Conducting Research with Association DataZone
We understand that some organizations have sophisticated in-house capabilities and research departments that regularly conduct research. We will tailor the level of our survey research support to meet your association’s specific needs. Our survey research tools are available to you, if needed.

Survey Customization
Your DataZone surveys can be customized to your exact specifications:

All question types: text, multiple response, single response, numeric, percentage
and display only.

All types of response controls are available: radio box, text box, check box,
single and multiple select lists, question grids, numeric boxes.

Multiple questions on a single page. Put as few or as many questions on a
page as your survey needs.

Commentary or question related specific instructions.

Integrate image and sound files directly into the questionnaire.

Choose text style and sizes for headers, footers, question text, and response choices.

Color variations can be selected for every survey element.

Precisely position and design your question grid and results layout.

Add your own HTML tags to get the exact look you want.

Customize the Introduction, Closing, Terminate and Protected pages.

Add optional Survey Progress Meter so your respondents can identify where they are in the survey.

Add optional default project header and footer that appear on each question page (great to use for your logo or related organizational promotions).

Advanced survey logic capability: skipping, randomization, branching, piping, etc.


System Security
When we talk about security, we focus on two areas.

Respondent Security Preventing unauthorized access to the survey and/or preventing a respondent from taking a survey twice. For this, we have password control on a respondent level. This is an extremely secure method.

Data Security This security is to prevent hackers and other unauthorized access to the data. For this, we take a number of steps:

All data including the questionnaire, images, respondent data, reports and charts are kept on an SQL server, which is behind a firewall and not connected directly to the Internet. This SQL database server can only be accessed using our survey application interface. Even when using the survey application interface, only the data from a specific login account is available.
Access to the interface is limited to those with valid passwords. These passwords are controlled by you and can be changed whenever you feel it is necessary.

For data transmission, we can also offer SSL and other encryption services. We don't usually recommend this as it can prevent some respondents from taking the survey.

Multiple Language Support
We offer complete multilingual services. Our web survey application uses the Unicode standard, which allows input by almost all character sets. Currently, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, Korean and Chinese are supported. We can easily add additional languages by having the system and error messages translated into the appropriate languages. We also have an effective tool that will display the foreign language survey and the English version of the survey into two windows on the same screen. When an action is performed in the foreign language survey, the action is mirrored in the English version. This is a very helpful tool for in-country testing of the final product.

Analytical Capability
We offer a standard reporting system that includes:

Topline report. This report shows all of the closed end questions in table format with a "Total" banner only.

Crosstab by Question. This report allows you to choose a question to use as your banner and then any rows you would like to see as your tables.

Open-end report. This report lists all of your open-end responses by either total or by subgroups. A subgroup can include any closed-end question (such as age, gender, a rating scale...)

We also have an advanced reporting system that contains a complete crosstab package. The features include:

Create any type of banner. The groups in your banner can be any combination of questions and as detailed as necessary.

Descriptive statistics. Includes mean, standard deviation, standard error.

Advanced statistics. Independent t-tests and z-tests/tests of proportions

Select confidence levels. You can also choose confidence levels of 90,95,99,99.9

Server Reliability
Server reliability is a top priority. To have as reliable a service as possible, the following steps have been implemented.

Servers are located at one of the best managed-services facilities in the USA, providing 24 /7 support and 24/7 monitoring. They always locate and fix network and server problems as soon as they are found.

Redundant T1 lines are used to insure a proper network backup.
Several servers are maintained in case one server goes down.

Technical Requirements
Web Platform: Load Balanced Microsoft Win2k IIS Web server farm

Application Server Platform: Microsoft Win2k servers

Database Platform: Microsoft SQL Server 2000 servers

Hardware: Dual 2.4 Ghz Database and web servers 2 G RAM LEDCFW-Cisco 1710 Firewall

Application platform: Active Server Pages

Language: VB, Java, C++

Capacity for Collection: 1500-2000 concurrent sessions per web server. Standard farm configuration 3 web servers.

Application Server Capacity: 500 users per application server. Standard configuration 1 application server

Uptime: 99.9%

Server monitoring: 24 hours per day - seven days per week

Backup: Transaction logs to disk every 30 minutes Incremental daily backup to tape Full weekly backup to tape

Managed Service Provider: DataReturn XO Communications

Application builder platform: Internet Explorer 5.5 or higher

Survey compatibility: Web pages are produced to the HTML 3.0 standard



To learn more about how Association DataZone can help your association,
contact Robin Wedewer at (410) 414-5718.