pacific. In 2007, it acquired US company Polimetrix, and since ...

and Ipsos Australia, it conducts regular

for Australian politics.

References

External links

*{{official, https://www.equifax.com.au/reachtel/ Market research companies of Australia Companies established in 2008 2008 establishments in Australia Opinion polling in Australia