Top Expert Network Companies in 2023 (Buyer’s Guide)

In a post-pandemic world, business leaders face a challenging economic landscape. 

Industry developments and market movements often feel endless, making it difficult to stay at the forefront of your industry. It requires constant sifting through the ever-expanding supply of available information, as well as finding relevant insights amidst the noise. The timeliness, quality, and quantity of those insights could directly influence your company’s performance and future outlook—which is why it’s so crucial to rely on tools that feed you the right information at the right time. 

That’s where expert networks come in. 

Expert networks refer to a type of business that connects companies with expert resources or subject-matter experts (ranging from former C-level executives to a company’s customers) to provide valuable and current information, data, or assistance.

These first-hand perspectives are a critical addition to the secondary research that most professionals rely on in their market research, landscaping, and monitoring. Hearing directly from first-hand involvement in a company or industry, alongside unique experiential insights, will radically transform the research from reactive to proactive and builds a more holistic view of any company, industry, or trend.  

There are a myriad of expert network platforms that serve specific industry needs, whether you are looking for instantaneous insights or ongoing one-on-one consultations. Some are better suited for large corporations and enterprises, while others work better for small businesses or individuals. Some are equipped with artificial intelligence capabilities that enable you to maximize and streamline your research, while others are more traditional in their approach. 

With an array of options available, it’s important to consider your specific business needs, goals, and workflow when selecting an expert network platform. Which platform will return the most ROI for your business? Which company provides access to the most in-depth, varied expertise that will ultimately eliminate blind spots in your research? 

In this buyer’s guide, we dive into the top expert networks for professionals looking to optimize their research methods, including which platform best suits your unique business needs. 

 

AlphaSense

As mentioned, staying current on every trend, development, and movement relating to your industry requires a tool that separates the noise from the insights you need. But going through the channels of a traditional expert network can be a time-consuming task—especially for those who have to make quick decisions. 

The Value: 

AlphaSense is an AI-powered search engine for market intelligence. And with Stream in AlphaSense, users can leverage expert perspectives against insights derived from our extensive and ever-growing universe of content, gaining a 360 view on any market, industry, or trend. 

• Our platform uses proprietary and market-leading AI technology that integrates machine learning and NLP to help users extract the information they need in seconds from thousands of previously disparate business data sources. 
• AlphaSense aggregates financial and business data (broker research, company documents, news, and more) from over 10,000 trusted sources to provide our users with a robust research universe and ensure they never miss a vital piece of information.
• With Stream in AlphaSense, users have access to an expansive library of expert calls and transcripts that reveal firsthand perspectives they wouldn’t find anywhere else. This primary research is a crucial complement to the secondary research sources most professionals traditionally rely on.

Capabilities:

To further aid client research, AlphaSense’s sentiment analysis identifies, quantifies, and analyzes levels of emotion in text, while the Search Summary feature allows you to find relevant companies, industries, and regions trending in relation to a specific theme. 

Additionally, our real-time monitoring functionality monitors market activity 24/7, so you can focus on strategizing your findings. Together, these features shorten your hunt for valuable insights into any industry to just a few seconds.

In tandem with our partner Stream, AlphaSense boasts an extensive library of expert calls so users can find fresh insights on new products, market sizes, and sector occurrences shaping their industry in seconds.

Pricing:

To ensure our pricing meets your organization’s specific needs, we offer flexible subscriptions to accommodate team sizes, content needs, and more, ranging from enterprise packages to per-seat options.

 

Stream by AlphaSense

Side-stepping the search for an industry expert and finding millions of valuable insights in seconds is all possible with Stream by AlphaSense. In the AlphaSense platform, users can access transcripts and audio for over 28,000 expert calls across all industries, with 2,000 more added every month.

But what are expert calls? Expert calls are one-on-one interviews with seasoned subject matter experts—such as thought leaders, former executives, customers, partners, and competitors—from a specific industry or company.

The Value:

These experts provide unique perspectives that otherwise would be inaccessible to investment analysts and other professionals. By getting instant access to on-demand, searchable transcripts, you accelerate your time-to-decision and gather high-quality insights in a fraction of the time and cost.

• Expert call interviews can uncover insights and potential research areas that a professional would have never known to look into. 
• When a researcher does know certain details of a niche space—for instance, when an investment firm seeks to enter a high-potential market—expert calls can still provide the kind of unique perspective that would be impossible to come by from any other source. 
• With AI search technology and automated alerts, easily capture insights from thousands of on-demand transcripts and find the information you need faster, so you never have to waste time or money on irrelevant sources.

Capabilities:

When leveraged with AlphaSense’s exclusive features and AI search technology, Stream allows you to easily capture insights from tens of thousands of in-depth expert interviews and build a holistic view of any market, industry, or trend. Stream by AlphaSense offers:

• Transcripts and audio for over 26,000 expert calls across all industries, with 2,000 more added every month.
• The ability to cut down on search time through  proprietary AI search technology and automated alerts that easily capture insights from thousands of on-demand transcripts.

Stream by Alphasense also prioritizes compliance throughout the content development process. Not only is Stream’s compliance process created by our Chief Compliance Officer (CCO) with 20+ years of experience, it also follows a robust procedure to verify experts and review each individual transcript before publication. Stream by AlphaSense’s hand-picked team of compliance reviewers have collectively reviewed over 26,000 transcripts in the past two years to provide our clients with confidence about the safety of their research.

Pricing:

Learn how the price of Stream by AlphaSense’s premium expert transcript library can keep you ahead of the competition.

 

Gerson Lehrman Group (GLG)

Touted as the “insight network for the whole world” by experts, GLG provides access to expert calls in their on-demand knowledge platform, primarily for investors and startup advisors. Their comprehensive expertise database spans almost every geography, industry, and function which allows the company to deliver a range of products, including phone consultations, surveys, live in-person and virtual events, packaged insights and reports, and more.

Value: 

To date, GLG serves leading technology, life science, and industrial companies, including 40% of the Fortune 100 and seven of the top 10 global technology companies; leading investment and financial firms; top professional services firms; and hundreds of nonprofits and social entrepreneurs around the world.

This is primarily due to GLG’s insight discovery which works through a proprietary workflow of three solutions: GLG Direct, GLG Syndicated Insights, and GLG Research. 

Capabilities:

For entrepreneurs that have adequate time to perform self-service research, one can connect directly with the SMEs via GLG Direct. And for medium or large business owners, GLG Research allows them to outsource all research required for a new venture or unit to GLG. It packages detailed quantitative and qualitative research data from workshops, focus groups, discussion panels, voice-of-customer data, and market research to ensure a well-rounded outlook for consumers. 

Moreover, for small businesses that want to rely on existing GLG content rather than interviewing an SME, you can try the GLG Syndicated Insights, which provides access to GLG’s library of reports, surveys, transcripts, webcasts, etc. 

Related Reading: GLG Alternatives and Competitors

 

Third Bridge

Third Bridge is one of the leading companies in the expert network industry for investment insights and professional consultation or services due to its blended model for knowledge exchange.
Value: 

• Offering an extensive library of high-quality content for business, investments, and consulting purposes, Third Bridge’s extensive collection is regularly curated by experienced and talented executives so that you get the latest data and can make informed business decisions from the most trusted perspectives.
• Third Bridges recognizes its shortcomings in its offerings—if you’re facing a unique business problem that has no pre-existing content offering potential solutions, you can take advantage of Third Bridge Forum or Connections.

Capabilities:

The Forum is a collection of experts who will dive deep into the project once you opt for Third Bridge’s services. Alternatively, you can speak to an SME directly if you go for the Third Bridge Connections service.  

Third Bridge also recognizes that value chain information is typically fragmented, unqualified, and outdated. Maps solve this problem by visually presenting public and private company value chains in a single view, helping investors fast-track early-stage research within minutes, not days.

With over 1,300 employees across eight offices worldwide, Third Bridge’s global presence allows them to retain the best expert talent, who share in their mission “to democratize the world’s human insights and upend the traditional research model.” 

 

AlphaSights

Named one of the fastest-growing and most disruptive companies headquartered in Europe by the Financial Times in April 2017, AlphaSights is a premiere expert network company. They’re headquartered in London with offices in New York, Hamburg, Dubai, Hong Kong, San Francisco, Shanghai, Seoul, and Tokyo, with 600+ employees. 

Value:

Today, AlphaSights is one of the larger expert networks. It became one of the first firms to successfully reduce GLG’s market dominance, growing in tandem with Third Bridge. The bottom line: If you’re searching for industry experts for business data analytics, insights, surveys, and personal experiences, AlphaSights is a trusted industry resource.

• The executives at AlphaSights analyze your requirements, perform market research, tally expert profiles, and finally recommend superior profiles that mostly resolve your initial query. 
• Its network of experts is suitable for investment bankers, private investment firms, mutual funds, management consulting, corporations, and non-government organizations (NGOs).  

Capabilities:

Whereas many other expert networks have long offered alternative expertise services (such as transcript libraries, live conferences with experts, etc.), AlphaSights long stuck to its core service, only offering expert calls or meetings.

However, increasingly, the company now offers surveys, insights projects (similar to GLG’s Strategic projects), and a small content library named AlphaView. AlphaView is similar to the Third Bridge Forum content library, although significantly smaller.

 

FAQ

Why do you need an expert network?

Expert networks can provide clients access to various experts with specific, niche perspectives and expertise that cannot be found anywhere else. Rather than spending hours searching for answers to your queries through published research, expert networks can quickly surface the intel you need–whether it be from a consultation with an expert or a content library. More importantly, the best expert networks implement rigorous compliance standards that limit the exchange of information, safeguarding both client and expert from potential risk.

Expert networks also provide a more cost-effective way for investors to access industry insights in a shorter turnaround. Rather than spending countless hours searching for a person to interview, expert transcript libraries (ETL) streamline the whole process by asking experts the pressing questions industry professionals have in a searchable format. When seeking out an expert network, look for depth of experience, both in the professionals helping you reach your research goals and the network that fuels its insights.

Who uses expert networks?

No longer just a powerful resource for the financial services space, expert calls provide valuable insights and a competitive advantage to top companies’ corporate strategists and competitive intelligence professionals.

Knowledge professionals, from individuals to teams and leaders, across industries and roles, rely on expert networks to enable strategic decision-making. The industries using expert networks the most are: information technology, industrials, media, healthcare, pharmaceutical, biotech, energy, consulting, asset management, hedge funds, private equity, venture capital, investment banking, and sell-side equity research.

How do various industries benefit from expert networks?

​​Major industries leverage expert networks to evaluate market landscapes, understand various perspectives, and scout out trends worthy of investment. From corporate strategy to the MedTech space to the technology sector, professionals utilize expert insights to drive major financial and operational decisions that will impact their present and future performance–and consequently, keep them ahead of the competition. 

How do you choose the right expert network for your needs?

If you’re questioning what to look for in an expert network, especially if it will be a long-term engagement, you need to outline your expectations and needs. Then, once you have a clear idea, use these questions below to help you decide what platform will give you the most ROI for your investment:

1. 1. Do they have relevant experts specially vetted for your project or consultation needs?
   2. Are their experts rooted in the subject or industry to ensure reliable insights?
   3. Do they have a competitive pricing strategy in place?
   4. Do they have a quick turnaround time to provide insights when needed?
   5. What sort of support are you seeking from an expert network?
   6. Do they have the kind of machine learning and AI functionalities that elevate and speed up research processes?

Try AlphaSense for Free

To stay ahead of your competition and be agile in your decision-making, you need expert insights. With AlphaSense, there’s no need to meticulously search global expert networks or spend hours reviewing documents to analyze a competitive landscape. 

Our platform uses proprietary AI technology and an extensive library of expert calls to help users glean fresh insights on new products, market sizes, and sector occurrences shaping their industry. Discover the power of these insights in seconds by starting your free trial today. 

Learn how AlphaSense’s Expert Transcript Library can keep you informed on market movements and help you maintain your competitive edge with our infosheet, Critical Areas Missing from Your Research: Expert Transcript Library.