FAQs

Picking a Platform - SODA^TM and Entryware^TM

Q: What is the difference between SODA^TM and Entryware^TM software?

Techneos® Entryware software, first released in April 2000, was developed as a Mobile Computer-Assisted Personal Interviewing (MCAPI) tool for use on Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs). Now at version 6.2, Entryware is the world's most powerful mobile survey tool for both personal interviewing and diary studies, and is also used for other applications such as mystery shopping and store audits. Today, Entryware runs on a wide range of PDAs, Smartphones, Ultra-Mobile PCs and Tablet PCs.

In November 2008, Techneos released the beta version of our Survey On-Demand Application (SODA^TM) platform, which is a groundbreaking software toolkit for mobile phone surveys. When we assessed the feasibility of adding broader support for mobile phones to Entryware, we determined that approach would limit our ability to take full advantage of current mobile technologies. Built entirely on Java® technology, which is supported by most mobile phones on the planet today, SODA provides a whole new level of flexibility for mobile surveys projects.

Many questionnaires can run equally well using either Entryware or SODA software, while some projects are better suited to a specific product. Please view our product comparison page or contact us to determine which software is right for you.

Q: What is the difference between a Feature Phone and a Smartphone? Which Techneos® software works on each?

The most common definition of a Smartphone is a phone that has its own operating system and can run third-party applications. Common examples of Smartphones are BlackBerry® from Research in Motion (RIM®), Palm®'s Treo^TM and Centro^TM models, the Apple® iPhone^TM, and numerous devices running either Windows Mobile® or Symbian^TM operating systems.

Any other phone on the market would generally be considered a Feature Phone. While Feature Phones are not as expandable as Smartphones, the line is blurring between these two categories. Almost every Feature Phone sold today ships with Java Micro Edition (J2ME^TM), which is much like an operating system in that it allows users to download third-party applications to their phones.

Survey On-Demand Application (SODA^TM) Mobile software is based on Java®, so it runs on most Feature Phones available today. Furthermore, Java Virtual Engines (JVM^TMs) are available for most models of Smartphones. Once a JVM is installed, SODA can be run even on devices which do not natively support Java.

Entryware^TM Mobile software works on any device that runs the Palm® Operating System (Palm OS) or Windows® 98/2000/XP/Vista. You can also run Entryware on most models of Windows Mobile® computers by first loading the StyleTap® Platform, found at www.styletap.com, which provides a very reliable emulation of the Palm OS application; a similar emulator is available from Access Inc., found at www.access-company.com/products/gvm, for running Palm OS applications on some models of Nokia® Smartphones.

Contact us to discuss your mobile survey requirements, and to determine the right software and hardware platform for your needs.

Q: How does Techneos® SODA^TM software compare to mobile web surveys?

Survey On-Demand Application (SODA^TM) software is a small "Smart Client" application that downloads to a mobile phone much like a game, and then remains on the phone until you remove it. The mobile user can be assigned "tasks", which are specific questionnaires that apply to the respondent or interviewer who is using the phone. Those tasks are automatically managed by SODA Server, and are synchronized periodically when a wireless connection is available.

The advantage of a "Smart Client" application is that surveys can be filled out at any time, even when cellular coverage is unavailable. All mobile phones on the market today are powerful computers, so SODA software uses this computing power to do most of the work required for a survey on the mobile device itself, connecting to the server only as required to submit completed surveys and update the user's task list. By contrast, mobile web surveys require the mobile user to have a persistent wireless Internet connection, and rely on a server to do most of the work.

Q: How does Techneos® SODA^TM software compare to SMS/text message surveys on mobile phones?

Survey On-Demand Application (SODA^TM) software is a full-featured survey toolkit providing a feature set that rivals high-end systems for web and phone surveys. Since SODA Mobile software runs locally on a phone, it is able to make full use of the phone's extensive computing power, thus providing a responsive, reliable user experience even on long, complex questionnaires. By contrast, Short Message Service (SMS) surveys require each question to be delivered from a server to the mobile user, and each answer in turn to be submitted to the server as a text message. SMS surveys work reasonably well for very short polling applications, but they are not well suited to surveys with more than a few questions.

Performance and Functionality

Q: How can I fit large or complex surveys on a handheld computer or phone?

Mobile phones and Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) today are powerful computers, most of which have high-resolution screens and plenty of space for data storage. Techneos® survey software makes full use of these resources to deliver a desktop-calibre survey experience within a broad range of mobile environments. Both our Entryware^TM and Survey On-Demand Application (SODA^TM) software platforms can handle long, complex questionnaires with ease.

Some adjustments are needed to migrate a complex survey from a word processor or desktop survey tool into a mobile form factor. Techneos survey software does much of the work for you by automatically detecting the size of screen that a user is working on and adjusting the number and placement of items accordingly. Mobile users are also provided with an intuitive interface to guide them through the survey process, including lookup functions and up/down arrows to help navigate lists that are too long to fit on one screen. And with our Windows®-based survey authoring tools, you can further customize the look and feel of a questionnaire to work optimally on almost any screen size.

Q: Does Techneos® software handle other methods of data collection such as web surveys or phone surveys?

No. Techneos is a specialist in mobile data collection for surveys conducted at the point of experience. Both our Survey On-Demand Application (SODA^TM) and Entryware^TM software export data in common formats such as SPSS®, Microsoft Excel® and ASCII. Entryware is also compatible with the SPSS® Dimensions^TM platform which includes data collection for web and telephone surveys.

Q: How does Techneos® software work with SPSS® Dimensions^TM?

Our Entryware^TM software includes a custom Case Data Source Component (CDSC) and Metadata Source Component (MDSC) that work together with SPSS® Dimensions^TM products , allowing you to exchange questionnaire metadata (survey design) between Entryware software and other SPSS Dimensions-compliant applications, and to query Entryware data within SPSS Dimensions-compatible reporting tools.

SPSS Dimensions support is also planned for the Techneos® Survey On-Demand Application (SODA^TM) platform in 2009.

Q: What kind of reporting is provided by Techneos® software?

Techneos is squarely focused on data collection using mobile devices, but we recognize the value of having survey results available when you need them. Both our Entryware^TM and Survey On-Demand Application (SODA^TM) software provide immediate access to response data that is collected from mobile users, plus basic topline frequency reports to provide you with a quick summary of your data. For more extensive reporting and analysis, a variety of third-party software tools can be integrated with Techneos products to provide the custom reporting solutions that you require.

Q: How does Techneos® protect my data?

All Techneos software provides numerous levels of data integrity control. To start with, our software manages your data structures to eliminate the use of ambiguous variable names or response values. At the design level, you have a wide array of tools at your disposal to control how data is entered by the end user, such as range checks, forcing a minimum or maximum number of responses, and forcing users to view an entire list before making a selection-we track every change that you make to a questionnaire once it is live. At the data collection level, our software tracks state information such as time-stamps, "missing" values and "off-path" data, and provides both password control and redundant archival of data.

All Techneos servers are hosted at a secure co-location facility that provides multiple-level physical security, staffed 24/7, as well as redundant power and daily backups.

Q: Is Techneos® software useful for applications other than surveys?

Yes. Surveys are our sole focus, but the inherent complexity of survey research makes advanced survey toolkits like Techneos' Entryware^TM and Survey On-Demand Application (SODA^TM) excellent choices for some other forms of data collection, such as store audits or inspections. By providing the infrastructure to rapidly create and deploy such "applications", an advanced survey platform can dramatically reduce your time to market for a variety of structured data collection projects.

Contact us today to determine whether Techneos can help you to deliver your next data collection project on time and on budget.

Q: How can I enter open-ended (verbatim) text into a mobile device that doesn't have a keyboard?

Many mobile computers provide thumb-pads, and almost all provide on-screen keypads which work well for short to medium-length responses. With Techneos® Entryware^TM software, you can also capture open-ended responses verbally, which are stored as .wav files, and then re-key or code the answers later.

Survey Design/Authoring

Q: How do I design/author a questionnaire?

Techneos® provides Windows®-based survey authoring tools for both the Entryware^TM and Survey On-Demand Application (SODA^TM) product lines. Both Entryware Designer and SODA Designer provide rich toolkits for survey design, most of which can be done via a point-and-click interface. When you need to do something more complex, scripting languages are provided to program routing/branching logic, numeric calculations, manipulation of open-ended text answers, and to validate that answers are correct and/or within a suitable range.

Q: Can I import questionnaires from Microsoft Word® in to your Entryware^TM^TM Designer tools? and SODA

Both Entryware^TM Designer and Survey On-Demand Application (SODA^TM) Designer provide ways to speed your survey design process. Questions and category lists can easily be copied-and-pasted from Microsoft Word® or any other Windows® software. In addition, wizards are provided to accelerate tasks like creation of variables (i.e. to store the data for each item in a category list) and for importing translations for multi-lingual questionnaires.

Q: Does Techneos® software support multiple languages?

Yes.Techneos has customers in 50 countries using our software in dozens of languages. Every questionnaire that you create can be deployed in any number of different languages without having to rewrite scripts or replicate survey structures. Both Entryware^TM Designer and Survey On-Demand Application (SODA^TM) Designer also provide easy-to-use wizards to dramatically improve efficiency of the translation process, allowing translators to simply perform a line-by-line translation of text within a Microsoft Excel® file.

Entryware software works with Microsoft® Double-Byte Character Set (DBCS), which enables surveys to be run in virtually every language except Punjabi or Hindi. Note that for some languages running on certain devices, a third-party "language overlay" may be required to support all of the languages that you require.

SODA software is based on the Unicode standard, which works on virtually every language including Punjabi and Hindi.

Where and How to Buy

Q: Where can I buy your mobile survey software?

Techneos®sells Entryware^TM and Survey On-Demand Application (SODA^TM) software licenses directly in most regions, and has authorized resellers in many areas of Europe and Latin America.

Help us help you by filling out our online inquiry form<LINK TO EMAIL FORM>, and we will either contact you directly or put you in touch with one or our resellers. Or contact us today to discuss your survey software requirements.

Q: What is the price for Entryware^TM and SODA^TM software?

Techneos® offers various pricing options for both Entryware^TM and Survey On-Demand Application (SODA^TM) software. Entryware is available through either perpetual licensing (purchase) or software-as-a-service (rental).

Special beta pricing is currently available for eligible SODA projects, on a project-by-project basis.

Help us help you by filling out our online inquiry form<LINK TO EMAIL FORM>, so that we can provide you with a customized software quote. Or contact us today to discuss your survey software requirements.

Q: Does Techneos® sell mobile devices?

In most cases, no. It is usually more cost-effective for you to source hardware yourself, as a wide range of mobile devices are available through retail channels. However, we can help you determine what mobile hardware you need, and assist you in finding distributors for that hardware. In rare cases where it is advantageous to our clients, Techneos will source hardware and resell it.

Q: Does Techneos® rent mobile devices?

Yes. Techneos has hundreds of devices, many of which are Smartphones enabling real-time wireless connectivity, for rental within North America. These devices are rented only as part of a project-based service solution bundled with software and programming services.

Help us help you by filling out our online inquiry form, so that we can provide you with a customized project quote. Or contact us today to discuss your project requirements.

Q: Does Techneos® provide programming services or consulting?

Yes. Techneos provides turnkey survey solutions within North America, which include the software, hardware and programming services you require to make your next in-person survey project a success. Our wireless survey solutions are especially popular, as they provide real-time synchronization using Smartphones on wireless networks that span the continent.