International Data Corp is relocating its East European Expertise Centre to Prague from Frankfurt because the only viable method of gathering market data in local markets is by face-to-face interviews. According to IDC’s Steve Frantzen, staff spent most of their time ‘running around’ the former Czechoslovakia. The move follows the establishment of a branch office in Sofia earlier this month, and Frantzen will remain as head of local operations. The relocation is expected to take two weeks. IDC, the Framingham, Massachusetts information technology market res-earch company, is expanding its activities in all former communist countries, and is recruiting additional staff, especially in Budapest. It moved to Eastern Europe in 1989, and is regarded by local commentators as the most influential research group in the region.
