When selecting an expert network or market intelligence platform, it’s crucial to understand the strengths, weaknesses, and key features of each option. In this comparison, we explore Guidepoint, GLG, and AlphaSense to help you determine the best tool for your business. We cover each tool’s unique offerings, pricing, ease of use, customer support, and more, so you can choose the best tool for your research needs.
Guidepoint and GLG are among two of the most established names in the expert network industry. Both platforms connect businesses with subject matter experts through expert calls, interviews, and consultations, helping firms gain valuable insights for investment research, market intelligence, due diligence, and corporate strategy.
Guidepoint is ideal for businesses seeking in-depth, personalized expert calls and interviews, particularly in healthcare and investment research. Meanwhile, GLG is best for organizations needing a broad network of experts with varied industry experience, such as hedge funds, private equity, and consulting firms.
Unlike the other two platforms, AlphaSense is not an expert network. It’s an AI-powered market intelligence platform that aggregates and analyzes vast amounts of financial data, providing users with actionable insights beyond just connecting with experts.
AlphaSense is perfect for companies looking to streamline their research process with AI-driven analysis and comprehensive market intelligence. It excels in providing not just data, but AI-driven insights that accelerate financial research to help you make better, more informed business decisions.
Learn more about GLG and Guidepoint in the following resources:
Guidepoint
Guidepoint is a leading expert network platform that provides expert consultations to business professionals seeking industry expertise and insights. Its global network of over one million industry experts offers valuable insights and advisory services to help its clients make more informed business decisions.
Guidepoint is ideal for organizations seeking expert insights and data-driven solutions for decision-making, as it provides expert consultations and access to a wide network of industry specialists.
Guidepoint is primarily used by finance, consulting, and corporate strategy professionals who require expert opinions and insights for primary research. Consulting firms leverage Guidepoint to gain access to high-level expertise for strategic planning, while private equity and venture capital firms use it to evaluate investments and conduct due diligence.
However, Guidepoint may not be the best fit for small businesses and startups with limited budgets, teams needing quantitative data, or organizations seeking automated insights. Moreover, the platform can be expensive and resource-intensive, making it less accessible for smaller companies.
Pros of Guidepoint:
- Boasts a vast network of industry experts across various fields
- Streamlined processes for scheduling expert calls
- Offers tailored research services, allowing clients to receive insights specific to their needs
- Provides confidential consultations
Cons of Guidepoint:
- Lack of quantitative research for comprehensive market intelligence
- Research scope is limited to expert calls and consultations
- Expensive expert consultations are cost-prohibitive for businesses with limited budgets
- Relies heavily on human expertise and lacks automation features
GLG
The Gerson Lehrman Group (GLG) is an expert network company that offers intelligence on corporations and connects professional users to experts from multiple industries for advice, insights, and mentorship.
GLG has access to a network of 900,000+ subject-matter experts on demand, who empower users with advice, research, and insights for better-informed business decisions.
GLG’s essential product, GLG Direct, focuses on expert consultations, which are one-on-one sessions between clients and subject-matter experts. Clients with relevant questions and issues receive direct answers and insights on business topics, regulations, legal advice, and intelligence on industries and businesses.
Consultations are often private meetings, placements, and phone or video calls. Many GLG consultants also work as expert witnesses in legal proceedings.
GLG also gathers qualitative and quantitative research insights. To that end, it uses primary research methods like focus group discussions, surveys, discussion panels, and workshops. The GLG Library is another rich user resource, with thousands of on-demand webcasts, teleconference transcripts, and other documents.
Pros of GLG:
- Access to over 900,000 experts
- Serves multiple types of clients, including law firms and a diverse range of businesses
- Offers both qualitative and quantitative insights
- Provides a massive library of expert calls and transcripts
Cons of GLG:
- Lack of broker research available
- Scheduling and conducting expert calls can be time-consuming
- GLG does not use advanced AI search or sentiment analysis in its platform
- No real-time monitoring of markets to keep users updated
- Content is restricted to expert calls and conventional qualitative and quantitative research findings
- Premium pricing may be prohibitive for smaller organizations
AlphaSense
Founded in 2011, AlphaSense has close to 4,000 enterprise clients, including 85% of the S&P 100, 80% of the top consultancies, 75% of the top asset management firms, and 20 of the largest pharmaceutical companies. This platform is used by corporations for strategy, competitive intelligence, and market landscaping, as well as by IR and financial professionals for messaging research, due diligence, market monitoring, and deal sourcing.
AlphaSense sources information from over 10,000+ different content sources, including company documents and regulatory filings, news and trade journals, broker research, and expert call transcripts. Coupled with this vast universe of content, AlphaSense’s smart search and AI capabilities help shorten the time to insight and take your research process from reactive to proactive.
In addition, AlphaSense features two proprietary content sets:
- Wall Street Insights® – A collection of leading equity research from 1,000+ sell-side and independent firms, covering global industries, sector themes, and companies. These resources are indexed, searchable, and available from the AlphaSense platform.
- Expert Insights – Expert Insights solutions includes the Expert Transcript Library—an ever-expanding library that currently hosts tens of thousands of expert call transcripts with competitors, industry experts, professionals, customers, and former and current executives—as well as Expert Call Services. Expert Insights prioritizes compliance throughout the content development process and has a team of trained compliance reviewers who ensure research safety for clients.
AlphaSense and Tegus: Better Together
As of July 2024, AlphaSense and Tegus have joined forces, bringing unparalleled access to even more insights, and covering more industries and companies than ever before.
Both platforms come with extensive libraries of high-quality research, as well as data and AI tools that allow users to extract the most value from the insights they find.
Tegus has an extensive and fast-growing library of high-quality expert research, which includes coverage of 35,000+ public and private companies across TMT, consumer goods, energy, and life sciences sectors. Additionally, Tegus’ financial data offering, which includes financials, KPIs, and fully drivable models on more than 4,000 public companies, as well as its BamSEC self-serve solution to search and access securities filings, adds new and unique offerings to AlphaSense’s extensive product suite and datasets.
For more on how the two platforms complement each other, check out our page AlphaSense and Tegus.
AlphaSense Pros
- Extensive content universe organized around the four key perspectives
- Proprietary content sets like Wall Street Insights® and Expert Insights
- NLP and AI-based search technology and sentiment analysis
- All-in-one research platform
- Intuitive user interface
- Collaboration and integration features
- Automated and customizable alerts
AlphaSense Cons
- Visualization tools are limited to financial data at this time
- Lack of collaborative tools for knowledge management
Feature Comparison
Guidepoint Features
Guidepoint has an extensive network of over 700,000 experts, and it excels in providing highly personalized expert consultations, particularly in niche areas such as healthcare and investment research.
Guidepoint’s platform is user-friendly and straightforward, which appeals to businesses that require quick and efficient access to expert insights without the need for extensive setup. The ability to create custom dashboards for tracking ongoing projects adds another layer of convenience for users focused on specific industries or markets.
Below is an overview of Guidepoint’s features:
- Access to a global network of over 700,000 subject matter experts
- Facilitates one-on-one and group consultations to gather specialized insights
- Supports research processes for hedge funds, private equity, and more
- Provides custom dashboards to track ongoing projects
- Provides custom research solutions like expert surveys, a global expert network, and industry-specific panels for comprehensive insights
Guidepoint ensures compliance and privacy through confidentiality agreements and strict protocols for its expert consultations. Additionally, its platform features user-friendly tools for scheduling, appointment management, and collaboration.
GLG Features
GLG’s insight discovery works through a proprietary workflow of three solutions: GLG Direct, GLG Syndicated Insights, and GLG Research.
GLG works best for businesses and professionals seeking expert consultations globally across diverse industries. Entrepreneurs who have adequate time to perform self-service research can connect directly with subject matter experts via GLG Direct. Mid-sized and large business owners can leverage GLG Research, which allows clients to outsource all research needs for a new venture or opportunity to GLG.
GLG Syndicated Insights provides access to GLG’s library of reports, surveys, transcripts, webcasts, etc., which small business owners can use if they prefer to avoid conducting interviews themselves.
GLG also 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 consumer outlook.
Below is an overview of GLG’s additional capabilities:
- Connects users with over 1 million experts across various geographies and industries
- Offers a library of previous expert call transcripts for reference
- Enables comprehensive primary research through expert interviews and consultations
- Recently incorporated AI tools for better data aggregation and analysis
AlphaSense Features
Sentiment Analysis
Using sentiment analysis, a feature built with natural language processing (NLP), AlphaSense identifies changes in a text’s tone and subjective meaning. Then, using different color codes, it helps you identify if the document has positive, negative, or neutral sentiments.
Each search term gets a sentiment change score that helps you track any slight change in market sentiments across time. With this feature, you can catch subtle inflection points in language that move markets and provide early indicators of shifting corporate performance.
Smart Synonyms™
Another feature is the AI-based Smart Synonyms™ technology—a capability that studies keywords and intent behind your search engine queries. Using advanced algorithms, AlphaSense eliminates noise from your search, including content with matching keywords that is irrelevant to search objectives. AI search functionality lets you find the exact documents and snippets most relevant to your search, saving time and energy for more high-level tasks like analysis.
Generative AI
Unlike other consumer-grade generative AI (genAI) tools trained on publicly available data, AlphaSense takes an entirely different approach. Our industry-leading suite of generative AI tools is purpose-built to deliver business-grade insights and leans on 10+ years of AI tech development. Our proprietary AlphaSense Large Language Model (ASLLM)—trained specifically on business and financial data—matches or beats the leading third-party LLMs over 90% of the time.
Our suite of tools currently includes:
- Smart Summaries – this feature allows you to glean instant earnings insights—reducing time spent on research during earnings season, quickly capture company outlook, and generate an expert-approved SWOT analysis straight from former competitors, partners, and employees
- Enterprise Intelligence – a first-of-its-kind offering that delivers AlphaSense’s AI-powered search and summarization capabilities to customers’ internal organizational knowledge.
- AlphaSense Assistant – a generative AI chat experience that transforms how users can extract insights from hundreds of millions of premium content sources
Automated Monitoring
With real-time alerts, AlphaSense allows you to set up automated updates on the emerging trends, news, topics, markets, and companies you are most concerned with. Automated monitoring takes regular snapshots of your companies and topics of interest and sends notifications, keeping you on top of critical competitor information, insights, and market changes.
Instant Company Insights
If you’re keeping tabs on a single company, AlphaSense offers Search Analytics and Company Tearsheets that provide updates on the companies currently on your radar, giving you an in-depth reach across document types, industries, and regions. Using company insights, you can also focus and ground your research into a particular competitor, discovering critical insights that can propel your market analysis to the next level.
Integrations and APIs
It’s now becoming industry standard for many market intelligence platforms to offer integration of internal content containing both structured and unstructured data, but it’s key that this content is indexed and immediately available. A market intelligence platform should also offer the ability to upload new external content sources (such as RSS or web content), so that you can leverage the platform’s analysis tools to pull relevant insights.
AlphaSense provides integration with commonly used programs like OneNote, Sharepoint, Box, and Evernote, enabling streamlined collaboration with members across your organization and improving team productivity. It also allows you to search across all internal and external company content to find key insights, and the proprietary AI technology catches what other platforms miss in a secure and automated way.
User Experience Comparison
Guidepoint User Experience
Guidepoint offers a streamlined and user-friendly experience, making it an excellent choice for businesses that prioritize ease of access to expert consultations without needing extensive customization. The platform is particularly well-suited for small to mid-sized firms, as well as startups and healthcare organizations that require quick, in-depth insights from a more focused network of experts.
Setting up Guidepoint is generally quick and easy, compared to GLG. The platform’s intuitive design allows users to get started with minimal onboarding, and its straightforward interface means that even those new to expert networks can quickly learn to navigate the system. The process of scheduling and conducting expert calls is also relatively simple, though it can be somewhat manual, requiring users to coordinate directly with experts, which may take some time.
In terms of overall ease of use, Guidepoint is the more accessible option, offering a hassle-free experience with a focus on efficiency and simplicity. GLG, while powerful and comprehensive, is better suited for organizations that have the resources to invest in a more complex setup and the need for extensive data and expert resources.
The choice between the two platforms depends on the user’s specific needs, with Guidepoint excelling in ease of use for quick, targeted insights and GLG offering a more robust solution for those needing a deeper, more customizable platform.
GLG User Experience
GLG is designed for organizations that require a comprehensive, large-scale approach to expert consultations. The platform is best suited for large enterprises, hedge funds, and private equity firms that need access to a broad network of experts across various industries.
Setting up connections through GLG can be a more intensive process, especially for organizations that require access to specialized features or extensive data sets. The platform’s setup process often includes coordination with dedicated account managers who help customize the experience to fit the client’s needs. This level of customization can be beneficial for complex projects but may require more time and effort initially.
Once set up, GLG’s platform is fairly straightforward to navigate, though it has been noted that the interface could benefit from modernization to improve user experience. For users familiar with expert networks, GLG’s system will feel intuitive. However, new users will likely experience a learning curve, especially when trying to leverage the platform’s full range of features, such as its AI-driven data aggregation tools or extensive transcript library.
AlphaSense User Experience
The AlphaSense platform is designed to be user-friendly and intuitive from the start. And unlike its competitors, AlphaSense is a one stop shop for market intelligence, giving you aggregated access to company documents, news, expert call transcripts, and broker research.
With AlphaSense, users can cut out cumbersome manual research tasks like combing through multiple tabs of research reports and CTRL+F’ing through documents with limited keywords.The AlphaSense UI works seamlessly with competitive research workflows and is customizable for further fine-tuning.
Clients across a wide range of verticals—from life sciences and technology to investment banking and asset management—find that AlphaSense’s AI search technology, like synonym recognition, pre-set search feeds, and smart keyword suggestions, speed up data and insight discovery even when searching across different sources. The key reasons users stick to AlphaSense are the speed of surfacing valuable data, the unparalleled accuracy lent by smart AI functionalities, and access to premium content like broker research and expert call transcripts.
Support Comparison
Guidepoint Support
In Guidepoint, users are typically assigned an account manager who helps them set up and optimize their use of the platform. This support is particularly beneficial for users who need help identifying and connecting with the right experts in Guidepoint’s network of over 700,000 professionals.
The account managers at Guidepoint are known for providing personalized service, especially for businesses that require in-depth consultations in specific industries, such as healthcare or investment research. While Guidepoint offers customer service support, the platform is designed to be user-friendly enough that users can handle many tasks independently, which is a plus for those who prefer a more hands-off approach.
Additionally, Guidepoint’s self-service model empowers users to manage many aspects of their interactions with the platform on their own. This makes it a good fit for businesses that value efficiency and autonomy in their research processes.
GLG Support
GLG offers robust customer support, reflecting its focus on serving large enterprises and complex projects. Users of GLG can expect dedicated account managers who work closely with them to tailor the platform’s offerings to their specific needs. These account managers are particularly valuable for helping clients navigate GLG’s extensive network of over 1 million experts and for customizing the use of advanced features, such as data aggregation and access to their transcript library.
In addition to account managers, GLG provides access to a customer service team that is available to assist with more immediate or technical issues. This comprehensive support structure is ideal for organizations that require ongoing guidance and assistance, particularly in industries where research and decision-making are highly complex.
In terms of support options, GLG excels in offering a high-touch experience with dedicated account managers and a customer service team, making it a strong choice for large organizations that need extensive support.
AlphaSense Support
AlphaSense’s product and customer education teams provide ramp-up and learning sessions with hands-on training and demonstrations. Additionally, all AlphaSense users have a dedicated account representative available for questions and guidance. The product specialist team is also available to put together searches for research professionals to streamline their workflows.
AlphaSense maintains a regular training calendar for live, virtual, instructor-led AlphaSense Education webinars, and the website has a live Help button, where users can chat with product specialists 24/7 and receive instant support for any issues or queries.
Reviews and Ratings Comparison
Guidepoint Reviews and Ratings
Rating: 4.3 out of 5 on G2
Popular positives:
- User-friendly interface; easy to navigate the platform and set up expert calls
- Strong focus on healthcare and investment research, so many knowledgeable experts in these areas
- Fast turnaround for connecting with experts
- No library of expert transcripts to search through
Popular negatives:
- Expert network is extensive but limited in industries outside healthcare and finance
- Process of scheduling and conducting calls is manual and can result in delays
- Cost-prohibitive for smaller businesses or those with tighter budgets
- Lack of a self-service option can limit flexibility in accessing expertise
GLG Reviews and Ratings
Rating: 4.3 out of 5 on G2
Popular positives:
- Ability to connect with extensive network of experts across a wide range of industries
- Valuable tool for large-scale projects and complex research needs
Popular negatives:
- No transcript library to search through
- Cost-prohibitive for smaller firms or those with tighter budgets
- Requests to experts can be hit or miss
AlphaSense Reviews and Ratings
Rating: 4.7 out of 5 on G2
Popular positives:
- Comprehensive data and analysis on public and private markets
- Real-time data availability
- Easy-to-find relevant and high-quality results
- Intuitive interface and great customer support
- Smart AI-powered search leads to quicker, more accurate insights
Popular negatives:
- Visualization tools are limited to financial data at this time
- Lack of collaborative tools for knowledge management
Pricing Comparison
Guidepoint Pricing
Guidepoint generally offers a more flexible and potentially more affordable pricing model compared to GLG. Like GLG, Guidepoint also operates on a subscription basis, with costs varying based on the number of expert consultations and the level of access required. For smaller firms or those with more targeted needs, Guidepoint can be a more cost-effective option.
Pricing for Guidepoint typically starts in the lower tens of thousands of dollars per year but can increase based on the complexity and volume of the required services. Guidepoint also offers more customized plans, allowing clients to pay for what they specifically need rather than a broad subscription.
For exact pricing, it’s best to contact the company directly to get a tailored quote based on your specific requirements.
GLG Pricing
GLG is known for being on the higher end of the pricing spectrum, largely due to its extensive network of over 1 million experts and the additional services it offers. GLG typically operates on a subscription model, where clients pay an annual fee for access to their network and services. The cost can range from tens of thousands to several hundred thousand dollars per year, depending on the size of the organization and the scope of the services required.
Additionally, GLG may offer pay-per-call options or project-based pricing, but these are often bundled into larger contracts.
For exact pricing, it’s best to contact the company directly to get a tailored quote based on your specific requirements.
AlphaSense Pricing
AlphaSense users can access the all-in-one market research platform including unparalleled access to market data and expert analysis, proprietary AI search features, and a better, customer-centric user experience at a competitive price point. AlphaSense users have the option between enterprise and per-seat pricing, making it more accessible for businesses of all sizes.
Contact us for more information on pricing options, or start a free 2-week trial here.
A Better Alternative to Guidepoint and GLG?
While GLG and Guidepoint are notable options for primary research providers, AlphaSense offers a distinct advantage over both platforms by providing a comprehensive market intelligence platform that goes beyond just connecting users with experts.
Unlike GLG and Guidepoint, which primarily focus on facilitating expert calls, AlphaSense integrates AI-powered search and genAI capabilities into a vast content universe, allowing users to quickly access and analyze a vast array of data sources, including company filings, news, research reports, and transcripts—all in one place.
This enables businesses to gain deeper, data-driven insights quickly without the need for multiple consultations. AlphaSense’s platform is particularly beneficial for those who need real-time information and actionable insights, making it a more versatile and efficient tool for market research, investment decisions, and corporate strategy.
Additionally, AlphaSense offers a more user-friendly experience with robust customer support, making it accessible to a wider range of organizations, from startups to large enterprises. This combination of AI technology, extensive content coverage, and ease of use makes AlphaSense a superior option for companies looking to streamline their research processes and make more informed business decisions.
AlphaSense is the best choice for you if:
- You are looking for a platform that can be utilized across your organization and for various strategic goals.
- You need a platform that takes away the tedious, manual parts of research and surfaces relevant, real-time insights, saving you precious time for deeper analysis and strategy.
- You are interested in accessing an expansive content universe of proprietary, premium, private, and public content that is inaccessible to the general public and many of your peers.
- You want a platform that will replace all your various other research avenues and be the one stop shop for all your market intelligence needs.
- You want a platform that will work behind the scenes to ensure you never fall behind or miss critical information, with customizable real-time alerts, watchlists, and dashboards.
