While many of the major marketing research data collection
developers are heading in the direction of multimodal interviewing,
Canadian firm Techneos Systems is resolutely sticking to the field it
knows: mobile computer-aided personal interviewing (MCAPI).
And with good reason too, as it is a field that keeps growing-thanks to
the freedom that wireless data communications offers researchers and
the chipping away of the dominance of the Palm OS by pocket versions of
Windows. In fact, when Techneos talks about mixed-mode support, it now
means being able to deploy the same interview on everything from a
monochrome Palm bought several years ago through to tablet PCs, in one
direction, and smart phones in another.

Techneos came early to the market, specialized and produced a
groundbreaking product which has spawned many imitators. But for some
buyers, its sole allegiance to the Palm OS, rather than Windows, made
it rather too specialized for comfort. Whiel Palm has remained very
common in North America, in Europe and in Asia, Windows CE has long
been dominant, and Palm is no longer viewed as mainstream. That changed
when Entryware 6 emerged last fall, as it offers support across the
range of Windows devices, from Windows tablets or touch-screen/kiosk
devices to Pocket PCs and the new ultra-mobile mini-tablet PCs.

Not that Palm has been forsaken. Rather than reimplement as a native
Windows application, Techneos made use of a Palm emulator on the
Windows devices. This is in no way apparent to the end user in either
convenience or performance. Both the software and the emulator have a
tiny footprint, so plenty of room is left for data on even the smallest
devices, and there is complete compatibility between the two platforms,
so any survey written for one type of device will run on any other.

There are only three fairly specialized features which are
Windows-specific, which will fall back to less-sophisticated
counterparts on a Palm in each case. Indeed, a survey written for a
Palm PDA will dynamically scale itself up to the larger screen of a
Windows laptop or tablet. Texts reflow and pop-up lists become grids on
the larger screen, for instance. It is a true "design once, deploy to
all" multimodal approach within the different modules of CAPI.

Entryware Version 6 MCAPI software by Techneos Systems (www.techneos.com )

Pros

• Works online or offline
• Excellent international capabilities

Cons

• No support for CATI or paper
• Built-in reporting tool is basic and inflexible

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"Software Review: Techneos Entryware 6" by Tim Macer (Quirks Magazine, April 2007)

©2007 Quirk's Marketing Research Review (www.quirks.com). Reprinted with
permission from the April 2007 issue. This document is for Web posting
and electronic distribution only. Any editing or alteration is a
violation of copyright.