If you plan to run a survey on your Web site you could code it yourself but as with any Web applications project, buying a prebuilt system could save you a ton of money.
Today, we will look at SurveySolutions XP from Perseus Development (www.perseus.com/).
There are three versions of Survey Solutions:
*SurveySolutions Standard, which offers compatibility with Microsoft Office.
*SurveySolutions Professional, which adds logic to surveys including advanced branching, multisided table questions and piping for Web and e-mail surveys.
*SurveySolutions Enterprise, which adds real-time web-based reporting and analysis.
The beauty of SurveySolutions is its flexibility. It supports many types of questions including multiple choice single selection; multiple choice multiple selection; choose one and specify; choose many and specify; rank order; allocation question (total sum); and questions based on filling in tables.
SurveySolutions can import surveys created under Microsoft Word or use the included questionnaire and survey design wizards.
The systems includes:
*Question and scale libraries.
*Support for cascading style sheets and backgrounds.
*Support for foreign languages.
*Automatic dropdown setup for state, country, industry, day, week, month (you can also create customized lists).
*Support for Section 508 Compliance (based on government guidelines for users with disabilities) - Pro and Enterprise versions only.
The Standard version offers Web- and HTML e-mail-based surveys and the Pro and Enterprise versions add support for surveys by text e-mail, handheld devices (Palm-based), fax, paper and even telephone.
All versions include automatic creation of e-mail invitations with mail-merge functionality, support for unique respondent identification codes, multiple lists (multiple exclude lists) for creating panels, plus a survey invitation wizard.
Responses could be stored under MS Access (SurveySolutions can automatically create an MS Access compatible database table) or in an SQL database (MS SQLServer, DB2, Oracle, MySQL). SurveySolutions can also collect responses from e-mail and Palm-based devices, as well as paper, fax, or telephone surveys.
Combine all of this with extensive reporting features, including a report presentation portal, and you have a pretty impressive package.
SurveySolutions runs under Unix, Linux, Windows NT 4, Windows 2000 (see: perseus.com/softwareprod/system_requirements.htm for configuration requirements) and costs $495 for the Standard version and $995 for the Pro version. The Enterprise version is priced on application.
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Mark Gibbs is a consultant, author, journalist, and columnist. He writes the weekly Backspin and Gearhead columns in Network World.
Mark Gibbs is a consultant, author, journalist, and columnist. He writes the weekly Backspin and Gearhead columns in Network World. Gibbs is also co-conspirator of the Vitally Important Information Web site.
Gibbs can be contacted at webapps@gibbs.com. Press releases to pr@gibbs.com.
