In a similar vein, many companies, government agencies and nonprofit institutions are using this type of technique to gather and analyze all kinds of market information. Like teachers with hundreds of tests to grade each year, many companies and organizations have hundreds of market surveys to conduct and process each year on a tight deadline. While some of the parts of the process can be pushed, there is no way to accelerate preparing the survey questionnaire or entering the raw data into the computer. Until now.
Such time consuming and error-prone tasks can be virtually eliminated with Survey Network by National Computer Systems, Minneapolis. According to NCS, the Survey Network is a desktop publishing system that allows the user to design and print questionnaires, then enter and evaluate the survey data quickly and easily.
Simple, direct
An especially attractive feature about this survey system is that users need not be computer programmers to operate it. It is simple, direct and requires no lengthy training sessions. Survey Network provides all the tools necessary to conduct a survey: software and hardware to design and print scannable questionnaires, and a versatile scanning technology that puts the data directly into the user's microcomputer.
Here's how the system works. First, users design their questionnaire on the screen of a microcomputer by formatting the survey questions and responses using the desktop publishing software. All the software functions are set out in clean and uncomplicated screens.
Next, the questionnaire is printed on NCS open-format scanning forms. Users determine the size of the response bubbles and where they go as well as where the questions and response titles are positioned.
Printing options include a range of laser printers, from the Apple LaserWriter, through heavier duty cycle laser printers like the Data Products LZR 2665 and TI 2115, through console laser printers like the IBM 3800 and Xerox 8700. Commercial offset printing can also be used when volume demands it and time permits.
After the data are collected, NCS' scanning technology is used to send the data from the completed surveys directly into the user's microcomputer for analysis and output.
Scanning technology
The NCS Survey Network is built around a technology called Optical Mark Reading (OMR). The NCS OMR scanner is the bridge between the user's questionnaire end computer.
According to NCS, an OMR scanner is fast and accurate because there's no "middle man." Those surveyed indicate their responses by using a No. 2 pencil to darken the bubbles on the questionnaire. The questionnaires are then fed into an NCS scanner which sends the responses directly to the computer. Using an OMR scanner to collect survey data provides an accuracy rate better than key entry, and the scanner places the data directly on a microcomputer's hard disk.
A critical feature of NCS scanners is their ability to distinguish between levels of mark intensity. This means the scanner can tell erasures and smudges from the respondent's final choice when the questionnaire is scanned, thus assuring that users are getting all the information that's available on the survey.
Survey Network permits a wide range of edits that are performed at scanning time. At the user's option, scanning will stop at an error immediately or later for corrections.
Edits such as blank fields, out of range alpha or numeric and multiple responses are selected from NCS's library. More complete edits can be programmed and then added to the library if desired.
Limitless questions
There is no limit to the number of questions the user can ask. All the user needs to do is print the questionnaires on NCS sheets, staple them into a booklet, have them completed in the survey and then separate them for scanning. Depending on the model, the OMR scanners read 600-15,000 sheets an hour. Survey Network also lets the user incorporate barcodes and optical character recognition wands as peripherals without additional programming.
Even open-end questions can be handled. The user may either enter codes on the questionnaires prior to scanning, or afterwards, entering the data through the micro-computer keyboard directly into the data file.
Cleaning data is faster, too, says NCS. The quality of Survey Network's key entry software is comparable to that used in leading data entry service bureaus. The user's microcomputer keyboard and Survey Network's data entry screens are all that's needed to edit date.
Data analysis
Data are automatically present after scanning in a file that is part of Stat Pac Gold, a statistical analysis and reporting package from Walonick Associates. This can be used for key entry and data analysis reports. Users can also easily upload the data file to their host computer and use their own program for analysis, or remain in the PC and use DBASE III Plus, RBASE 5000, Lotus 1-2-3, or any other program that can access a sequential ASCII file. Survey Network is completely compatible with them and requires no additional programming steps.
Reliable data
OMR captures data at better than a 99% accuracy rate. One-step entry with an OMR scanner exceeds the accuracy of key entry - even with a verification check for "quality control." With an NCS OMR scanner, virtually no errors go undetected.
One user of the Survey Network is Geo-Centers, Inc., Boston office, a firm that handles government contracts. Since February, 1988, Geo-Centers has been designing questionnaires that go out to different military installations throughout the world.
According to Larry Lesher, a statistician at Geo-Centers, the questionnaires are designed to evaluate the acceptability of the food and clothing used by officers and their troops in field tests.
The firm has been using the system because "there is no one else we're aware that offers in-house designing and printing of scannable questionnaires," says Lesher, who is responsible for the analysis of the completed surveys. "That's important to us because we have to design a different questionnaire for each study, so we don't have the time to send each of them out to a typesetter, make revisions and then send them back for corrections. We have to conduct these surveys on a tight schedule."
Fast turnaround
Compared to sending it out to a typesetter, the turnaround time under this system is cut down "from a few weeks to a few days," says Lesher. "This is from the time the questionnaires come in from the field to the time the data is ready to be put into the final tech-report."
Between 300-400 persons are typically surveyed. Since March 1988, when the first survey was sent out, approximately 10,000 sheets have been scanned end analyzed.
Kathy Rock, a psychology technician, is responsible for the design up to the analysis of the surveys.
A questionnaire comes to Rock in one of two ways. Typically, it is made up on a word processor and Rock transfers it onto an Apple computer into the Survey Network. Less frequently, Rock constructs the questionnaire herself with input from project officers.
After the questionnaire is put into the Apple, it is printed out on a laser printer. "At this point, the project officer in charge of the study and I revise the questionnaire, change questions and make any type of necessary corrections. We then print it out onto the Survey Network bubble form, staple it and send it out."
The surveys are out in the field for one week and when they return, Rock will do the scanning on an IBM computer.
Tech-report
At this point, Lesher steps in to interpret the survey results. Lesher analyzes the survey using the SPSS/PC+ statistical package. He also works with the project officer to discuss what the important points are to draw from the study. The survey results are then packaged into a tech-report and sent to Army bases throughout the world.
The greatest advantage that both Lesher and Rock see to the Survey Network is the turnaround time. "From the time it takes to get a questionnaire printed, sent out in the field, returned and analyzed, it's 2 1/2 weeks," says Rock. Previously, when Geo Centers had to manually code all the questions, the whole process would take well over a month.
Lesher especially likes that the data sets are clean compared to a key punch or direct entry "that often involve human error. There's less time spent on cleaning the data."
Adds Rock, "With the scanner, we can do more surveys and a more accurate analysis.
"It's a lot easier and faster, too," says Rock. It's also more interesting to me than sitting down at a computer inputting raw data. The questionnaire looks more attractive. It's just a much more professional way of doing things."
Response cards
One other Survey Network user is a national consumer products company. The company uses Survey Network to scan consumer response cards which help decide which products the company should add, drop or modify. Between 1,000-2,000 of these cards are filled out monthly by its customers.
One to three times a month, the company will conduct specific customer surveys, for example, new product evaluations and tracking studies. All of these surveys are created, scanned and analyzed on the Survey Network.
The company uses a Macintosh computer to write and design its questionnaires, a laser printer to make copies of it, the scanner to gather the information, and the COMPAQ system to do the analysis.
Reports from the surveys are produced regularly. For the customer response cards, a report is done once a month and distributed to all of the company's regional and divisional managers.
According to the company's research manager, the Survey Network has many positive attributes. "Nothing needs to be hand-tallied, even open-end questions. The turnaround time is fast, it's flexible and easy to use, and the information we get is timely."