Survey Software HQ

Excerpt: A Forrester survey for Unisys shows over half of large enterprises now use open source for mission critical operations. Four out of five (79%) use it in what Forrester calls their “application infrastructure” — databases, Web servers, application servers. The point of the survey was to show that these customers want more services from vendors, things like maintenance, life cycle support, integration and application development. This is the “sweet spot” for companies like Unisys, and has been the sweet spot at IBM for several years now.

FROM THE CALSTATE FRESNO COLLEGIAN.
Of those polled, 84 percent of students reported that they regularly use their cell phones for sending and receiving text messages. Of those who text, 70 percent admitted to text messaging while in class.
Excerpt from the article: In a generation of technology and information, students have the ability to engage in constant communication with others, but this practice may actually harm their education, according to a recent poll. The informal survey conducted around the Fresno State campus revealed some prevalent issues regarding students’ usage of text messaging. It looked at the frequency of text messaging by students and their attitudes about its effects in the classroom. “This is a multi-tasking generation and many people think they’re not being distracted,” said Dr. Tamyra Pierce, a Fresno State associate professor of mass communication and journalism. The survey, which was distributed to Fresno State students of ranging class levels, looked at their regular use of text messaging. In particular, it focused on the frequency of text messaging while in class. Of those polled, 84 percent of students reported that they regularly use their cell phones for sending and receiving text messages. Of those who text, 70 percent admitted to text messaging while in class. “I’m not at all surprised by this,” Pierce said. “I see it all the time.” Pierce, who has conducted formal surveys of her own regarding the use of text messaging and MySpace among high school students, said 47 to 49 percent of students text message and 10 percent admitted to text messaging during an exam. The real question: Is this frequent text messaging harmful to students’ educations? The informal campus poll revealed that 64 percent of students believe that text messaging in class draws their attention away from lectures. “Several semesters ago I had to go to a ‘no cell phones in sight’ policy because it just got out of control,” Pierce said. “Students think they can do it all and they won’t be distracted, but I think they are.” Many students, however, say that their studies are not affected by their texting habits. Fresno State junior Amy Munson admits to texting on a daily basis. “I actually have a Sidekick and a cell phone for texting and I’m on them all the time,” said Munson, a communication major. “Honestly, I text to stay awake in class,” Munson said. “As long as I’m constantly doing something, then I won’t completely zone out on what the teacher’s saying. It almost helps me listen because at least I’m getting bits and pieces.” Fresno State senior Martin Campanella believes the prevalence of text messaging also depends on the type of classes students are in. “I’m an engineering major,” Campanella said. “It’s mostly guys in my classes, so you don’t see it as much. I think girls text a lot more. It is like they can’t wait to talk about all this stuff.” Kevin Tague, a third-year health science major, said he rarely text messages but it still affects his concentration. “You hear it all the time,” Tague said. “Even when phones are on vibrate it gets annoying.” But this scattered concentration and distraction is what Pierce warns students about. “You get so engrossed in it and sure you may only miss this much, but that small amount may be what’s on the exam,” Pierce said. While Pierce has enacted a no cell phone policy in her class, many teachers have yet to go that far. Munson said some teachers do get more of her attention than others. “If someone’s just standing there for an hour talking, guaranteed half the class isn’t going to hear a thing,” Munson said. “I definitely get more involved when there’s interaction in group work and then I won’t text.”

Release Notes New Features

Active Directory Integration: Prior to this release, network authentication for the CHECKBOX application was done through an IIS configuration. With 4.1, CHECKBOX will now directly authenticate Active Directory users. When network login is enabled, a user will be able to browse to the login page and enter his/her active directory user credentials and login in to the application without having to specify a new set of credentials specific to CHECKBOX.

URL Rewriting: URL Rewriting will allow survey administrators to provide access to surveys via a more”friendly” url. Currently, survey URLs have a form that is extremely long:

(http://mysurveys.com/checkbox/Survey.aspx?s=f3cf6c7c18a94dca9a4f5918823ed686).

Long URLs have three major drawbacks:

1. They are not easy to remember.

2. They arepotentially intimidating and could reduce response rates.

3. When put into some emailclients, the strong can wrap and break the link.

Our new URL rewriting feature will solve these three problems.

CAPTCHA item type:

CHECKBOX 4.1 will include a CAPTCHA item type. CAPTCHA stands for “CompletelyAutomated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart. When used, this item type will prevent computer “bots” from finding and populating CHECKBOX surveys with false or spammy responses. This automated means of determining if a respondent is human is required to increase the security of our web-based application.

Resolved Issues

• Report images are now cached in the database to prevent issues with web farms. • Auto-login for network users should now work properly for default.aspx. • The USERNAMENOTUNIQUE error that occurred when updating network users has been resolved. • Fixed issue where “Automatically Log User In” option for invitations did not work. • Fixed install issue that caused Windows or FreeForm connection string options to not update configuration files correctly. • Changed default log file location to c:\temp\CheckboxExceptionLog.txt from c:\temp\ExceptionLog.txt. • Average Score ItemEditor Score Option is now correct • Email response item now allows delimited email address list • Cross tabs report items calculate percentages correctly • Added report filter documentation to the help system • Can now delete incomplete responses • Welcome text properly aligned for users with only report viewer permissions

Spring tends to bring new life into the environment… trees are becoming greener, perennials are starting to sprout again, and lawns are starting to get back into shape. Springtime at Prezza means we are preparing for a whole new slew of technical goodies including: 1. New Checkbox Online Pricing and Packages 2. The release of our new Checkbox multilanguage kit 3. The release of an automated Ultimate Survey > Checkbox upgrade utility (this will be cool). 4. The unveiling of our Checkbox Mobile package - which lets people sync up data collected from mobile devices to a Checkbox server (wireless or through a docking station).

We have made some significant changes to our products and branding. One of the biggest things we are doing is naming our hosted survey offering something different than our core server-software offering. CHECKBOX Online is our hosted survey solution that is catered strictly towards business professionals who need to conduct surveys FAST. The surveys are hosted on Prezza’s servers - and there’s nothing the survey designer needs to install ever. All that is required is an internet browser. You don’t even need Active X support like some systems. We’ve added an ALL-INCLUSIVE PRICING MODEL which we believe will make it a very simple choice as opposed to survey solutions which charge per response fees and per survey fees. CHECKBOX ONLINE PRICING

Sometimes people forget how easy we here at Prezza make to test drive our products online. While most companies require a significant registration process, we simply hand our interested prospects the keys to our tools, and let them decide if they might be right for their organization. The following link http://demo.checkbox.com/samples/login.aspx is available through our website, but it is also available right here. Test our the surveys, the different items you can add - including pictures and style sheet. Go ahead and embed a YouTube video right inside an HTML item. Hopefully you get one step closer to seeing what makes our software special. Until next time Brian

Post questions and get answers quickly with our new forums! http://www.prezzatech.com/community/

Companies get closer to their customers by asking small questions after certain transactions.

IN RETAIL

Ever wonder why the clerk at the pet food store asked you for your zip code? It’s to gather more information about where their customers come from. That information, combined with the amount of money that customer spent, allows a company to make better decisions about where to advertise, and what types of messages to use.

AFTER SUPPORT CALL

“You recently received support from Prezza Technologies.We strive to provide the best customer satisfaction possible, so please take a moment to answer these questions:

For the following questions, please rate the support you received on a scale of 1 - 5 (5 is the best, 1 is the worst):

1. Speed of Response.

2. Attention to Detail.

3. Customer Service Rep Friendliness.”

Surveys like the retail example and the support example are called “transactional” because companies are introducing a method of capturing feedback at a typical transaction event. People are much more likely to respond if surveys are not just mass emailed to people, and can be much more effective when conducted by a person. Our survey software can work on the web or over mobile devices.

Join Prezza’s Christopher Park for this web-based presentation and demonstration which will highlight the new capabilities and features of the latest version of Prezza’s web-based form, feedback, and survey software, Checkbox® Web Enterprise Edition. Please join us, and feel free to invite a friend or two.

https://www.gotomeeting.com/register/634823430

By the way, if you missed this - you can still register and view the archive.

Prezza Releases Version 4.0 of Checkbox The company updates and renames its flagship surveying product, focusing on workflow and usability enhancements.

by Colin Beasty

Destination CRM Thursday, February 22, 2007

Prezza Technologies on Wednesday released the latest version of its surveying software, Checkbox Web Enterprise 4.0. The fourth-generation product offers improved capabilities around refined workflows and mobility. In addition to the matured feature set, Prezza has also renamed its technology platform from Ultimate Survey to Checkbox. Prezza also recently released Checkbox Mobile, an optional module for version 4.0 that allows customers to bring surveys onto their PDAs and laptops in support of field service agents.

For Checkbox Web Enterprise 4.0, the company refined workflows surrounding surveying templates and creating new surveys, and also around structuring and analyzing data received from survey results, including real-time analysis and reporting capabilities and a multilingual surveying module option. Version 4.0 also allows users to create Web-based surveys using only an intuitive Web browser.

Prezza offers both a hosted and on-premise version of their software, though nearly 80 percent of its approximately 900 customers use the on-premise version, according to the company. For its on-premise version, the company offers a “no-limits pricing model,” giving customers an unlimited number of users, surveys, and responses. This pricing model, according to Christopher Park, director of sales, gives the company a competitive advantage over many of the other EFM vendors that charge for such extensions.

Since its 2002 founding, Prezza has moved “upstream into the enterprise segment,” says John Craven, president. While many of Prezza’s customers currently use the solution as a standalone application, as part of the shift the company is increasingly seeing its midmarket and enterprise customers integrate Checkbox with other applications, notably CRM and HR. Checkbox currently uses a framework to provide customers “with a foundation to build and plug into other apps,” Craven says, though the company plans to offer its own custom-built module as a plug-in for Salesforce.com and other solutions.

Prezza’s emphasis on usability and analysis is representative of the push vendors in this market are making, says Esteban Kolsky, senior research director at Gartner. “They’re looking to embed templates and best practices that are representative of the types of interactions a company might have with a customer. They’re providing the end user with an outline based on best practices.”

Reporting has also gained importance among customers. “The big trend right now is customers want tools that provide them with reporting features that allow them to do something with the data, not just slice and dice it,” Kolsky says. “They want to be able to make business decisions based on a summary of the information.”

CRM has always been strong in providing behavioral and transactional customer information. Measuring and predicting a customer’s attitude toward a company’s brand and its products is quite new. Kolsky says these tools will help map this uncharted ground. “Reduce, reuse, and recycle feedback information with adherence to corporate goals. That’s the real benefit of EFM.”

Link to full story here.