In an exciting development for researchers who survey respondents in China, NIPO is proud to announce the release of a new Nfield deployment from Chinese mainland. This makes Nfield the only international market research platform approved as an Internet Content Provider (ICP) by the Chinese authorities. Researchers and respondents alike can now enjoy a uniquely superior experience with Nfield, as data no longer needs to pass through the Great Firewall of China.
Why Chinese mainland deployment matters: The performance of outbound internet traffic in China is impacted by what is known as the Great Firewall of China. This firewall actively checks all connections to the outside world, including cloud-based online interviewing platforms. For Nfield Online users in Chinese mainland connected to the Nfield deployment in the Azure data center in Hong Kong SAR, this previously meant unpredictable delays in load times for new questions and thus a poor respondent experience, with high drop-outs as a result. This was not only the case for NIPO’s Nfield, but for all CAWI interview systems hosted from outside Chinese mainland.
The new Nfield China deployment has both its primary and backup locations hosted in Chinese mainland. This has been made possible through the Chinese Government’s full approval of the deployment and granting of an Internet Content Provider (ICP) filing. This gives Nfield a unique status within the international market research industry and enables us to provide an unrivalled level of service.
As well as the obvious benefits for online surveys, the China deployment also means improved interface responsiveness when setting up survey projects and managing fieldwork. And Nfield CAPI interviewers will benefit from faster synchronization with tablets.
Final stress tests were carried out in January 2019 with a group of pilot users. Following the successful completion of those first projects, the domain is now available for use and we are delighted to have already welcomed our first new customers on board. Existing customers operating in China will be invited to switch to the local deployment.
The Nfield China deployment is running the latest Nfield version and will remain in sync with updates applied to other regions.
Nfield
Nfield is fully offered as a Software-as-a-Service model, which leaves you free from capex and servicing commitments. Nfield is the only survey solution hosted from the Microsoft Azure cloud, which guarantees superb performance, reliability and stability. In addition to the Nfield deployments in China, Nfield is deployed from Europe, America and elsewhere in Asia. Nfield is a fully scalable system that can handle extremely high volumes. Nfield is fully secure, with ISO 27001-2013 certification for both NIPO and the Nfield platform. NIPO and Nfield are both compliant with GDPR legislation.
