The Snap User-driven Engine of Progress
December 2003
Snap software was one of the first of its kind. A package that could perform and link every step of the survey process seamlessly using a single file and interface. Suddenly conducting a survey became an integrated process rather than a number of tasks carried out separately.
The software was to change the face of survey management and processing, improving the productivity of any organization involved in survey work. It also opened up possibilities for those with the need to conduct some form of survey but deterred from doing so by the difficulties associated before Snap.
The story of innovation did not end there. The test of any company worth its salt is not how it starts but how it continuously strives to better itself. Mercator and Snap Surveys has always aimed to go on as it began.
Product and service development at Snap has always been closely linked to user experience and feedback. Who better to inform the direction of the company than those using the software and services out in the field? Account management and support staff are in constant contact with customers It is the creativity and craft of Snap users who provide the rigorous and extensive test-bed vital to product innovation and quality.
Last month the fruits of two years of software solution development were compiled into a new add-on product entitled SurveyPlus. This comprises nine powerful programs that work alone or may be combined to provide users with considerable new survey power. Each program was custom designed to enable Snap software to meet specific challenges that faced a number of users.
SurveyPlus is an example of customer-driven development. Here we focus on a few of the programs.
Playing Survey Percentages
The Totalize feature was developed for several users working with survey questions that required respondents to answer in percentage terms, for example,
% of time employees spent on different types of work (personnel surveys)
% of product usage (customer surveys)
% of students that fell into particular categories (student surveys)
Totalize allows online percentage questions to produce a running total as respondents enter their answers into each box. It also ensures each response adds up to 100 before the next question can be answered.
Response Command and Control
The Mailer and Filescan programs add to Snap software's capabilities for the monitoring and management of responses to online surveys.
Demand was high for this extension - one user was preparing an employee evaluation survey that was dependent on who responded, who didn't and the identification of duplicate responses.
The SurveyPlus utilities provide users with a system that can identify and track respondents and automatically issue reminders.
Now You Can Just Save and Load
Many questionnaires are lengthy and often cannot be completed in one go. For instance once user runs mystery shopper surveys that require completion over a course of several days.
The Save and Load function allows respondents to save their position on an online questionnaire and return later to complete the rest.
Put Your Survey on Random
Many users apply strict rules to the methodology used in their survey research to ensure objectivity and integrity of response. One US advertising and market research agency uses a different order of questions for each respondent when conducting paper-based surveys and wished to continue this practice on its web-based surveys.
Hence, the Randomize program was born enabling the order of questions to change each time the questionnaire is loaded.
The wealth of powerful extras on offer in the form of SurveyPlus is testimony to the ability of Snap Surveys to work with customers and respond to their needs in the short term.
At the same time the company remains focused its longer-term plans for the development of its core software product.
A Snapshot of Great Things to Come
A sneak preview of great things to come was unveiled last month when Technical Director Steve Jenkins was knighted… (You're getting carried away again - Ed) …err awarded a PhD from the University of the West of England. The doctorate was based on Dr Jenkins' thesis outlining a pioneering new approach to the adaptation of survey software and other applications to the environments they operate within.
The business of application software is often complex and costly given that they must be applied to a variety of organizations in often widely differing industry sectors and markets. Imagine the difference, for instance, between a health trust where the variables are medicines and patients compared with the world of insurance where policies and policyholders make up the environment.
Often the only solution for ensuring the software is properly applied to an organization and its environment is the commissioning of costly customization work. But Dr Jenkins' innovative work will allow users to customize their own software in-house, saving them a great deal of expense. He has developed a method for the bespoke customization of application software by users without the need for programming expertise. This framework will allow users to proscribe to their software the variables and rules that govern the environment in which they work.
Work has already begun to incorporate the powerful new concepts in the next generation of Snap software.
Snap Surveys began life by changing the nature of survey work. Over the past two decades it has contributed to the growth of survey research and projects across industries. By closely working with its diverse software user base, the company has continued to set new standards and shift the goal posts.
It now aims to further consolidate its work and break new ground in survey design software, and potentially, application software in general.
Watch this space.
For more SurveyPlus details visit www.snapsurveys.com/software/softwaresurveyplus.shtml
To discuss Snap technical issues call 01454 280828 (UK) or 603-610-8700 (US)