Sensus Web from Sawtooth Technologies

Sawtooth Technologies, Evanston, Ill., has released Sensus Web, software for creating Web surveys. Sensus Web is based on Sawtooth Software’s Ci3 scripting language. This permits the creation of CATI-like questionnaires - advanced skipping and branching, piping, constructed lists, calculations, rosters, etc. - without having to know HTML or Java. Sensus Web also offers quota control, e-mail and sample management, straightforward deployment, online statistics, and data export to a range of analysis systems, including SAS and SPSS. Sensus Web works with standard PCs and Web servers running Microsoft Windows operating systems and tools. Sawtooth Technologies provides Web hosting and questionnaire conversion services for researchers who choose not to host their own surveys.

Sample control tool for researchers

U.K.-based Centurion Marketing Systems Limited is now offering MaRSC, a market research sample control tool. MaRSC allows research and marketing professionals to extract balanced, representative market research samples for interviewing from in-house customer databases. Designed for medium to large-sized businesses committed to customercentric work processes, MaRSC enables companies to integrate customer research into an existing CRM or data warehouse system. Even with limited market research expertise, marketers and other professionals can use MaRSC to identify stratified and random samples for interviewing. Selection screens allow users to set up sample selection criteria and verify, in real time, that there are sufficient eligible customers to meet sampling requirements. A weighting algorithm allows users to select samples by demographics and behavior in multiple dimensions. At a basic level the information generated will include a name, address, and telephone number. But it can include up to seven dimensions to achieve the balanced sample that research and marketing professionals require.

New Canadian online automotive panel in development

Carpoint.ca, a Canadian car-buying site, J.D. Power and Associates, and SampleNet e-Research Solutions will jointly develop and manage an online automotive panel that will produce proprietary and syndicated automotive market research using Carpoint.ca, which has more than 400,000 monthly visitors. J.D. Power and Associates intends to use the automotive panel for Canadian automotive research, including surveys, opinion polls, and market studies. Under the terms of the initiative, Carpoint.ca will help recruit panelists by providing access to its user database through promotional efforts such as banners, fixed links, newsletters, and pop-up ads. SampleNet will provide the technology infrastructure for panel development and data capture, and will conduct selected research in the Canadian market on behalf of J.D. Power and Associates. In addition, third-party research firms will be able to access the automotive panel through SampleNet services provided on behalf of Carpoint.ca and J.D. Power.

The automotive panel will be cobranded to include J.D. Power and Associates and Web Perspectives, a research service provided by SampleNet. Carpoint.ca will have access to the automotive panel to conduct its own research and polls.

Survey software for Palm OS

Vancouver-based Techneos Systems has released Entryware Professional version 3.0, survey software for mobile computers running the Palm OS. The ability to reduce input errors is one way Entryware Pro ensures data integrity. Numerous features are included to control and track changes that could produce incorrect or ambiguous data. Version 3.0 licensing includes a one-time fee and an annual maintenance agreement. Techneos is nearing completion of double-byte character support for non-Western languages, and an enterprise product for large-scale deployments.

Neural network product from StatSoft

StatSoft, Inc., Tulsa, Okla., has released Statistica Neural Networks version 6, its data mining, exploration, and modeling tool for users who analyze complex relationships between variables. Version 6 offers a comprehensive selection of neural network architectures, algorithms, sampling methods and analytical graphs. Problem-solvers and automatic wizards are designed to make the program intuitive and easy to use.

The latest release includes the following new features: comparative results from multiple models; efficient output management - Statistica features Microsoft Binder-style workbook functionality and customizable reports; Visual Basic scripting - a fully programmable system with which users can record interactive analyses as Visual Basic macros for repeated use, access all features from the object model, and integrate Statistica with other applications such as Excel, C++, Java, etc.; ensemble models and resampling the ability to create and store cooperative networks provides a leaming tool that can result in a lower generalization error; new network types - self-organizing feature map, generalized regression neural networks, linear models, cluster networks and network ensembles.

Statistica Neural Networks version 6 integrates with Statistica 6, the company’s data analysis and visualization software.

Category Business Planner updated

San Diego-based ACNielsen U.S., an operating unit of ACNielsen, has released version 1.5 of its Web-based Category Business Planner (CBP). Enhancements have been added to the category management intelligence system, giving users insights into their business issues and increased flexibility in how they view information. New features in CBP version 1.5 include the ability to analyze product sales performance down to the UPC and characteristic levels. In addition, a product’s share basis can be viewed not only by share of sales within a retailer, but within a specific department at that retailer as well. Another upgrade will enable clients to customize alerts, turning off those that a user prefers not to receive and changing alert thresholds.

CBP users can also now access the system via the new ACNielsen Answers Internet portal. Besides being the entry point for CBP, the portal will provide users with daily retail industry news updates and news from various VNU trade publications. Users will also be able to personalize their start screen with links to weather reports, stock updates, traffic conditions, and other information. Eventually, the portal will provide ACNielsen clients with "one-window" access to all ACNielsen content, applications and news.

New data mining components from NAG

Marketers seeking new insights from massive databases of customer and related information can now accelerate their development of customized data mining applications by using NAG Data Mining Components as building blocks for their applications. The NAG Data Mining Components, from the Numerical Algorithms Group, Downers Grove, Ill., are designed to free users from needing to re-invent basic data mining routines, enabling the development of specialized data mining applications more quickly and at lower cost.

The NAG Data Mining Components are statistical and artificial intelligence software components specifically developed for mining massive datasets. Algorithms are included in the Data Mining Components for each stage of the modeling process - data preparation (case wise deletion and dummy variables generation), data transformation (principle component analysis and data scaling), and model building (decision tree analysis; K-means and hierarchical clustering; multi-layer perceptron neural networks; logistic regression; general multiple regression). Application
developers can use these components in their own application designs using standard development tools.

The NAG Data Mining Components are geared to help developers select the most appropriate modeling methods quickly and easily. Some of the algorithms can be called in a "novice" mode to get results faster or in "expert" mode to provide precise control of the algorithm. Less experienced users can also get the benefit of detailed advice via hyperlinked documentation guiding them to data mining solutions most applicable to their data. Written in C for Windows, Linux or Solaris platforms, NAG Data Mining Components can extract data from flat files or OBDC compliant databases.

Cohorts segmentation system updated

Denver-based marketing reformation company Looking Glass has released a new version of its household-based consumer segmentation system, Cohorts. The product update adds three new segments that better reflect current household demographics.

Developed with the technical assistance of Northwestern University’s Integrated Marketing Communications Department, the updated Cohorts utilizes information from two consumer data companies, Experian and Equifax. Through cluster analysis, 30 naturally occurring Cohorts were identified, featuring both demographic and lifestyle characteristics. The segments were then validated using information from two syndicated research companies, Simmons Market Research Bureau and Scarborough Research. Through this validation, the segments were further described by attitudes and consumer behavior.

The three new segments that emerged include: Barry & Kathleen - affluent professional couples, educated, dual-income, childless; Andrea - single morns with careers, successful, professional; Frank & Shirley - conservative older couples (grandparents and parents) raising kids.

In each segment, the first names used to describe a given Cohort are dramatically over-represented within that segment and are intended to make Cohorts easier to use and understand by "humanizing" the data. The evolved Cohorts also reflects some of the changes noted in the ongoing release of 2000 Census data.

Book details current and future uses of GIS

Planning Support Systems, a new book from ESRI Press, demonstrates how geographic information system (GIS) technology is being used - and may be used in the future - by planners, architects, engineers, developers, Realtors, government and regulatory officials, and concerned citizens. The book includes full-color maps, descriptive diagrams, threedimensional representations, and work by planning scholars and professionals. Planning Support Systems demonstrates current methods and possibilities of GIS in land use professions from 15 different perspectives. Editors Richard Brail of Rutgers University’s Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy and Richard Klosterman of the University of Akron have assembled papers from colleagues around the globe who are working to expand both the applicability and understanding of the most important issues in computer-aided planning.

Briefly...

Stamford, Conn., research firm InsightExpress is offering a free white paper designed to illustrate how online research is more efficient than mail research for concept testing. The study, "Online Concept Testing: A Concept Whose Time Has Come," can be accessed at www.concepttestexpress.com.

China Xin Network Media Corporation will begin selling industry reports, broker research, and market analysis through the www.marketresearch.com service. CXN Media Corporation is a provider of financial, economic, and business information on the People’s Republic
of China.

DeYoung Communications, a Racine, Wis., research firm, is offering a free 28-page booklet on the functions and benefits of small sample business-to-business research. The booklet, "The Value of Small Scale B-T-B Research - Wisdom You Can Take to the Bank," contains nine brief case histories of the use of tactical research in solving marketing problems.

Dallas-based DialTek’s I-VIEW application allows researchers and call centers the means to deploy many types of research studies or telephony projects and record data. Options such as instant reporting, email/ fax-on-demand, and Web integration let users customize I-VIEW to meet changing needs. DialTek offers the I-VIEW application using an application service provider model. Users pay only for the use of the platform as they need it, whether for onetime or long-term projects.

Harris Interactive, Rochester, N.Y., has upgraded its voter registration (VR) system - a prime component of its Internet survey process. This system, which utilizes Microsoft.NET technology, will offer a more robust user interface to the Harris Interactive online panel community. Harris Interactive developers incorporated the Microsoft .NET Framework into the improved VR application. Harris Interactive expects to deploy this improved version of the VR by mid-2002, and plans to continue working with Microsoft to provide a richer interface for its online community.