ISO 27001 is an international standard for managing information security, and a must-have for any organization that is entrusted with large amounts of user data, as we are here at NIPO.

Following an intensive 5-day audit which scrutinized both our Amsterdam and Madrid offices, we are pleased to share the news that NIPO’s ISO 27001:2013 certification has once again been extended. Performed by SGS, this audit was fully focused on NIPO’s ISMS.

NIPO has been certified to ISO 27001:2013 since 2016. We have retained this by undergoing re-certification audits every three years, along with two additional annual surveillance audits in between.

Continuous improvement is at the heart of both the ISO 27001 certification and NIPO. In line with this, we are now working on all the measures necessary to conform to the latest iteration, ISO 27001:2022, before October 2025.

Alongside ISO certification, we also implement many additional security measures to ensure every Nfield customer can use our market research platform with confidence. To learn about these, see Your data is secure with Nfield: here’s how.

ISO certificate

Integrating Nfield with your own system(s) can significantly enhance your organization’s market research capabilities, and the Nfield API enables this to be a seamless experience. Here is everything developers need to know about Nfield integration via the Nfield API.

Essential preparation

Before diving into the integration process, let us start with a few basics that underpin successful integration.

1. Understand REST API technology:
   REST (Representational State Transfer) is an architectural style that uses HTTP requests for communication. The Nfield API is built on this technology, so understanding how REST APIs work is crucial. Check out this introduction to REST APIs to get up to speed.
   
2. Learn how your researchers are using Nfield Manager:
   Nfield Manager is the interface through which researchers instruct the Nfield platform. To provide the integration capability these people need, you need to get to know how they work with Nfield Manager. Observing and discussing their workflow will provide you with essential insights into the tasks you need to automate and the endpoints you need to connect.
   
3. Check out the Nfield API help page:
   Region-specific Nfield API help pages provide detailed documentation on endpoints, authentication methods, request formats, and more. Be sure to refer to the correct help page for your region:

Your region	Nfield API help page
Asia Pacific	https://apiap.nfieldmr.com
America	https://apiam.nfieldmr.com
China	https://apicn.nfieldcn.com
Europe	https://api.nfieldmr.com

Starting the integration process

Here’s how to initiate your Nfield API integration process by setting up authentication and understanding key endpoints.

1. Authentication:
   There are two main methods for achieving this with the Nfield API:
   
   Basic Token:
   The easier, and more straightforward method is to use a basic token, which authenticates API requests by being included in the HTTP headers. You can also see a practical example in our video of automating quota progress reports with the Nfield API using Microsoft Power Automate.
   
   Bearer Token:
   The second method involves using OAuth 2.0 for authentication. This method is more complex but offers enhanced security features. You will need to obtain an access token through an OAuth flow, which will then be required in the header of your API requests. For more information, see What is Bearer Token and How it Works?
   
2. Endpoints:
   The Nfield API is extensive and covers all the manual actions that can be performed in Nfield Manager. These include creating, updating, and managing surveys, managing respondent data, data collection processes, managing user accounts, and monitoring survey progress. Essentially, any task that can be done manually in Nfield Manager can be automated using the Nfield API. This comprehensive coverage enables full integration and automation of your organization’s market research processes.
   
   For detailed specifications and a full list of available API endpoints, refer to the Nfield Help Page for your region, as shown in table above.
   
3. Making API calls:
   Use HTTP methods such as GET, POST, PUT, PATCH and DELETE to interact with endpoints. Make sure your requests include the necessary headers – such as the Authorization header – with your access token and Content-Type header for JSON data.
   

Figure 1: An example in Postman for getting surveys from Europe region.

4. Handling Responses:
   The API will mostly return responses in JSON format, so you need to make sure your application is able to parse these. (A small percentage of endpoints will return responses as binary files.) Pay attention to the status codes to ensure both errors and successes are managed effectively.

Best practices for integration

Adhering to best practices will help make your integration more efficient and reliable.

1. Start small:
   Begin with basic API calls to familiarize yourself with endpoints and responses. For example, start by retrieving a list of surveys before moving on to more complex operations like creating or updating surveys.
   
2. Error handling:
   Implement robust error handling in your integration to manage scenarios like expired tokens, invalid requests, or server errors. This will ensure your integration is resilient and can recover gracefully from any issues.
   
3. Testing:
   Thoroughly test your integration in a development environment before deploying it to production. Use test surveys and respondents to ensure your API calls are functioning as expected without affecting live data.
   
4. Optimized data retrieval:
   When downloading survey data, avoid downloading the entire dataset each time. Instead, implement logic to download only the differences (incremental updates) since the last download. This practice reduces the load on both your system and the Nfield API, ensuring efficient data transfer.
   
5. Respect API limits:
   Avoid making unnecessary frequent API calls to prevent overloading the system. Follow Nfield’s acceptable use policy, which provides guidelines on optimal API usage and rate limiting. Adhering to these guidelines ensures fair usage and system stability for all users.

Documentation and support

To stay updated and efficiently resolve issues, make effective use of available documentation and support resources.

1. Regular updates:         
   Make sure you stay informed about system updates, new features, and changes to the Nfield API. Ask your domain administrator to set up an email auto-forward from Nfield’s update notifications. This will keep you up to date on the latest developments and ensure you do not miss any essential information.
   
2. Keep the Nfield API help page to hand:
   Regularly refer to the Nfield API help page for updates and clarifications. It is a vital resource for understanding the endpoints, request formats, and best practices.
   
3. Utilize support resources:
   Take advantage of the various support resources provided by Nfield, such as reach out to technical support and view Academy session recordings. These resources provide valuable assistance and insights from other developers and Nfield experts. Also an Nfield SDK has been created by Nfield users on Github.

Conclusion

Integrating Nfield with your system via the Nfield API can streamline your market research operations and provide valuable data insights.

By preparing adequately, understanding the API’s fundamentals, and following best practices, you can ensure your integration is a success.

Make the most of Nfield’s capabilities by leveraging all available resources, such as Nfield API manuals and your own researchers’ expertise.

Enhance your integration’s efficiency and performance by adopting optimized data retrieval methods and respecting API usage policies.

Stay up to date on system changes to continue getting the absolute best out of Nfield.

NIPO is pleased to announce the introduction of its survey-level data retention policy feature. Designed to simplify the management of long-running trackers, or waves, this feature can be set to automatically clean out Online survey data after a specified number of days.

• Never (default): no survey data will be automatically deleted.
• 30 days: automatically deletes any survey data that’s more than 30 days old.
• 60 days: automatically deletes any survey data that’s more than 60 days old.
• 90 days: automatically deletes any survey data that’s more than 90 days old.

These settings are in the Nfield Manager under the Setup survey/Retention tab. They can be configured separately for each survey, so storage practices can be tailored to specific project needs.

Benefits of implementing a survey-level data retention policy

Setting and adhering to data retention periods aids compliance and data governance, while also simplifying long-running trackers and mitigating risks associated with prolonged data storage and privacy breaches.

• Compliance: Adhering to regulatory requirements such as GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) is crucial in today’s data-driven landscape. Establishing and enforcing appropriate data retention periods ensures compliance with these regulations, thereby mitigating legal risks.

• Data governance: Effective data governance practices demand clear policies around data retention. By defining specific retention periods, organizations can maintain data integrity, optimize storage resources, and streamline data lifecycle management processes.
  
• Risk management: Implementing proper data retention practices is essential for mitigating risks associated with prolonged data storage and potential privacy breaches. By automatically removing outdated data, organizations can reduce the likelihood of security vulnerabilities and maintain compliance with data protection laws.
  
• Simplifying long-running trackers: Seamlessly managed trackers clean-up eliminates the effort and hassle of manually removing outdated information. Long-running trackers can stay dedicated to a single survey, while long-running surveys remain organized, focused, clutter-free and up-to-date, without manual intervention.

Which data is automatically removed?

Based on the selected retention period, the following data will be removed automatically:

• Interview data (e.g. .dat, o-file, paradata, audit log) that has not changed for the specified number of days.
• Sample data for this interview (untouched sample data is not deleted).
• Survey packages (script, media files, settings) that have been superseded by a newer package for more than the specified number of days (the latest package is never deleted).
• Quota frames that have been superseded by a newer quota frame for more than the specified number of days.

Important notes

1. The default setting is NEVER. Nfield users are always in control. Data will never be automatically removed unless a specific retention period has been set.
2. Once data has been removed, it is permanently deleted along with its associated artifacts (scripts, data, quotas, media files, etc.), and cannot be restored.
3. This feature is currently only available for Nfield Online surveys.

Elevate your research game with Nfield

Survey-level data retention policy is just one of the many tools Nfield equips you with to take your market research to the next level. Say hello to streamlined processes, enhanced efficiency, and control over your data retention policies.

In market research, CAPI devices used for conducting surveys and collecting data are crucial to the fieldwork process. These devices, which are typically tablets powered by Android systems, are essential for enabling a smooth and efficient experience, while protecting valuable data.

Like every technical tool, CAPI devices need regular attention in terms of updates, data management and security checks to keep them performing as they should.

Here are our top-5 tips for optimizing the performance of your CAPI devices:

1. Keep your Android operating system updated

Regularly updating your Android operating system is vital for maintaining device security and performance. Android frequently releases updates, which often include important security patches and system optimizations. By ensuring you’re always running the latest software version, you can mitigate potential security vulnerabilities and ensure compatibility with applications – such as the Nfield CAPI app – as these, themselves, get updated.

2. Enable automatic updates for apps

Like every good app, the Nfield CAPI app periodically gets updated with new features, bug fixes, and security enhancements. To ensure you are always getting the best experience by using the latest version, we advise enabling automatic updates in your Google Play Store settings. This way, app updates are automatically downloaded and installed in the background without anybody having to remember to check and manually initiate the process. 

3. Utilize device management solutions to stay in control

Staying on top of your fieldwork operation calls for the ability to track CAPI device usage, troubleshoot issues, and maintain compliance with data security protocols. All this can be achieved by implementing a device management solution, such as Mobile Device Management (MDM) software, which provides centralized monitoring and control. MDM solutions enable administrators to remotely manage device settings, deploy applications, and enforce security policies.

4. Ensure every device is protected

CAPI device security is always essential, which is why we recommend implementing robust security measures such as device encryption, screen lock passcodes, and biometric authentication (e.g. fingerprint or facial recognition). It’s also a good idea to install reputable antivirus and security software to detect and mitigate potential threats such as malware or unauthorized access. For times when there is no secure Wi-Fi connection available, consider using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to preserve security by encrypting data transmission.

5. Conduct regular clean-ups to optimize device performance

Regularly doing a bit of a clean-up by clearing cache files, removing unnecessary apps, and managing device storage will go a long way to keeping your CAPI device operating well. These tasks can be conducted using built-in system maintenance tools and third-party optimization apps. The less clutter there is inside your CAPI devices, the better their performance will be.

A little proactive maintenance makes a big difference

These five top-tips for managing and maintaining security and performance on your CAPI devices are simple to implement, and will go a long way to keeping your fieldwork flowing smoothly. Optimally performing devices create a better user experience for fieldwork researchers and the people they interview, while enabling your market research company to get the most out of Nfield CAPI.

Most online market research surveys begin with an email invitation to participate. If these emails don’t reach their intended recipients and attract their attention, your survey is going to suffer. Successful delivery, which means landing in each recipient’s inbox, not their spam folder, is never guaranteed. And being recognized by them as a legitimate message, which should be opened, is essential to avoid being clicked straight into the trash.

It may sound a bit like a game of chance, but you can take steps to tip the odds firmly in your favor.

To protect ordinary people from being bombarded with huge amounts of unsolicited and undesirable emails which flood the internet every day, email service providers and email apps implement a range of checks on each item before allowing it to reach an inbox. The best practices outlined in this article will help your emails to pass these checks.

1. Create and authenticate custom email domains

The domain your survey invitation emails come from matters. Recipients are more likely to open emails sent from a domain they recognize and feel they can trust. Nfield can easily be configured to send from custom domains as necessary. (Of course, you need to send from a domain you are legitimately entitled to use and have the credentials for – you can’t just borrow any domain you feel like using!)  

To ensure each custom domain passes relevant delivery checks, you should set up email authentication protocols such as DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance), DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail), and SPF (Sender Policy Framework). This is something for your email administrator to take care of.

These protocols authenticate emails to confirm they are legitimately being sent from the domain they appear to be from, effectively removing one of the reasons that emails get flagged as spam.

Once these protocols have been set for a custom email domain, please contact our support to connect this domain to Nfield.

2. Obtain consent from respondents

Obtaining consent to email the people you want to invite to your online survey is important for various reasons. For a start, your emails won’t come as a surprise, so they’re less likely to be suspicious and bin them without opening, or report them as spam. Either of these actions will be unhelpful to both your survey response rate and your domain reputation.  

Aside from this, obtaining recipient consent to include them in a distribution list is both a best practice and a legal requirement under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Compliance with GDPR demonstrates your commitment to respecting individuals’ privacy rights and strengthens trust between your organization and the survey respondents you rely upon. By securing explicit consent, you not only uphold ethical standards but also mitigate the risk of non-compliance penalties. Prioritizing consent as part of your email outreach strategy aligns with GDPR’s principles of transparency and accountability, which fosters a positive relationship with your audience.

Read more about EU GDPR specifications.

3. Validate email addresses

Sending survey invitation emails to addresses that don’t exist results in hard bounces that reduce your delivery rate and damage your email reputation. Even when you think you’ve done everything right, invalid addresses can still get into your system through people accidentally mistyping or deliberately providing false information.

You can flush out bad email addresses by using validation tools (such as Emailable or ListWise). Maintaining a clean and validated distribution list will return higher delivery rates and keep your reputation intact.

4. Enable easy opt-out

Even if recipients have consented to being on your distribution list, they have the right to change their minds. It is important that every email contains an unsubscribe link through which recipients can easily manage their preferences. Any requests to opt-out need to be honored promptly to avoid reputational damage caused by unwilling recipients failing to open emails, and possibly reporting them as spam. If you continue to contact people who’ve opted out, they will also develop negative feelings towards the brand being represented.    

Enabling easy opt-out demonstrates respect for recipients’ choices and helps preserve your email sender reputation. Nfield supports customizable unsubscribe options, allowing you to tailor the process to align with your branding and compliance requirements.

Alongside this, Nfield provides a blacklist facility where you can keep track of email addresses which have unsubscribed, had delivery problems, been flagged as fake or should not be contacted for any other reason. These blacklists are compiled at domain-level, as another tool for helping you protect your email reputation.

5. Assess your spam score before sending

The content and formatting of emails is another factor that can easily trigger spam flags if you’re not careful. Before sending out your email invites, you should evaluate them by using a spam score checker (such as mail-tester) that analyzes subject lines, content, formatting and other attributes that may be scrutinized by the “spam police”. This will help you avoid another deliverability pitfall, while resulting in emails which appear more genuine to the people you need to participate in your survey.

Helping your online surveys succeed

Following best practices for sending invitation emails is essential for online survey success, and Nfield has a number of in-built features to help you do this. For more advice on building a robust email reputation, and to find out why this matters, check out our related articles

• How email reputation impacts market research success
• How to build a good email reputation and deliver more survey invitations

Why spend valuable time on routine tasks that can easily be automated? If you’re using Nfield for Online and CAPI surveys, you can reduce manual workload by hooking up with Microsoft Power Automate. Nfield’s API enables seamless integration with this user-friendly automation tool, without the need for any coding.

Integrating Microsoft Power Automate with Nfield can speed up your operations, reduce errors and omissions, and keep communications flowing, while freeing your people to focus on applying their expertise.  

Here are five examples of what Nfield and Microsoft Power Automate can achieve together.

1. Keeping clients informed with scheduled quota progress reports

Providing regular updates on project progress is good for client relationships, and demonstrates commitment to transparency and timely communication. But doing this takes time out of your day and can easily be forgotten.

With Microsoft Power Automate, you can schedule automated delivery of Nfield quota progress tables to clients, as often as you choose.

Watch our video demonstration of how to set up automated Quota Progress Reports using Microsoft Power Automate

2. Nurturing respondent relationships

Survey respondents are the lifeblood of market research, so keeping them onside is crucial. Simple things like sending thank you notes for completing surveys goes a long way to building loyalty.  

Microsoft Power Automate allows you to automate this. Reminding your respondents that their contribution is valued, and encouraging them to continue participating, without any members of your team having to disrupt their schedule.

3. Efficiently assigning addresses to interviewers

For CAPI surveys, assigning addresses to interviewers is an essential routine task. But it takes time that can be spent on other things.

Microsoft Power Automate can take care of this work by automatically assigning new addresses to each of your Nfield CAPI interviewers as required, ensuring fair distribution of workload and optimizing how each field worker is used.

4. Keeping your research team updated in real time

The faster your research team are informed, the faster they can get on with the next stage of their work.

Microsoft Power Automate can be hooked up with Nfield to notify them immediately when a survey quota target is met.

5. Ensuring survey data is immediately backed up

Everyone knows the importance of back-ups, which is why these should never be left to chance. 

Microsoft Power Automate can initiate backup processes the moment fieldwork is complete. Ensuring this crucial task doesn’t get forgotten, while lessening your team’s post-fieldwork workload, so they can focus their attention on analysis.

Integrating Nfield with Microsoft Power Automate, via the Nfield API, enables you to optimize your market research operations in many different ways. From enhancing various communications to automating routine tasks, this powerful combination allows you to focus on what matters most – extracting meaningful insights from your data.

Automation of routine tasks is a great way to improve efficiency in any line of work. For market research companies conducting Nfield Online and CAPI surveys, this is easily achieved through integration with codeless tools such as Microsoft Power Automate and Zapier.

The beauty of no-code automation tools is they don’t require specialist expertise to set them up. All that’s necessary is an amount of familiarization with the tool and how it integrates with Nfield Manager via Nfield’s API. For the purpose of this demonstration, we’re showing how sending reports to clients can be automated using Microsoft Power Automate. This task is one of the Five ways no-code automation can improve efficiency in market research operations. 

Essential preparation

Here’s what’s necessary for integrating Microsoft Power Automate with Nfield:

• Microsoft Power Automate Premium Subscription: this provides access to advanced features such as HTTP connections.
• Basic understanding of Microsoft Power Automate: see Get started with Power Automate – Power Automate | Microsoft Learn or A Beginner’s Guide to Automation Using Power Automate
• Familiarity with Nfield Manager: in order to understand specific tasks and endpoints involved in the integration process.
• Access to the appropriate Nfield API help manual: refer to the manual for your region
  

Your region	Nfield API Manual
Asia Pacific	https://apiap.nfieldmr.com
America	https://apiam.nfieldmr.com
China	https://apicn.nfieldcn.com
Europe	https://api.nfieldmr.com

A practical example: automated sending of quota progress reports

Our video follows every step of the process of setting up automated sending of quota progress reports from Nfield Manager using Microsoft Power Automate:

1. Log in to Power Automate (0:00 to 0:25)

2. Create a new flow with a schedule trigger* (0:25 to 1:05)

3. Create an HTTP connection for Nfield API authentication (1:05 to 2:54)

4. Extract and store authentication token (2:54 to 4:09)

5. Create another HTTP connection to retrieve the quota table (4:09 to 7:11)

6. Send an email with the quota table (7:11 to 8:12)

_{*In this example, reports are being scheduled to go out daily at 9am.}

Happy New Year everyone! As we enter 2024, we hope you are looking forward to a positive year ahead. That’s certainly the case for us here at NIPO, where we never stop looking for ways to make Nfield even better aligned with users’ needs.

While we’re hard at work improving our products and developing new features, we thought this would be a good moment to reflect on the changes Nfield underwent during 2023. The 24 releases made over the course of the past year included the following major developments:

Automatic Clean-Up: to streamline data management

Keeping your Nfield domain clean – by deleting outdated surveys to avoid unnecessary data storage –  is vital for your GDPR compliance, security, and efficient operation. Helping you achieve this is all part of our responsibility within Nfield’s ISO 27001:2013 certification.

To make it as simple as possible, we introduced an automatic survey clean-up feature. You can learn all about it in our 30-minute webinar Academy #39 Automatic clean-up feature session recording.

Maintaining a clean, clutter-free domain promotes internal collaboration and enhances teamwork. Doing this will also help you keep in line with Nfield’s acceptable use policy, making it less likely that you’ll incur additional charges from exceeding storage limits.

Survey Blueprints: for faster survey set up

When you’re creating a new survey with the same configuration as one you’ve done before, starting again from scratch is a real waste of time, right? That’s why we introduced blueprints, which let you quickly set up new surveys based on identical channels and quota frames, without having to manually enter the details all over again. Pretty much like a template.

Thanks to blueprints, you no longer need to hold on to old surveys as setup references. Find out how to benefit from the efficiency of blueprints in our 22-minute webinar Academy #40 – Survey blueprints.

CAPI Fieldwork Progress Report and Repository: a streamlined data delivery pipeline

You wanted a more integrated and streamlined data management experience. We responded by developing a way to transmit CAPI data directly into the Nfield data delivery pipeline, enabling instant availability of comprehensive fieldwork progress reports.

This is still a work in progress, but Beta access is now open for integrating CAPI survey data into fieldwork progress reports and repositories.

Enhanced ODIN Developer: optimizing scripting efficiency

Scripting continues to evolve, and so do our tools for checking your scripts are free from logic errors. The NIPO ODIN Developer now incorporates both the legacy (NFS) parser and the new (Nfield) parser for ODIN questionnaire scripts. At the time of writing, both parsers are currently available, but the legacy parser will be phased out during 2024.

While developing the new Nfield parser, we discovered several commands and constructs that are no longer functional in Nfield. To help you transition to updated practices, these commands and constructs are now proactively reported as warnings.

Additional CAPI capability in Nfield Manager: further streamlining survey management

To make your CAPI survey experience even better, we enhanced Nfield Manager capabilities to enable truly seamless management, including for surveys with Sampling Points, Addresses, and Quotas. Day-to-day survey management is now even more streamlined via a more intuitive interface, and includes added support for Excel upload. As a result, the Nfield Manager lets you do more in one place, without having to use separate tools. So you get to enjoy even more convenience, efficiency and user-friendliness. This latest evolution of the Nfield Manager has led to retirement of the Classic Manager.

Nfield Status Page: providing real-time service insights

We know how frustrating it can be when you’re experiencing performance or availability issues and you don’t know if anything is being done to address them. That’s why we introduced our Nfield Status Page to provide real-time information about availability of our main services across different regions. Through this page, you can easily check whether the issue you’re encountering is already known to our team before deciding to raise a support ticket. It’s all part of our commitment to giving you the smoothest and most efficient service possible.

New Nfield API EndPoints: helping you accomplish tasks with even greater efficiency

In 2023, we gave our users a gleaming new toolbox for streamlining the process of Nfield domain configuration. Nfield API Endpoints v2 is a set of meticulously crafted tools, such as DomainEmailSettings, DomainLanguageTranslations, and DomainPasswordSettings, designed to make your work faster, smoother, and better overall.

APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) act as a bridge connecting two completely different programs (e.g. Nfield and CRM / Nfield and Membership database / Nfield and your reporting system. See API – What researchers need to know for further explanation.

With the release of this updated toolbox, the older v1 endpoints have been deprecated, as indicated in the Nfield API help page.

On to 2024, and beyond

Our improvement journey is continual, and Nfield customers can look ahead to yet more innovations aimed at further enhancing the user experience and data collection efficiency.

For every visible change, a significant amount of hardening, performance improvement, security enhancements, and maintenance work also goes on behind the scenes. It all adds up to fulfilling our commitment to delivering a robust and reliable platform for every single one of our valued customers.

Here’s to an exciting, inquisitive, and productive year ahead in market research!

NIPO recently had the pleasure of seeing one of our affiliates recognized by PAMRO (The Pan African Media Research Organization) for a groundbreaking project made possible by Nfield’s API.

Integrate, which is a data and evidence-based agency operating out of Morocco, was awarded the runner’s-up prize at PAMRO’s 2023 annual conference for “A Non-invasive Methodology for Tracking Digital Behavior in Morocco”. This pioneering initiative was designed to delve into Moroccans’ digital behaviors and attitudes, to shed light on their digital interactions and experiences. It was the first survey of the Moroccan population focused on gaining insights into their digital moments, with the aim of gathering valuable data for both marketers and researchers.

Nfield and its API were instrumental in enabling this research to be carried out, and we are delighted to share the details of how these made a difference.

Benefits and challenges of non-invasive market research

Integrate pursued a non-invasive methodology to overcome privacy concerns which often deter respondents from granting permissions, thereby limiting the tracking scope. It was a decision designed to enhance the level of participation.

Compared to other approaches that use real-time monitoring via in-moment tracking tools, such as web analytics, cookies, and software installed on users’ devices, non-invasive market research relies on self-reported data. This presents two challenges: 

• Time-related memory bias: The longer after an event people are asked to recall their experiences or interactions, the more inaccurate their recollections are likely to be. Researchers therefore need to design data collection methods that can obtain relevant information as close as possible to the event concerned.

• Trustworthy respondents: The success of non-invasive research heavily depends on respondents’ consistency and diligence when reporting their experiences. To minimize discrepancies, it’s essential to engage participants who can be relied upon to provide accurate information.

The solution: a job scheduler powered by Nfield’s API

Because non-invasive market research can’t use online activity to trigger surveys, Integrate needed another way to collect data in a timely fashion from trustworthy respondents. Their solution was to prompt respondents, selected from a pre-vetted panel, into voluntarily providing information through time-restricted SMS invitations. To encourage participation, rewards were offered for in-time survey completion.

To carry out these procedures, Integrate implemented a set of strategic rules executed by a job scheduler, while the Nfield API enabled tasks to take place automatically. As a result, Integrate was able to track digital behavior, brand exposure, meal occasions, and other relevant time-related activities without human intervention, while solving the challenges described above. 

	Purpose	Rules	How Nfield’s API helps
Job Scheduler	Real-time engagement: Obtain the most accurate responses possible.	Participants are contacted via SMS, as close as possible to the moment of their experience.	Seamlessly uploads respondent sample group data from a panel database and creates unique survey links for sending via SMS.
	Time-sensitive queries: Minimize risk of memory bias.	Each survey is exclusively focused on events that took place within the last hour. This is assured by invalidating survey links one hour after sending.	Automatically quality-checks submissions (according to Integrate’s custom algorithm) one hour after links have been sent, and invalidates unique survey links for any interviews not completed within that timeframe.
	Motivate respondents: Encourage higher response rates, to acquire more valuable data.	Participants are rewarded for completing surveys.	Triggers the process for sending rewards to respondents who completed surveys within the timeframe, to the desired quality.

In addition to feeding the job scheduler, the Nfield API also helps to minimize memory bias by transferring information from the panel database into Nfield, where it is used to customize how questions are presented to each respondent. This helps jog respondents’ memories in a way which is already known to be relevant.

Nfield’s ability to incorporate visual aids, in the form of pictograms, in the survey design means this knowledge can be presented in a way that makes it even easier for respondents to recognize, and accurately recollect their digital interactions and experiences.

Valuable insights, without invading privacy

Integrate’s study revealed diverse digital segments with associated demographic details, attitudes, key online activities, expenditure, and preferred applications, without resorting to digital surveillance that would discourage respondent participation. The data they gathered is invaluable for businesses seeking to target distinct digital consumer groups in Morocco.

This non-invasive methodology can be extended as required to study other aspects such as brand exposure, moments of consumption, and time and activity diaries. Thanks to Nfield’s API making it easy to carry out, market researchers have another feasible option for reaching diverse target groups.

If you’d like to know more about this particular case, please contact mehdi.aman@k-integrate.com at Integrate.

Share your Nfield success stories

Here at NIPO, we’re always thrilled to learn about our clients’ successful research endeavors. As well as giving us an opportunity to celebrate your achievements, knowing about your experiences contributes to our continuous improvement. Plus, your successes inspire and support fellow researchers, fostering a community of innovation. So don’t hesitate to share your successes using Nfield. Together, we can continue to push the boundaries of market research, and Nfield will be there to support you every step of the way.

Quality data is the very bedrock of worthwhile market research. Survey results that are skewed through inappropriate responses are helpful to no-one. And the insights derived from these could potentially do more harm than good if used as a basis for strategy.

That’s why we’re excited to introduce a new tool to the Nfield armory:  ReDem® AI-powered quality control for survey responses. ReDem AI automatically scans every survey answer for integrity, identifying and disqualifying those which are likely to be invalid due to respondent laziness or deliberate falsification. Our team has worked together with ReDem to integrate their service with Nfield, so you can hook up their capabilities directly with your Nfield surveys.

This is in addition to Nfield’s manual facility for identifying and disqualifying responses which show evidence of being falsified, as described in Upholding Survey Quality: How to Remove ‘Bad’ Interviews from Results.

The Power of ReDem AI

ReDem uses artificial intelligence to check data quality, doing everything you can do through Nfield’s manual facility, but in a fraction of the time. And without the risk of human error that increases as concentration gets lost.

• Open-ended answers: ReDem acts as a proofreader for open-ended answers, using advanced AI-based context checkingto assess whether responses actually make sense.

• Time check: ReDem pays attention to how long respondents have taken to answer each question. If answers are being completed too fast, this could indicate a lack of appropriate thought.

• Noticing differences: ReDem checks whether respondents are giving similar answers to different questions. This is another indication of whether they’re really paying attention or just clicking the easiest option.

Learn more about ReDem-Score – The quality checks performed by ReDem and AI-powered quality checks for open-ended responses.

Automated disqualification process

ReDem AI swiftly identifies any survey responses that fall below user-specified benchmarks, and flags them as rejected within Nfield. It also marks good quality interviews as approved. This proactive approach guarantees your results only contain high-quality data, which safeguards the integrity of derived insights.

Find out how to use ReDem with Nfield – See our webinar!

Want to see exactly what the Nfield-ReDem integration can do for your surveys? We organized a webinar in 2 sessions on 30 and 31 October 2023. See the session video below.

NIPO and ReDem are proudly working together to shape the future of market research by ensuring top quality data that’s suitable for deriving genuine insights. Join us on this journey transforming how we understand the world through data.

Market research is all about helping organizations stay ahead of their competition. To be successful, market researchers themselves need to lead by example, using tools which leverage cutting-edge technology to produce thorough insights, in any given situation. 

NIPO’s Nfield platform does all this, at the same time as considering research companies’ own business needs. With unwavering commitment to security and compliance, robust architecture, user-friendly design, and seamless API integration, Nfield provides a game-changing package for even the most complex data collection and analysis projects.

Data security and compliance – fully assured

Data security is paramount in every business situation, and carries a whole new level of responsibility when data from a large number of third-parties is involved. Nfield is as prepared for this as it is possible to be. Certified to ISO27001, the international standard for information security management systems, Nfield guarantees all data is safeguarded against any unauthorized access, theft, or damage.

This highest-level certification is complemented with GDPR compliance, meaning Nfield adheres to the stringent General Data Protection Regulation set forth by the European Union (and CCPA).

For market researchers and their clients alike, this combination of data security and privacy compliance gives full peace of mind that everybody’s valuable and sensitive information is in safe hands. To learn more, visit the NIPO Data Security page.

Read More:
Faultless ISO 27001-2013 audit for Nfield
Keeping your Nfield domain clean for compliance, security and efficient working

Robust and scalable – for every situation

Market research clients come in many different forms and seek insights from all kind of places. That’s why Nfield has been designed to seamlessly accommodate every eventuality, without missing a beat.

Leveraging the power of the Microsoft Azure PaaS environment, Nfield scales automatically as and when necessary to provide the right capacity for every size of project. And, thanks to strategically positioned servers across Europe, Asia Pacific, China and America, offers the fastest possible response times for researchers and respondents alike, wherever they’re located.

Nfield’s dedicated operations team continually maintains the platform to ensure reliability and uninterrupted access. Making the most of Microsoft Azure’s features and capabilities, including high availability and disaster recovery, Nfield delivers consistent and reliable performance to every size of company, all around the world.

Read More:
Seamlessly Migrating a High Volume Online Survey
Nfield sets new activity record, with 104,758 interview completes in 24 hours

Perfectly-presented access via any device

Market research doesn’t all take place at a desk. That’s why Nfield is as mobile as the world we live in. The platform, complete with its responsive, user-friendly design, is effortlessly accessible via smartphones, tablets, laptops and desktops. So there are no limitations to where and when responses can be gathered.

Read More:
Bringing True Mobility to your Surveys
Customer Satisfaction Surveys: Nfield brings you Closer to Impactful Outcomes
Employee Satisfaction Surveys: Superior Nfield Capabilities leave Clients more Satisfied too!

API Integration

Nfield’s API enables seamless connection with other software solutions of your choice, such as customer relationship management (CRM) systems and analytics platforms, to streamline workflows and enhance data accuracy. With endless possibilities for automation, data transfer and generation of custom reports, Nfield’s API integration can supercharge productivity while facilitating next-level customization.

Read More:
API – What researchers need to know

An empowering market research platform – for companies that really mean business

In our fiercely competitive world, speedy ability to leverage data-driven insights is key. Leaving no stone unturned in this highly complex task, Nfield is the ultimate industrial-strength survey platform for market research companies that really mean business. Nfield’s scalability and reach mean companies of every size, and in any location, can be empowered by fast, user-friendly processes that take our industry to the next level.

Nfield is a powerful cloud-based platform that’s specifically designed for conducting Online and CAPI surveys. Its ability to support high respondent numbers and complexity makes it an invaluable tool for professional market researchers in every field, whether working for businesses, authorities or in academia, to name just three examples.

Nfield functionality: what you can do

Nfield provides comprehensive, end-to-end solutions, all the way from survey design to data collection and review. It facilitates fast, efficient working, while being highly customizable to individual requirements. And, very importantly, it’s easy-to-use.

Let’s take a look at the range of functionality Nfield offers:

Survey design

Nfield’s user-friendly interface brings simplicity to designing complex surveys. It supports a wide range of question types to cater to every need, including multiple choice, rating scales, grids, and open-ended. Nfield also enables easy handling of complex survey logic by providing features such as skip patterns and branching.

Responsive design, which is all part of the Nfield experience, ensures surveys are displayed in the right way for every screen they’re viewed on, whether that’s a mobile phone, tablet, laptop or desktop computer.

With Nfield, you’ve therefore got everything you need to create surveys that are engaging, interactive, and tailored to each specific target audience. Which ultimately delivers better response rates and more comprehensive data to work with.

Survey distribution

Nfield Online surveys can be distributed via email invitations, web links, and social media, so you can choose the most suitable method(s) in every case.

Nfield CAPI surveys, which facilitate offline survey data collection from face-to-face interviews, can be distributed to field interviewers according to your chosen sampling method, whether that be address-based, free intercept or something else. Nfield CAPI enables surveys to be conducted even in remote areas without reliable internet access, while being flexible enough to collect data via various devices, including mobile phones and tablets. With all this, Nfield CAPI offers a truly efficient solution for fieldwork, in whatever location or form it takes place.

Interviewer management

For CAPI surveys, Nfield’s Interviewer Management feature enables management of interviewer workloads and monitoring of whether interviews are being conducted as specified. It has tools for assigning interviews to specific interviewers, monitoring progress, and tracking performance.

Data collection

Collecting survey data is, of course, as essential as getting well-designed surveys in front of the right respondents. Nfield runs in the highly reliable and scalable Microsoft Azure cloud, which robustly supports the handling of large volumes of data and smooth survey execution.

At the same time, Nfield security measures ensure participant data is protected at all times, so both you and your respondents can have peace of mind that their data is safe and secure.

Fieldwork monitoring

Nfield’s Fieldwork Monitoring features give researchers the ability to track and view survey progress in real-time. As well as monitoring response rates, completion rates, and interview durations, it’s also possible to view the collected data via filters which can be set to things such as demographics or response patterns.

Data reporting

Nfield’s Data Repository feature provides a centralized location for storing and managing survey data. This is very advantageous, as it means custom reports can be generated in real-time. By automating the reporting process and enabling fast creation of reports in a variety of formats, this feature saves researchers a lot of time and effort.

Nfield uses: types of surveys

Nfield’s versatility makes it ideal for all kinds of different sectors and purposes, where market research might cover anything from commercial insights to practical user studies, political leanings and employee satisfaction. Here are just a few examples of survey types that can be conducted using Nfield:

• Market research surveys: To gather target audience insights such as preferences, behaviors, and attitudes. These can be used to identify market trends, opportunities, and challenges, and make data-driven decisions for improving products or services. Surveys are easy to design and distribute, while collected data can be viewed and analyzed in real-time.

• Product testing studies: To get user feedback on specific products, with the aim of gaining understanding of how they are perceived, what users like or dislike about them, and how they can be improved. Surveys can be designed as appropriate for specific products and target audiences.

• Brand perception studies: To get insights into how consumers perceive a brand, so the information can be used to identify areas of strength and weakness. These kinds of surveys can incorporate questions relating to things such as brand awareness, brand loyalty, and brand associations.

• Political polls: To ascertain respondents’ political preferences or opinions. These polls can aid understanding of how voters feel about specific issues or candidates, and can provide valuable insights into the political landscape. Questions can be asked about things such as voting behavior, party affiliation, and policy preferences.

• Customer satisfaction surveys: To measure how satisfied customers are with specific products or services. These surveys typically ask respondents to rate their experience on a scale and provide feedback on areas for improvement. The collected data can help with identifying trends and making data-driven decisions for improving customer satisfaction.

• Brand awareness surveys: To measure a brand’s awareness and perception among a specific audience. These surveys typically ask respondents to compare the brand-in-question against a list of competitors and describe how they feel about it. The collected data can aid understanding of how a specific brand is perceived in the market and data-driven decisions for improving brand awareness.

• Employee satisfaction surveys: To measure employee satisfaction, engagement, and feedback. These surveys typically ask employees to describe how they feel about their work environment, job satisfaction, and overall experience with the company. The collected data can aid identification of areas for improvement and data-driven decisions for improving employee satisfaction and retention.

Want to know more?

You’re never on your own with Nfield, as we provide a wide variety of supporting materials and resources.

The NIPO Academy section offers a range of training videos and webinars that cover topics such as Academy #33 – Nfield Online introduction session, and Academy #25: CAPI in the new Nfield Manager II. These videos provide a great starting point for those who are new to Nfield or want to refresh their knowledge.

In the Nfield Manager, you’ll find a range of support materials, including user guides and technical documentation.

And for further personal assistance and guidance, you can always reach out to NIPO’s customer support team.

Among the many decisions you have to take as a market research professional, choosing whether to distribute each online survey via a generic or unique links is more important than it might at first seem. However, armed with the right guidance, you should be able to identify the best option in each case, without too much difficulty.

Here are the benefits, drawbacks and reasons to choose each option, together with how to generate these links in Nfield.

Unique survey links

Unique survey links are when every invited respondent is assigned their own personalized URL to access the survey. The overarching benefit of using unique links is that you can track individual responses and identify which participants have completed the survey. Because unique links can only be used once, they also reduce the chance of your survey being infiltrated by robots.

Situations where unique links are the best choice include:

1. When you need to track individual responses and identify which participants have completed the survey. This is particularly useful when you are offering incentives for completion.

2. When you need to ensure data quality. Because unique links can only be used once, they prevent participants from responding multiple times and/or sharing them with multiple other people. So your results are not skewed by duplicated responses and you maintain better control over who’s contributing to your data.
   
   You can tighten this up further in Nfield by turning on the “allow only known respondent” option when setting up your unique link survey. (See image under “How to generate unique survey links in Nfield”, below.)

3. When you need or want to personalize the survey experience by using the participant’s name or other personal details within it to create a more engaging experience that increases response rates.

How to generate unique survey links in Nfield

You will need to include individual respondent keys as part of your sample upload, then add these keys to the end of your generic survey URL – so genericURL/[respondentkey] – to create all the unique links. Alternatively, you can get Nfield to automatically generate the links when sending out the email invitations. When you have an integration between Nfield Online and an external source, such as a panel provider, your panel provider can easily arrange it in the panel system. This ensures each participant receives a unique link that can only be used once.

The “Allow only known respondents” option.

Generic survey link

A generic survey link is when all potential respondents receive the same link to enter the survey, regardless of their identity or demographic. The overarching benefit of using a generic link is that it’s quick and easy to distribute to a large number of people, because you can simply share the same link via emails, social media, or any other channel you want to use.

A couple of pointers for when to opt for a generic link:

1. A generic link should only be used when you don’t need to track individual responses nor identify which individual participants have completed the survey.

2. A generic link is the best option when you want to maintain participant anonymity.

However, it’s worth noting that online surveys can sometimes suffer from high dropout rates, which can impact the overall quality of the data collected. If you’re interested in learning more about the reasons behind high dropout rates in online surveys, we recommend checking out this insightful blog post on Online surveys suffering from high dropout rates? This may be why. It provides valuable insights and strategies to mitigate this issue, ensuring a higher completion rate and more reliable survey results.

Because a generic link gives you less control over who’ll respond, it’s important to set a survey quota target. This will ensure you receive a representative sample of responses from your target audience and reach your desired sample size, while helping prevent the survey from being over-subscribed.

To set up a survey quota target in Nfield, simply navigate to the Quotas tab and define your target based on the relevant criteria (e.g. age, gender, location). Further information can be found in NIPO Academy #27 Quota: Existing features and new additions.

How to generate generic survey links in Nfield:

Simply navigate to the Nfield Launch panel and select “Copy Live Link” under the “Copy Interview Links” session to retrieve your survey’s generic link.

In conclusion

Whether you should opt for a generic or unique links for each online survey depends on your specific goals and objectives. If you need to track individual responses or personalize the survey experience, then unique links are the way to go. On the other hand, if you need to reach a large audience quickly or maintain participant anonymity, then a generic link is the best option.

If you have any questions about survey link types and how to generate them in Nfield, please feel free to contact helpdesk@nipo.com.

As a highly responsible SaaS provider to market research companies, NIPO, the company behind Nfield, fully understands the importance of protecting personal data and safeguarding against potential data breaches. Alongside our own comprehensive measures to prevent data breaches and swiftly lock down in the event of these being bypassed, we are also committed to helping our clients do all they can to protect their valuable data within the Nfield platform.

Prevention

NIPO has the following measures in place to prevent data breaches:

• Encryption – All sensitive data stored in our servers (in the Azure cloud) is encrypted via strong algorithms. This means that even if an attacker gains access to the data, they will not be able to read it without the encryption key.

• Access Controls – We have strict access controls which ensure only authorized personnel can get into our servers and databases. We also have regular reviews of access rights to make sure they are up-to-date and appropriate.

• Network Security – We have robust network security measures in place, including firewalls, intrusion detection and prevention systems, and other security tools. These help us to detect external threats and prevent malicious parties from gaining access to our network and systems. Nfield runs in the Microsoft Azure cloud, which is, itself, highly secure and monitored 24/7 by Microsoft’s own engineers.

• Security Measures for Programming Code – Like many other organizations, we use a variety of security tools to check our programming code and test it for security vulnerabilities. In addition to these, we also have security checks carried out by external third-parties, such as Secura, to ensure our code is thoroughly tested and secure.

• Employee Training – We provide our employees with regular training and awareness programs to ensure they are kept up-to-date on the latest security threats and how to prevent them. This includes training on topics such as phishing emails, social engineering attacks, and password security.

Data breach handling

In the unlikely event of a data breach, NIPO has a dedicated incident response team that follows a well-defined plan to mitigate the impact. This plan includes the following steps:

• Investigation – We immediately launch an investigation to determine the cause and extent of the breach.

• Containment – Once we have identified the source of the breach, we take immediate steps to contain it and prevent any further unauthorized access to our systems.

• Notification – We notify any affected clients as required by law or contractual obligations. We are committed to being transparent and open with our clients about any potential security incidents.

• Remediation – We take steps to remediate any damage caused by the breach, such as restoring backups or implementing new security measures. We also conduct a post-incident review to identify any lessons learned and make improvements to our security measures.

What you can do to protect your respondent data

It is also vitally important that market researchers implement all available measures to protect respondents’ personal data and adhere to GDPR, or other applicable local regulations. At NIPO, we provide resources to help our clients with this, including our GDPR and Nfield Toolkit.

Here are some other simple steps you can take, which include making use of tools and features included in our Nfield platform:

• Data Minimization – Collect only the minimum amount of personal data necessary for each research project. Once you have it, this data should only be kept for as long as absolutely necessary, and then securely disposed of.
  
  We also advise clients to store personal identifiers in the sample table, which will enable you to easily delete sample data from the survey by pseudonymizing or anonymizing it. You can do this for all the sample data, for only specific sample data fields, for all interviews, or for a selection of interviews. This allows you to maintain detailed management of which data you keep in Nfield.
  
  Recently, we also introduced a new automatic survey clean-up feature into Nfield, which deletes inactive surveys that have reached their expiration date. For information about this, see keeping Nfield domains clean helps clients ensure compliance, security, and efficient working.

• Use Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) – This gives accounts an extra layer of security, so that even if an attacker does obtain a password, they still won’t be able to gain access because they won’t have the second code necessary. Read Protecting your Nfield login with two-factor authentication.

• Use the latest Anti-Virus Software – Installing and keeping anti-virus software up-to-date can help protect against malware and other security threats.

• Be Security-Aware – Market researchers should be aware of the latest security threats, such as phishing emails, and take steps to avoid them. This includes not clicking on suspicious links or downloading attachments from unknown sources.

Committed to protecting data

At NIPO, we are committed to protecting personal data and safeguarding against potential data breaches. By implementing a comprehensive security strategy and incident response plan, we are prepared to handle any potential security incidents quickly and effectively. We also provide resources and guidance to help our customers protect themselves and adhere to GDPR regulations. With our commitment to data security, NIPO remains a trusted partner for market researchers looking to conduct research in a secure and compliant manner.

IMPORTANT: suspected data breach?

If you suspect a data breach or security incident related to your use of NIPO’s services, please report it immediately by contacting our Data Protection Officer at helpdesk@nipo.com. Reporting a suspected data breach promptly helps us to take swift action to contain and mitigate the impact of the incident. We take all reports of data breaches seriously and have a dedicated team in place to investigate and respond to incidents as quickly as possible.

Since the launch on 29 March 2013, Nfield has grown to a large scale platform used for data collection around the globe. Nfield is NIPO’s cloud-based Online and CAPI survey solution for market research professionals