Survey Hosting - Meaning?

Marc I. Tillman, Amplitude Research, Inc.

Survey hosting can mean different things to different people. At one end of the spectrum it can refer to an ASP offering its market research software where users can program and administer their own surveys. At the other end of the spectrum it can refer to a full-service survey solution where the survey company's professional staff programs and administers the survey on its own platform. This article describes differences in each approach and discusses some of the key considerations in the selection of a survey hosting vendor.

There is a limited number of survey and market research companies using their own research software to conduct surveys. End user clients of hosted survey solutions should note that the survey vendor might not be the actual developer of the software and/or could be hosting its surveys on another vendor's platform. Many survey companies license their survey software from a 3rd party vendor specializing in survey engine development and install the software on their own platform. Other companies license the use of hosted survey solutions on another vendor's platform to circumvent the need for software installation and ongoing hosting. In the case of licensed software, if the software developer does not provide a detailed roadmap of the installation requirements, the survey software alone might not provide an adequate solution. Relevant factors can include: processing power of the hardware; proper selection and configuration of application servers (if needed); database selection and configuration; and the amount of available bandwidth.

General Considerations:

In evaluating the best choice of vendor in the survey hosting space, here are five considerations -- some of which are more important than others depending on your specific requirements:

1. Do you prefer to program and administer the survey on your own (ASP model) or would you rather contract these functions to a full-service hosted survey provider?

2. Does your survey instrument require special features or custom programming?

3. If you are engaging in market research surveys, how easily does the software coordinate with sample providers i.e., does the software offer redirects and/or recording of IDs? Does the software offer quota stops? Does the software offer respondent filtering?

4. Does the software and its environment offer fast page views and an error-free survey experience for the volume of participants you are expecting?

5. Will you be able to provide technical support for survey participants?

Pick the software that matches your needs:

Regardless of whether you select an ASP or a full-service solution, you should identify the requirements needed for your survey projects and determine whether the software can meet those needs. For example, if you expect to use such features as skip logic, branching, piping, percent tables, etc., then you want to select a vendor that offers these features.

Similarly, if you expect a large volume of survey takers and/or use survey instruments which are long (such as 15 minutes or longer), make sure that the software has the capacity to handle this with fast page views and error-free data collection.

If you require custom programming of question types or programming logic to meet your survey needs, make sure that the vendor can provide a custom survey solution. If the survey company is not the developer of the software and does not have its own IT development staff, there might be limitations on the custom features it can offer. Before selecting a vendor, ask for a general cost estimate on the development and deployment of your custom survey solutions.

To read the rest of this article on the Amplitude Research website, click here.

[Sep 21, 2009]