WebSurveyor simplifies online survey development

Mark Gibbs' Web site tips, plus network applications news headlines

Online surveys are an efficient way of collecting input from users on a private intranet or a public commercial Web site. But while they might be efficient they are only cost-effective as long as the amount of effort you put into building your survey system is low.

The problem is that creating your own Web application to handle surveys is a big task that will usually not pay off well enough to justify the cost. The answer is: Don't build, buy.

WebSurveyor (see editorial links below) has just released Version 5.0 of its eponymous Web survey product, which combines a huge repertory of survey features and facilities with very good pricing. WebSurveyor is also available in three different pricing models: pay-per-survey, hosted surveys, and as software you can implement on your own server.

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Online surveys are an efficient way of collecting input from users on a private intranet or a public commercial Web site. But while they might be efficient they are only cost-effective as long as the amount of effort you put into building your survey system is low.

The problem is that creating your own Web application to handle surveys is a big task that will usually not pay off well enough to justify the cost. The answer is: Don't build, buy.

WebSurveyor (see editorial links below) has just released Version 5.0 of its eponymous Web survey product, which combines a huge repertory of survey features and facilities with very good pricing. WebSurveyor is also available in three different pricing models: pay-per-survey, hosted surveys, and as software you can implement on your own server.

The process of creating a survey using WebSurveyor is straightforward: The Survey Builder Wizard assists in either creating a completely custom survey or modifying one of the professionally written surveys. The next step, if required, is to use the survey editor to add, modify and rearrange questions, section headers and response options. You can also insert additional questions from the survey library and save questions to the library for future use.

You can preview your survey at any point of the development process to see what it will looks like. The survey's look and feel is controlled by either the included design templates or by your own design created with WebSurveyor's Template Manager. The final step is to publish your survey to the WebSurveyor remotely or locally hosted account.

With the hosted services, you log on to your account to check survey results; with the own hosted version the software provides a query interface.

WebSurveyor commits to a high level of support with a team of Survey Advisors, Account Managers, and Customer Service Engineers, and can supply professional services to assist with complex survey creation.

A free service offered by WebSurveyor is its polling service - essentially a single question survey often used to solicit feedback on a simple topic (see my Network World Web Applications Polls page link below).

WebSurveyor is priced at $250 for a single, hosted, one-month survey; $1,500 for a single, hosted, one-year survey with additional survey features; and starting at $1,500 for the software (supports a single survey).

Of interest to anyone who wants an opt-out service to be CAN-SPAM compliant, WebSurveyor has a service that will accept e-mail addresses and generate a comma-separated variable file for pruning your outbound e-mail list. WebSurveyor will be offering this as a standard product in the near future but until then it is provided and price on application.

Read more about software in Network World's Software section.

Mark Gibbs is a consultant, author, journalist, columnist and blogger.