How does Quora.com and Wikipedia measures their monthly active users?

You mention, that you can code and maintain yourself, and at the same time it sounds like your data can be dispersed across multiple sources. And you want to minimise license cost. In my business we use R a lot for both analysis and reporting. It is free (open source), but you will have to build programs. But it will read any format, and also create output to any destination you want. So you could start off with a mix of R, Excel and pdf, just to get things going. However, it could make sense for you to build a database already so you familiarise yourself with data warehouse thinking, since you want to expand with marketing automation. At that point you will need a database for monitoring response, sales etc. So it is important to build the right foundation as ealy as possible. If you don't want to code, but want point-and-click, there is boatloads of software for that, but probably more license cost (unless you can find open source for that). So If I were you, I would start off with something smaller. After all, you want to focus on the value you create for the business and your colleagues, and the time you save, rather than a smooth IT-infrastructure for this. I have lots of experience building reporting and analysis in the areas you mention, so if you want to discuss further, feel free to set up a call. Good look with your development. Best regards Kenneth Wolstrup

You should try posting this on HARO http://www.helpareporter.com

I think push vs in-app are two different things, like email and telephone call. Push reaches people who are not using your app, but require OS-level permission. In-app gives you much more flexibility but they only reach people who are using your app (obviously!). As to whether in-house or external SDK is best, it depends what you are trying to do and whether an external system handles it. For a typical retail environment the SDKs might be easiest--it's a well-established use-case. For something needing a more customized algorithm, an in-house system might work as well as an external SDK (for less money). There are simple options to save you from starting completely from scratch, from PHP toolkits to Amazon SNS. It depends on what (if any) server environment you have... Hope that helps!

You may think many users automatically prohibit the sending of push notifications and that may be the case for those who feel push notifications are intrusive and annoying. That being said, research actually indicates that app retention and engagement are up In fact, 68% of users opt-in to push notifications according to Responsys' research (http://www.responsys.com/blogs/nsm/mobile-marketing/push-notifications-marketers-new-power-tool/ ). Furthermore, research shows that engagement is up because of push notifications (http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1010950). . That's why marketers are focusing in on push notification strategies according to Localytics research http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Proof-App-Push-Notifications-Actually-Matter/1011149. So if you know of an app getting poor engagement over time, the question really should be "Why is our app not engaging and what would engage users?" Also, "Is it obvious what benefit someone gets by opting into the push notifications?"

There are some market-research companies which have very detailed sector specific knowledge. Thus, they are not freely available for consumers. Here are a few to get you started: http://www.mintel.com/ https://www.marketresearch.com/ https://www.marketresearchreports.com/ https://www.ibisworld.co.uk/