Structured research briefs on demand
AssistBPO's research virtual assistant answers the questions you keep meaning to look into. Market sizes, vendor shortlists, competitor pricing, prospect backgrounds, regulations and anything else findable online, delivered as a brief with sources and a table you can act on.
- Executive & admin
- Employed, screened, managed
One named assistant, employed by the group, working your hours with a trained backup.
What is a virtual research assistant?
A virtual research assistant gathers, checks and organizes information from public sources on request: company and market data, competitor offerings and pricing, supplier options, regulatory requirements, event and speaker lists, and background on people you are about to meet. The output is a structured brief or comparison table with citations, not a pile of links, so the reader can decide quickly.
· Reviewed by Issabela Masters
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Research assistant: what we do and how it runs
A virtual research assistant gathers, checks and organizes information from public sources on request: company and market data, competitor offerings and pricing, supplier options, regulatory requirements, event and speaker lists, and background on people you are about to meet. The output is a structured brief or comparison table with citations, not a pile of links, so the reader can decide quickly.
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What it is
A virtual research assistant gathers, checks and organizes information from public sources on request: company and market data, competitor offerings and pricing, supplier options, regulatory requirements, event and speaker lists, and background on people you are about to meet. The output is a structured brief or comparison table with citations, not a pile of links, so the reader can decide quickly.
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What you get
Market, vendor, competitor and prospect research delivered as sourced briefs
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How it runs
Every finding comes with a link, a date and a confidence note
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Match
A 20-minute call about the kinds of questions you ask, the sectors you work in, the sources you trust and the format you want back. Within 72 hours we propose a named research assistant with experience in your field, plus a trained backup.
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A named assistant, a backup and a team lead
In your hours, inside your tools, with a reply from a person within 1 business day. Call +1-657-777-0006 or ask for a staffing plan.
Get a staffing plan 06 / 06
Who is the research assistant desk for?
- Founders making buy, build or enter decisions
- You need three market figures, five competitor prices and a vendor shortlist by Friday, with sources you can put in front of an investor.
- Sales and business development teams
- Prospect briefs before every first call: company, people, recent news, tech stack and the two things worth asking about.
- Consultants and analysts
- The desk research layer of a client project: literature, data pulls, benchmark tables and source logs, done to your citation standard.
- Marketing teams
- Competitor monitoring, keyword and content gap lists, influencer and podcast shortlists, and event calendars, updated on a schedule.
What does the research assistant service include?
These 12 tasks are what AssistBPO's research assistant desk handles as standard for a founder or executive.
- Market and industry briefs with sized figures, sources and dates
- Competitor profiles: offer, pricing, positioning, reviews, hiring signals
- Vendor and software shortlists with comparison tables and scoring
- Prospect and meeting briefs on companies and the people you will meet
- Regulatory and compliance lookups summarized in plain language
- Lead list building with verification, within consent and privacy rules
- Grant, tender and RFP opportunity scanning on a schedule
- Event, conference and speaker calendars for your sector
- Literature and report summaries with page references
- Data collection into spreadsheets or Airtable with source columns
- Source log and methodology note with every brief
- Recurring monitoring reports on competitors, prices or topics
Deliverables and KPIs
AssistBPO reports 6 measures on the research assistant desk: what lands on your desk, what we count, and how often you see the number.
| Deliverable | KPI we report | Cadence |
|---|---|---|
| Research brief with sources | Standard briefs within 2 business days | Per request |
| Quick lookups | Answered within 4 business hours | Per request |
| Comparison tables | Every row sourced and dated | Per request |
| Prospect briefs before meetings | Delivered 24 hours ahead | Per meeting |
| Monitoring report | Changes since last report, sent on schedule | Weekly or monthly |
| Source accuracy | Findings challenged and corrected after delivery | Monthly |
KPIs are what we measure and report, agreed per engagement in the weekly review. Service-level commitments are set in your agreement, not on this page.
How does the research assistant desk work?
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Match
A 20-minute call about the kinds of questions you ask, the sectors you work in, the sources you trust and the format you want back. Within 72 hours we propose a named research assistant with experience in your field, plus a trained backup.
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Onboard
We agree the brief template (question, summary, findings, table, sources, confidence), the citation style, the databases and subscriptions you already hold, and a request form so every question arrives with context and a deadline. The first two briefs are reviewed with you to calibrate depth.
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Daily rhythm
Requests triaged at the start of the shift into quick lookups and full briefs, quick answers returned within four business hours, briefs delivered on their stated date, monitoring reports sent on schedule, and an end-of-day report listing each request and its status.
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Weekly review
20 minutes with the team lead: briefs delivered, questions in the queue, findings you challenged, sources worth adding and monitoring topics to start or stop. Monthly, the team lead re-checks a sample of citations.
Hours, coverage and models
AssistBPO staffs the research assistant desk on 3 models. Requests handled in US, Canadian and UK business hours from the group's two offices. Overnight turnaround using the second office's day shift is available for briefs needed first thing.
- Dedicated research assistant, 80 or 160 hours a month
- Research as part of an executive or marketing assistant plan
- Project blocks of 40 hours for a single market study or vendor selection
See what is staffed in your zone on the coverage clock.
What are the terms on the research assistant desk?
The card, the contract terms and the research assistant desk's own numbers, in one place.
| Specification | What you get |
|---|---|
| Focus, 20 hours a week | $800 a month, 80 hours |
| Dedicated, 40 hours a week | $1,600 a month, 160 hours |
| Evening, weekend or overnight cover | Tier rate plus 20 percent |
| Desk | Executive & admin desk |
| Standard schedule | Dedicated research assistant, 80 or 160 hours a month |
| Coverage | Requests handled in US, Canadian and UK business hours from the group's two offices. |
| Tools | 9 platforms, including Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Airtable |
| KPIs reported | 6 measures: monthly, per request, per meeting |
| Setup fee | None |
| Minimum term | Month to month, no lock-in |
| Notice | 30 days, to stop or to change hours |
| If the fit is wrong | Trained backup covers the desk the same day, re-match at no charge |
| Continuity | One named assistant, one named backup, one team lead |
| Who does the work | Employed by SS Support Network LLC, never freelancers or contractors |
These are rate-card starting points. What you pay depends on the hours, the desk and the coverage window, which is what the staffing plan sets. Rates improve as you add assistants. Your staffing plan states the rate for the number of seats you need. The rate card carries the other currencies, the add-ons and the six things that move a plan off it.
How much does a research assistant cost?
Plans start at $400 a month for 40 hours, at $10 an hour, and rates improve as you add assistants. Get a staffing plan within 1 business day.
What moves the plan
- Hours a week and whether the desk is dedicated or shared
- Phones: live answering needs a receptionist profile and a backup
- Coverage zone: business hours, after-hours, weekends or 24/7
- Tools and access to set up
- One person or a pod with a lead
What the market publishes
Other providers' published ranges, by market, so you have something to hold this against. These are not AssistBPO prices.
| Market | Published range | Source |
|---|---|---|
| United States | Virtual assistants average $19.45 an hour on PayScale (range $12 to $30) and $27.15 an hour on Indeed; managed offshore assistants $7 to $15 an hour; premium specialists $79 an hour | PayScale and Indeed via Wishup; Zedtreeo; Boldly published pricing via Staffify, 2026 |
| United Kingdom | UK virtual assistants £25 to £45 an hour; Virtalent around £28 an hour; employed assistant average £15.33 an hour | SVA surveys, Virtalent published pricing and PayScale UK, 2026 |
| Australia | Offshore managed assistants A$8 to A$35 an hour; onshore A$39.90 to A$65 an hour | Virtual Coworker, DotVA and Smart Staffing published pricing, 2026 |
| Canada | Canada-based assistants C$25 to C$60 an hour; managed offshore plans US$699 to US$899 a month | Virtual Gurus and VantaStaff published pricing, 2026 |
Security and compliance
- Employed, background-checked research assistants under NDA; project topics are never disclosed
- Paid databases and subscriptions accessed through your accounts with MFA, never shared credentials
- Findings stored in your Drive, Notion or Airtable, not on local devices
- Personal data in lead lists collected only from lawful sources and within GDPR, CASL and Privacy Act limits
- No scraping of sites that prohibit it; methodology is documented with every brief
Full control list on the security page and country rules for calls, texts and email on the compliance page. Certifications are listed only when held.
Country rules for this service
AssistBPO makes outbound calls, texts and emails only with lawful consent and do-not-call scrubbing. Assistants never take card numbers. Country rules.
- UK and Canada: lead lists are built to UK GDPR and CASL rules; commercial email needs consent before sending
- Australia: personal data collected for lists follows the Privacy Act APPs and the Spam Act
- All markets: sources are cited as published; nothing is presented as fact without a named source
Frequently asked questions
How much does a research virtual assistant cost?
Plans depend on hours, desks and coverage. Get a staffing plan within 1 business day. For orientation, US virtual assistants average $19.45 an hour on PayScale and $27.15 on Indeed, managed offshore assistants publish $7 to $15 an hour, and UK virtual assistants charge £25 to £45 an hour (Wishup 2026 Industry Report; SVA surveys). Research is bought as an 80-hour plan, a 40-hour project block or as part of an executive assistant's week.
How do I know the research is accurate?
Every finding carries a source link, the date it was accessed and a confidence note: confirmed by two sources, single source, or estimate. Figures are quoted as published, with the publisher named, rather than rounded or blended. The team lead re-checks a sample of citations each month and any finding you challenge is corrected and logged. If the answer cannot be found from public sources, the brief says so rather than guessing.
Do you use AI tools for research?
For drafting summaries and sorting large amounts of text, yes, with the assistant checking every claim against the original source before it goes in a brief. Nothing is cited to an AI tool. Where you hold subscriptions to databases such as Statista, Crunchbase or an industry report library, the assistant works inside your accounts. The value you are buying is the checking and the structure, not the search.
Can you build lead lists?
Yes, within the rules. The assistant builds lists from company websites, public directories, LinkedIn within its terms and the databases you subscribe to, verifies emails and roles, and records the source for each row. Lists for outreach in the UK, Canada and Australia are built with UK GDPR, CASL and the Privacy Act in mind, and any calling follows lawful consent and do-not-call scrubbing. We do not scrape sites that prohibit it.
What does a prospect brief look like?
One page: what the company does and its size, recent news and funding, the people you are meeting and their background, the tools they appear to use, competitors they mention, and two or three questions worth asking. Delivered 24 hours before the meeting, or the same morning for late bookings. If you use HubSpot or Salesforce, the brief is attached to the contact record.
How long does a full market brief take?
A standard brief, such as a market size with three sources, five competitors profiled and a comparison table, takes two business days. A larger study, such as a vendor selection across 20 candidates with scoring, is planned as a 40-hour project with a date agreed up front. Quick lookups, such as a regulation check or a single competitor's pricing, come back within four business hours.
Can the assistant monitor competitors on an ongoing basis?
Yes. Monitoring reports run weekly or monthly: pricing page changes, new features, job postings, reviews, press and social activity for the competitors you name, with a changes-since-last-time section at the top. The same format works for regulatory updates, tender portals and industry news. Topics are added or dropped in the weekly review.
What can a research assistant not do?
They cannot access data that is not public or not licensed to you, give legal, financial or medical advice, or run primary research such as surveys and interviews without a separate plan. They will not scrape sites that prohibit it or buy lists of questionable origin. When a question needs a specialist, the brief says so and suggests where to go.
Ask an AI assistant to summarize this page
Next step
Your desk, staffed. Wherever you are.
Tell us what is overloaded. A named person replies within 1 business day with a staffing plan, and we propose your assistant within 72 hours.
Or call +1-657-777-0006 during US, UK or Australian business hours, or hear our demo receptionist.
- A named assistant proposed within 72 hours
- Employed, screened and managed staff, never freelancers
- Your hours, your tools, your data