Newsletter January 2005

Content newsletter January 2005:

Release of the NIPO Fieldwork System for CATI/Web Interviewing 1.03
New Useful Tools on the NIPO Software website

Release of the NIPO Fieldwork System for CATI/Web Interviewing 1.03

During the last weeks all NIPO CATI System users have received the new release of the NIPO Fieldwork System. This system offers the possibility to combine web and telephonic interviewing. This means that the same survey can be run in a CATI and in a web environment simultaneously, while it only has to be set up once.

When receiving the release, some of the CATI users were having questions about this software version (for both CATI and CAWI), so we would like to clarify the choices we made with respect to the development of the NIPO CATI System:

Full integration of the NIPO CATI System and the NIPO Web Interview System (CAWI)
The current need for Mixed and Switch Mode research was the basis for the complete joining of the NIPO CATI Master and the NIPO Web Master. Now surveys can be set up running for both telephone and internet, while collecting all the data in one place.

From experience we know that it gets more and more difficult (and expensive) to contact respondents by telephone and it is expected that in time it will be impossible to get a representative sample at moderate costs of certain target groups by using CATI only. To challenge this trend we have decided to join our CATI and CAWI system, thereby giving the market research organisation the choice how to address the respondents (Mixed Mode). Switch Mode research even hands the choice to the respondent self how to participate in a survey.

More information about the advantages of Switch Mode research can be found in this whitepaper:
Switch Mode Paper

Web licences for every CATI user
In order to test the on-line functionality of the NIPO Fieldwork System for CATI/Web Interviewing, we have granted every CATI user a web licence for 2 concurrent connections free of charges. With these licences the full NIPO Fieldwork System can be tested, including the possibilities of Mixed and Switch Mode research. Next to that, CATI customers might opt to use this to demonstrate the call center questionnaires remotely to their clients.

Do note that a web server and firewall (security) are needed in order to run web surveys. The NIPO Fieldwork System for Web Interviewing is completely HTML based. Please contact the NIPO Software Helpdesk for more information.

Added functionality in the NIPO Fieldwork Management System
The NIPO FMS 1.03 is a new product with these important features:

NIPO FMS combines NIPO CATI FMS and NIPO Web FMS. The exact contents of the NIPO FMS is depending on your NIPO Software Licence.

Interviewer planning. A module to do an interviewer planning is integrated in the NIPO FMS. Enter the interviewer availability and the number of interviewers required per survey. Now interviewers can be assigned to surveys.

Using a waiting room, working room and exit room.

Send mail in unicode / bi-directional languages.

Import addresses in sample table (database instead of T-files) for CATI or CAWI.

Add records to sample table while survey is already running.

More information can be found in the NIPO Fieldwork System 1.03 User's Guide.

New NIPO CATI Client
Some of the important features of the new NIPO CATI Client 5.01:

Same interviewer appointment.

Switch from CATI to Web Interviewing.

Language versions replaced by settings in the NIPOSYS.INI.

Support for progressive encoded JPG files in questionnaire or Picture library.

Pictures can be located on the NIPO CATI Master or on the NIPO CATI Client.

Possibility to show an interview progress bar.

More information about the new features can be found in the NIPO CATI Client 5.01 Technical Reference.

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New Useful Tools on the NIPO Software website

On the Customers section of the NIPO Software website we have placed some Useful Tools. NIPO Software clients can download the tools free of charges (a login username and password is needed to access this website section).

3 Tools have been added to the section:

Bfile2wav
This is a tool that creates .wav files from the NIPO Software B-files. In the command prompt use a B-file (sound file) as parameter to bfile2wav.exe and it will convert the B-file to .wav files. The .wav file contains as name the interview number.

Var2SSS
An application that will create triple-s files based on the NIPO DIANA files. The input of a VAR- and DAT-file will convert to a SSS- and ASC-file. Note that the NIPO ODIN Developer standard supports export to the latest triple-s XML version.

KL_open (new version)
Client friendly export of open answers. The program generates based on the O- and X-file an RTF-file that contains a client friendly overview of all the open answers.