Have you ever concluded a survey to discover it’s generated many more completes than specified in your quota targets? This is called Quota Overshoot, and it happens when a lot of respondents fill in a survey at the same time. Quota Overshoot doesn’t reduce a survey’s quality, but it does result in higher-than-necessary expenditure on reward, sample and interview costs.

The good news is Nfield’s Max Overshoot feature enables you to control the number of excess completes, and so avoid unnecessary costs.

Why Quota Overshoot happens

To understand how Max Overshoot works, you first need to understand why Quota Overshoot happens. The one-word technical answer to this is ‘concurrency’.

Concurrency is when two or more respondents are filling in a survey at the same time. For the most part, this is exactly what you need to get your survey completed in the shortest possible time. But if multiple responders remain active when just one more complete is needed, you’ll end up with more completes than the quota. This is because all the interviews already underway at the moment of the last required completion will also continue to completion

How Nfield solves this

Nfield’s Max Overshoot feature gives you control over excess completes by limiting concurrency as your survey nears completion. You can set it to reflect your preferred balance between speed and excess respondent costs

The Plane Game

To explain how this balance shifts, let’s play the Plane Game. Or in these COVID-19 times, imagine playing it!

THE GOAL:
Get 20 paper planes made, each by a different person. Of these, 10 have to be made by males and the other 10 by females. (Want to know how to make a “world record paper plane”? This video shows you!)

THE RULES:
Each plane-maker has to sit at a separate desk while performing the task. When finished, they vacate the desk for a new plane-maker to take their place. This all happens inside a room that players can only enter when a free desk is available. Players who’ve completed their planes stay in the room. Players who decide to give up have to leave the room. When you’ve reached the target number of planes, no more people can come in.

Everyone in the room at the moment the last required plane is completed gets a voucher worth $8 as a reward, even if they’re still finishing their plane.

SCENARIO 1:
You invite a lot of people (let’s say 100) to participate and provide the same number of desks. This way, everyone is making planes at the same time, with nobody having to wait their turn.

This will produce a really fast result. But because you had 100 people in the room, and none of them had given up at the point the 10+10 target was reached, you have to pay them all. That’s a bill of $800.

SCENARIO 2:
You have two rooms, each with just 3 desks. One room is only for the males, the other only for the females. Both rooms operate at the same time. Once 10 male planes have been completed, the male game ends. The same applies for the female game.

This limits each category’s concurrency and, as a result, the number of participants in both rooms combined when the targets are reached will only be 24. An excess of two males and two females. The total reward payout will be just $192. But the game will have taken much longer to complete.

Finding the right balance

Of course this Plane Game is a metaphor for respondents completing surveys, with the two scenarios illustrating extreme ends of the cost vs speed spectrum. As a market researcher, you’ll probably be looking for a happy medium. Nfield achieves this via a formula which changes the number of “desks” as each quota target comes closer to completion. All you have to do is set your desired Max Overshoot number per quota target.

At the start

Number of desks = Quota target – Successful completes + Max Overshoot number

If we illustrate this according to the Plane Game, per quota it looks like:

Number of desks = 10 planes to be made – 0 completed planes + maximum 2 excess participants

This means we start with 12 desks per quota target.

One new participant is allowed to start after each new complete ONLY IF Successful Completes < the quota target. (Nfield doesn’t allow new interviews to be started once quota target for successful completes has reached its maximum.)

As completes start to accumulate, the number of desks gets reduced. This limits the number of active participants and, in turn, the number of excess participants at the time each quota target is reached.

Quota target = 10
Max Overshoot = 2

Number of successful completes	Number of desks available	Maximum number of active participants
0	12	12
1	11	11
2	10	10
|	|	|
8	4	4
9	3	3
10	2	2

What about setting the Max Overshoot to zero?

You can set the Max Overshoot to zero to keep costs to an absolute minimum. However, it will take longer to achieve the final complete as, by the end stage, only one respondent can be active at a time, which will amplify the effects of any drop outs.

You can make a judgement call on how seriously this might impact things by looking at your survey’s dropout data in Nfield.

• Drop-out rate: The higher the drop-out rate, the higher the chance of a longer wait for your final complete.
• Drop-out point: If drop-outs typically occur later in your survey, after a higher number of questions have been answered, the amount of time wasted due to drop-out is likely to be higher. Note that Nfield sessions automatically time out if there’s no activity for 15 minutes.

Ensuring value

Two important points to note when using Max Overshoot:

• Although Max Overshoot will limit the costs associated with going over quota, it still results in panellists being wasted when samples are flooded to fill quotas. Best practice is to use minimum and maximum targets in a quota structure that’s designed as simply as possible, in order to reduce or eliminate the need to flood the sample.
• Max Overshoot works in alignment with the maximum quota target. Its use is only beneficial if the target is reached.

Available on demand

Max Overshoot can be a very beneficial feature for controlling costs and provides flexibility to balance cost against speed. However, it does make quota evaluation more complex and may put a big load on Nfield processors. We are therefore rolling it out gradually and are currently only enabling it upon request. To enable Max Overshoot, please contact your account manager. At one point, we will enable this feature for all domains.

If you have any questions about Nfield’s Max Overshoot feature, don’t hesitate to Contact Us.

Quota management is important in fieldwork management. It ensures you have a representative demographic distribution and a good control on the cost (sample fee, respondents’ rewards, Nfield complete fee, etc). It starts with a simple concept – You set a limit of how many completes (5 males + 5 females = 10 total) should be done to meet your quota requirement. In this article we introduce the quota basics and variations and how you manage your quota well.

Let’s start by creating an example for the basics using Minimum Quota.

At the end of the fieldwork, when you are missing one final interview (the 10th respondent) needed for the quota target there’s a chance you may not get this straightaway (a female in this case, see the image below). It would be a waste to interview respondents and keep screening them out (3 males in this example) before the last female respondent is found.

Minimum quota

When your quota requirements get more complicated (e.g. a female of 20-25 year old living in a small city who purchased a specific wine in the last year), we would need to screen out even more respondents. To have more flexibility in the quota design, you can make use of minimum targets.

In this example, we fixed 80% of the required gender distribution and left 20% of the sample free in the choice of gender. Anyone can take the final two spots (20%) of the target. The principle behind this¹ is to fulfil the minimum gender target (so one female spot in grey is reserved) and limit the total target by setting a maximum. So once the minimum targets are fulfilled, it is more flexible for accepting the last ones instead of screening them out.

Benefits of this use of minimum targets are:

• It shortens the fieldwork period, no need to wait for the best-fit person.
• It does maintain a good demographic representation.
• It limits the amount, and possible cost, of sample that is used in the project, where members of this sample may be contacted only once in every three months.
• It saves on the sample cost where respondents who got screened-out get rewarded.

¹ Remarks: When it comes to a choice (overshoot due to concurrency issue), it is more important to fulfil the minimum target (4 male and 4 female) and relax on the maximum total target (so it is overshoot).

Maximum quota

Quota requirements can be complicated. You may have different quota cells, interlinking with each other. Some quota cells are more important than the others. Together with minimum targets, you can have good grip of your quota control.

We revise the minimum quota example with smaller minimum targets.

Nfield ensures 3 minimum males and 3 minimum females and has 4 spots to be filled in by anyone. In extreme cases, it can be 7 males or 7 females.

Having 70% males may seem too much. To add a control on this, maximum targets can be added on the quota cells.

To understand this, we now add a border (maximum target) on how many circles can sit in one gender row. 3 males and 3 females are minimum targets. They must be filled. The total maximum target is 10 (ten circles in total), meaning four circles/spots are available. However, only three circles can sit in one row (in the male row or the female row). Then you can have 3 to 6 males or 3 to 6 females, totaling 10.

Benefits of a mix between minimum and maximum targets are:

• It keeps a minimum requirement on the demographic representation.
• It allows flexibility on the rest of the quota cells.
• The maximum targets can avoid extreme imbalances in the outcome.

Least-filled quota

This allows the survey to use routing based on the least-filled quota or offer selections based on a list ordered by least-filled quota. It helps lagging-behind quota to catch up by giving them advantages on higher position in the answer list or on routing to their sections. The following scenarios may sound familiar.

• A long questionnaire often is cut into sections and respondents are asked about only one of these sections to avoid boredom. To determine which section to show, a random test may be used. A random selection statistically makes an even distribution, especially when it is in a big-scale usage. However, in cases with imbalanced targets, you may need a better distribution method to fill all targets quicker based on least-filled quota instead of using a random selection.
• Sometimes, in the survey it is required to show a list on a question page to gear respondent selection towards the least-filled quota item.

The how-to is quite simple, with the use of command *GETLFQLIST (which literally means Get Least-Filled Quota List). It returns the quota list in its ascending relative filling percentage based on minimum target values. With the following example, the relative filling percentage is calculated like this: 3 completes on electric appliance kettle out of 5 targets, giving its relative filling percentage as 60%. The least-filled quota list will now show the order: Air conditioner (the least filled), refrigerator, kettle, and last television. You can then route your survey to show the section of the air conditioner.

The most needed quota item gets answered first, resulting in earlier completion of the quota and saving costs by using less sample.

Multi quotas

Least-filled quota can apply to multiple quotas too. You may ask “Which electric appliances have you used yesterday?” or “Which brands you have purchased in the last months?” Respondents can give multiple answers. The questionnaire can route to show one/more section(s) of the least-filled answers (appliances/brands) of his/her answers. Or it shows a follow-up question with his/her answers in an ascending relative quota filling. The most demanding quota is at the top, which hopes to gear the respondent’s selection to that item.

In Nfield, you can toggle the “Multi” button on in the Quota page.

And multi quotas should always be at the root (thus the lowest in the nesting quota frame). It can be standalone, or nested under another quota cell, but not having other quota cells under it. As one respondent gives multiple answers, the counts would not sum up nicely. In the following example, the minimum target is 10 male and 10 female with a total of 20. These numbers are controlled gender quota variable, not in the minimum targets set for each appliance. The minimum targets in each appliance are used as the calculation of the relative filling which is 100% x (minimum target – number of respondents in that answer). Another important note is that the multi quotas do not contribute to quota check itself.

Then this *GETLFQList command can be used to return its result.

When the quota status is like the following (same as the example in least-filled quota), the relative quota filling in ascending order is air conditioner (20%, the least filled), refrigerator (57%), kettle (60%), and last television (67%).

See this in action:

With the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) disrupting daily life all over the world, we’ve noticed the changes in human activity being reflected in Nfield surveys. As regions have gone into lockdown and people have been discouraged, or even ordered, to avoid contact with others, CAPI interviewing has become all-but impossible in some places. Where this has been the case, there has been a significant increase in Online surveys to compensate. To illustrate, we’re sharing usage patterns for Nfield CAPI and Online in our China, South Korea, Spain and Vietnam deployments, so you can see how survey execution has changed along the coronavirus timeline.

While we are, naturally, as concerned about the situation as everybody else, we are pleased to see that our customers have been switching between Nfield CAPI and Online without any problems. This is because we developed these two survey channels with the same scripting language and result format. Switching can therefore be done in just a few minutes, with minimal support needed from our helpdesk.

China

Nfield CAPI vs Online in China
At the time of writing, China remains the country most heavily impacted by coronavirus (COVID-19). This is reflected in a uniquely dramatic shift in survey channel usage. In normal times, CAPI very much dominates China’s survey activity. But with public spaces mostly deserted, and people being reluctant to interact with researchers, face-to-face interviews have almost completely ceased. Meanwhile, Online surveys have increased significantly to fill some, although not all, of the gap.

The correlation between Nfield usage in China and events on the coronavirus timeline clearly confirms how these are linked. A decrease in survey activity before long holidays such as Chinese New Year, which began on 25 January 2020, is common. Our graph shows an expected reduction in CAPI fieldwork leading up to this. Survey activity remained extremely low while the Chinese New Year holiday was extended to 2 February, due to the disease. As people gradually started returning to work in Beijing/Tianjin/Hubei/Sichuan, albeit from home, survey activity resumed on a very small scale. After the first ten days this increased to some extent, but almost exclusively via Online.

South Korea

Nfield CAPI vs Online South Korea
As of 5 February, there were fewer than 20 confirmed cases of coronavirus in South Korea, although the gradual increase in neighboring China was starting to cause alarm in other countries. By 7 February we were seeing a drastic decrease in CAPI face-to-face interviewing, while use of Nfield Online grew to twice its normal amount. As widespread infection took hold in South Korea, Online survey usage tailed off again to normal levels. Meanwhile, CAPI diminished greatly, but not completely.

Spain

Nfield CAPI vs Online in Spain
Spain’s Nfield usage pattern is very similar to that seen in South Korea, although the early February switch from CAPI to Online happened sooner and more drastically than in South Korea. In Spain, a 3-day Online spike suddenly dropped off again on 13 February, after which there was a reduction in both CAPI and Online. CAPI continued to play a diminished role in Spain’s survey landscape until the last two days of the month.

By 5 March (a week after CAPI all-but disappeared from use), the Spanish government advised companies to send workers home to reduce contact. On 6 March, Spain ranked 7th in the world for the number of confirmed cases. We expect to see the impact of these measures in March volume reports.

Vietnam

Nfield CAPI vs Online in Vietnam
Thanks to prompt and decisive governmental action, Vietnam did a very good job of containing the spread of coronavirus and preventing it from getting out of control. Like China, Vietnam had a relatively long new year holiday. However, the Vietnam government declared coronavirus to be an epidemic at a very early stage, on 1 February, when the number of confirmed cases stood at 6. As a result, Vietnam only had 16 reported cases, with the last one declared on 13 February. Usage patterns for both Nfield CAPI and Nfield Online very quickly returned to normal when new cases stopped being reported.

A WHO official, called Park, told Al Jazeera¹: “The country has activated its response system at the early stage of the outbreak, by intensifying surveillance, enhancing laboratory testing, ensuring infection prevention and control and case management in healthcare facilities, clear risk communication message, and multi-sectoral collaboration.”

¹ _{https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/02/infected-patients-vietnam-cured-coronavirus-miracle-200228035007608.html}

We proudly present our Nfield Top 15 Customers! We would like to take this chance to give them a round of applause and to recognize their project success with Nfield. Conducting projects in Nfield means they have also put security and data compliance to their top priority as we do. 

These top 15 customers are selected based on their usage in 2019. And the winners are (in alphabetical order):

Amárach Research	AmPuls Market Research	Awe Research
CTR Market Research	Elka Consulting	Hendal Market Research
Kantar (global)	Kantar BBSS SEE	Kantar Hoffmann
Kantar Info Research Austria	Kantar Worldpanel	Media Research Consultants
MERCAPLAN	TNS Ilres	Vital Research

Nfield comes with a build-in reporting tool, that we keep enriching with new features. In this series of NIPO Academy sessions we will first do a quick refresh on the features of the Fieldwork Overview report, then focus on the select, relabeling and split/merge transformations that have recently been added.

This year we introduced several features that empower you to keep track on how you use Nfield. Features that are meant to give you an idea of your footprint on the Nfield servers. In this series of NIPO Academy sessions we will showcase the features we have introduced, like the domain usage report and the survey metrics, and give you tips on how to use these to your advantage.

NIPO is delighted to announce that its Nfield Online and CAPI software solutions have earned the 7th position in Capterra’s newly released Top 20 Most Popular Survey Software report.

Capterra

Capterra evaluates software based on product data, validated user reviews and independent research and testing. It also analyses online search activity to generate a list of market leaders who offer the most popular solutions. The resulting assessments therefore represent a solid all-round appraisal. 

Nfield’s inclusion in the 2018-19 Top 20 is testimony to years of hard work developing solutions which truly satisfy user needs. This has been achieved through working closely with the Market Research industry to establish these needs, complemented with dedication to formulating the most robust, user-friendly and cost-effective solutions.    

See the full Capterra Top 20 Survey Software report

About NIPO

NIPO develops Online, CAPI and CATI survey solutions specifically to serve the needs of professional market researchers. For over 20 years, we have been working closely alongside market research organizations to continually deepen and freshen our insights into their challenges, in order to create truly purposeful solutions.

This unique bond means we have robust practical knowledge of how to efficiently organize survey distribution of any scale. Which enables us to serve our customers with exceptionally well-thought-through products, particularly when it comes to tackling large scale national and global projects. Our unrivalled combination of deep industry understanding and high-level IT expertise means our customers benefit from survey software which is genuinely designed with their success in mind.

With more than 200,000 users around the world, NIPO supports many thousands market research projects every year.

In these Academy sessions we introduce a new document on paradata, tell you how to get to the paradata and give you a few practical examples on how you can use this data.

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.

This series of Academy sessions is on how Nfield can support you in your GDPR compliance.

This series of Academy sessions put focus on efficient scripting in Nfield, when using long lists. We introduced a new method to store the answers. Requiring less positions so you will not reach the “maximum positions” as easily as you do now when using the large list multiple times in a script.

Cyber attacks are continuing to increase globally in both number and scale, impacting all kinds of organizations in all kinds of industries. Every company is a potential target. Which means market researchers need to be as aware as anyone about the possible threats and take the necessary preventative action. This calls for being armed with the relevant knowledge and having a system which robustly protects survey data and, with that, company reputation.

A single “NotPetya” ransomware attack in June 2017 led to Nurofen maker Reckitt Benckiser taking an estimated EUR 110 million hit in revenue*. 

*source: the Guardian 6 July 2017

Just think about what would happen if your company falls victim to malware which compromises your entire fieldwork operation, causing irretrievable loss of your fieldwork and respondent data. Not to mention the damage done to your client relationships.

We did, which is why NIPO’s Nfield survey systems are designed to keep cyber attackers out. But optimal cyber security also depends on good human awareness of the threats, so people themselves do not become the vulnerable weak link. We therefore held a webinar about cyber security to educate our customers and help them protect their interests.

In this, NIPO explains why IT security in market research matters to you, provides guidance on what you can do to keep cyber attackers out and answers questions such as: 

• What are the probable external and internal cyber threats, and how could they damage your market research business?
• What is the correlation between the different types of infrastructure (on premise, hosted or cloud) and data security vulnerability?
• What is ISO 27001-2013 certification, and why is it so important and indispensable for your research business?
• Is there such thing as a “checklist” to run business securely?

Find out more
For more details on how NIPO ensures cyber security in its solutions and business, see the Nfield security factsheet. 

So what’s next?
If you would talk about whether your current solution meets the required security standards, then let us know. You can contact us at [email protected].

Sending interviewers to targeted locations requires specific distribution options within the software itself, all of which can be found within Nfield CAPI. Have you already heard about sampling points?

​Sampling points help you organize the fieldwork

In face to face interviewing, we refer to sampling points when talking about survey distribution. So what are sampling points?

From a technical perspective, sampling points are a way of categorizing interviews into certain groups (points). Categories could literally be anything: streets, areas, cities, or even experienced interviewers in one sampling point and less experienced interviewers in another.

In practice, sampling points are commonly used for a geographical distribution of interviews. The usage of sampling points helps you

• assure a geographical representativeness of the survey
• simplify the quota frame
• control the fieldwork and targets better.

Thanks to sampling points it’s easy to assign interviewers to interviews and control your fieldwork!

The geographical categorization helps to divide and manage the fieldwork and survey targets because interviewers may live in different areas or because you need to find respondents across a number of areas. 

For example, when working on an international project involving many countries (offices worldwide), one sampling point could be one country (one office) with many interviewers.

Or in another case, when working on a local project, the town could be divided into parts with each one assigned to a different interviewer as a sampling point.

Nfield CAPI offers various scenarios

The following examples are theoretical and meant to explain you the main differences.

1. Surveys without sampling points and without quota
Non-geographical distribution is defined and your interviewers can ask anybody and anywhere.

Typical situation: polls

Example 1 without quota and sampling points actually means no table at all.

2. Surveys without sampling points and with quota
Non-geographical distribution is defined by sampling points, but please note that a quota frame can still be used for geographical distinction. The fieldwork is controlled through the total target that is placed in the software.

Typical situation: the interviewers who live in different cities interview people who are randomly passing by

Example 2 with quota, but no sampling points

3. Surveys with sampling points and quota
Geographical locations with the targets as the sampling points (Amsterdam East, Amsterdam West, Amsterdam South) need to be uploaded first, and then a quota frame with sample characteristics (female, male) should be set up. The fieldwork should be controlled through sampling points, not the total target. The sum of the sampling points targets is your total target, but having the total in the software does not help you control the fieldwork better.

Typical situation:  a complex set-up used for international or national projects when a detailed distribution is needed

Example 3.1. with sampling points and quota, less items

Example 3.2. with sampling points and quota, more items

Face-to-face interviewing is a complex process comprising interviewers, mobile devices and software. A multitude of elements within this process can make a project prone to mistakes, leading to a delay in the delivery or even data loss. Outlined below are our essential tips for some of the most common problems associated with face-to-face interviewing to help you ensure a smooth execution of all CAPI projects.

1. Select the right device

The Nfield CAPI app runs on all Android tablets and smartphones, though not every device will serve you accordingly. We recommend that you run through a checklist mapping the factors that come into play when selecting the right CAPI device.

2. Embrace the issue of security

Security of your data is an absolute priority to us. Rest assured that we do our utmost to keep your data safe, however you also have a crucial role to play in data security by following a few simple rules:

• Ensure that you can wipe a device remotely in the event that it gets stolen. If this is not a feature on the device itself, please consider acquiring such a service. Mobile Device Management (MDM) software will help you configure, manage and secure mobile devices. Never heard before? Please see http://www.air-watch.com.
• Create logins per interviewer; never set up logins per device. Nfield CAPI enables you to track activities taken by the interviewers through their unique user ID.
• Set strong password requirements in Nfield CAPI, and ask your interviewers to keep their logins confidential or even to change the password regularly. The downside is that the more complex password, the bigger chance the interviewers will eventually jot it down on a piece of paper.
• Apply a user role configuration that defines a scale of activities the user is allowed to perform in Nfield CAPI. When somebody leaves the company, don’t forget to remove them from Nfield CAPI immediately.
• Once the quota of interviews for your project is reached and the fieldwork concludes, press the STOP button on the Nfield CAPI interface to automatically remove the survey from all devices the next time interviewers sync.
• Un-assign interviewers who no longer work on the project.

3. Prevent possible trouble in your fieldwork…

… by informing your interviewers thoroughly about how to use the Nfield app. 

• Always log out of the app at the end of the day – never remain signed in the Nfield CAPI app.
• Sync regularly so that you work with the latest version of the survey and its information. Please bear in mind that transferring large volumes of data after various days of work may take you plenty of time.
• Ensure your internet connection is stable when you start syncing the data, and do not change your network connection as this can disrupt the data transfer.

• Activate the GPS on your mobile device if you receive a notification through the Nfield CAPI app.
• If you are assigned to a project which includes addresses and you share the device with more interviewers, don’t leave unfinished interviews in the Nfield CAPI app. When the next interviewer logs in and syncs his data on the device, your unfinished interviews will be removed.
• Use the device’s energy source wisely as you will be using it throughout the day to complete all interviews. Please see the recommendations how to prolong battery life.

4. Monitor updates

There are two types of software updates that you need to be aware of:

1. Nfield CAPI app updates
2. Android operating system updates

Nfield CAPI app updates (NIPO)

The Nfield CAPI app is managed by NIPO, and any updates are designed solely to augment the features of the app. Every release automatically updates the backend of Nfield CAPI but requires the manual intervention of the interviewer to take effect on the device.

Android operating system updates (Google)
All Android operating system updates are managed by a third party – Google. These updates impact the software that the whole device runs on; they are not primarily calibrated to Nfield CAPI functionality.

The Android operating system update usually starts by a window which automatically opens on the screen asking for permission to update the operating system.  The interviewer will need to consent to this before any updates can take place. In other words, the update doesn’t happen automatically.

Whilst we thoroughly test all major updates of the Android operating system to examine whether Nfield CAPI features have not been affected, due to the diversity of mobile devices available and the number of versions of the Android operating being used at any one time, it makes in-depth testing on a large scale impossible.

5. Consider training options

Experienced researchers and fieldwork executives dive into Nfield CAPI without any hurdles. The same applies to scripters who are already familiar with the ODIN language. For those users who require full scale onboarding, we offer introductory and tailored training.

Quality control is a process when fieldwork executives look into various source files to evaluate whether the interviews have been conducted with honesty and accuracy. It is in the researchers’ best interests to ensure that the data delivered to customers comply with the highest quality standards.

Nfield CAPI for smart quality control

In Nfield CAPI you can use location tracking and silent recording with ease to verify data and the credibility of your interviewers.

Silent recording enables you to record either the whole interview or parts of it without the interviewer’s knowledge. It is set up via scripting by inserting a simple command.

Location tracking means collecting unbiased information about the locations where your interviews have been conducted. To allocate an interviewer, the device has to be equipped with:

• the GPS receiver which is the most popular and more accurate option and/or
• Wi-Fi and mobile network – GSM, 3G or 4G which, on average, provides less accuracy than the GPS.

Things to remember about GPS

• The interviewer can activate both the GPS and Wi-Fi and mobile network options in device settings, and let the system decide which one will capture the location best given the current conditions. It is very convenient, though activating both options consumes battery life very quickly.
• How accurately the GPS is able to capture a location depends on various factors: number of satellites in view, mountains and ionospheric disturbances, signal interference caused by buildings and number of channels on the receiver. Specifications for most GPS receivers indicate their accuracy will be within 5-15 meters, 95% of the time. This assumes the receiver has a clear view of the sky and has finished acquiring more than three satellites. If the conditions are not ideal then the accuracy declines rapidly.
• Nfield CAPI automatically attempts to capture the current location of an interviewer when the survey is started. This process happens discreetly in the background and without interviewer intervention. If the required accuracy is not achieved, the interviewer will need to confirm the best available location match manually after completing the interview. The location is saved in paradata and only persons with assigned rights are permitted to download this to view the locations of the interviews.

More options: measure twice, cut just once

In addition to the aforementioned methods, you can utilize Nfield CAPI for:

• Speeding – measure the average time needed to take the survey and check if some interviews have been completed way faster than is realistically possible. You can download the interview duration easily.
• Straightening – analyze the data to see if the same answer category for a series of questions appears too frequently.
• Pictures – look into the data and view the pictures snapped during the interviews.
• Call back – use the gathered contact information of respondents to conduct random calls to verify the data.

You can reject interviews that do not meet the quality standards in Nfield CAPI which will then  eliminate them from the complete target counts and exclude their data from the overall survey data.

Care about the best quality for your customers

False or insincere interviews provide useless data that cannot be delivered to customers, nor do they support the researchers’ objectives. The situation can even tarnish your reputation if the wrong data is used for expensive, important analyses that influence customers’ business decisions. Whilst the majority of interviewers respect their job and the nature of their work, there will always be a small percentage who will try and find shortcuts.
 
A lack of quality control usually results in more cases of false interviews. Pen and Paper researchers struggle with quality the most. Based on our experience, a few dishonest interviewers are revealed at the start when switching from Pen and Paper to CAPI, and as soon as the interviewers realize that the quality of their work is being thoroughly checked, the number of unfortunate incidents decline. Further features of the quality control system then prevents a come-back of dishonest practices.