Launched in 1986, the NIPO CAPI System was one of the first commercial CAPI systems. Nowadays, the NIPO CAPI System runs the world's largest CAPI field forces.

The CAPI instrument is perfect for complex questionnaires or target groups that are difficult to reach.

Nowadays, MR agencies have a large number of different instruments at their disposal for the collection of data. The classic face-to-face interview where the responses are keyed directly into a computer, also known as CAPI (Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing), is still a perfect method for clients who wish to do research studies among target groups that are difficult to reach or who want to use interviewing techniques which require the presence of an interviewer.

NIPO was the first market research organisation in the Netherlands to introduce computer aided interviewing. The NIPO CAPI System, which was developed within our own organisation, has since then become a standard for face-to-face research with the use of multimedia computers.

With the NIPO CAPI System, questionnaires, samples and instructions are distributed to portable PC’s of interviewers by means of internet (or modem) communication. Interviewers read questions and instructions from the screen of the portable PC.

Answers are entered and checked during the interview and sent back, together with information about (non-) response, interview times and durations and messages of interviewers. There is no need for data entry or data cleaning afterwards.

The central system contains a database of among others interviewers, respondent addresses and questionnaires.

Omnibus surveys are composed by creating sets of questionnaires. These sets are then assigned to the fixed or starting addresses where they have to be completed. Many different interviewers can receive many different sets of questionnaires.