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Reviews Build Sophisticated Surveys: Perseus SurveySolutions Professional 4.0 provides familiar Office interface One of the best ways to get real answers is with a survey- and the best survey software we've seen is Perseus Development Corp.'s SurveySolutions Professional 4.0. The $495 package is a spectacular improvement over version 1.0, and it blows away [the competition]. Where [other survey software] kept us busy figuring out software, SurveySolutions lets us focus on our surveys. SurveySolutions is a sophisticated intelligence-gathering and analysis tool that's as natural to use as a word processor. The interface has a Microsoft Office-style tool bar atop an attractive hot-linked table of tasks. Alongside familiar tool buttons, including those for opening files, copying and printing, are icons for Questionnaire Designer, Results Management and Charting & Analysis. The latter categories also include tasks such as creating a questionnaire by template, opening a questionnaire created in a word processor, editing and previewing. If you don't see what you're looking for under the links, there's a 'How Do I' button, as well as a question mark for Help, on the tool bar. The Professional version stores data in MDB (Microsoft Access), XLS [Microsoft Excel], TSV [tab-separated value], CSV [comma-separated value] and TXT [plain text] formats. Opening a database adds a tool bar for tasks such as sorting, filtering, profiling and finding duplicates. The program shows cross-tabs, performs regression analysis and converts data to presentations. Hits
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THE BOTTOM LINE An easy, organized way to create and deliver good-looking, customizable surveys and to gather, analyze and present the results. - in InternetWeek.com, September 2001 Performing market intelligence on a regular basis is critical to your survival. By using online surveys you can kill two birds with one stone: online surveys facilitate the gathering of pertinent market data and user demographics and they capture email addresses of respondents. We've looked at a variety of programs and recommend Perseus' SurveySolutions for the Web. They offer a free version for creating a schedule of simple online surveys. And when you are ready to graduate to the big leagues, you may purchase their very affordable full-featured system. Tell'em we sent ya! - in StrongerSales.com, July 2001 SurveySolutions for the Web - A Software Review SurveySolutions for the Web Version 3.0 allows users to create surveys in a word processing interface, distribute them via the Web or email, collect responses and automatically add them to a native Microsoft Access database, as well as perform reporting and analysis of the survey results. I first reviewed SurveySolutions for the Web Version 1.0 in August 1999. We used it for quite some time on our Website to survey members for their ratings of our guest speakers every month. It has been proven, and it is easy to understand, that moving your surveys to the Web can dramatically reduce the cost and significantly improve the quality of the results you receive. In fact, the cost of Web-based surveys is so low that even if you have never implemented surveys you should consider the Web approach. Once the survey questionnaire is finished, you can preview how it will look on the Web or as an email form to catch any potential formatting errors before going live. You actually set up whether you want to use their Web server, a free service (and the easiest way to get started) or use your own Web server. They (Perseus) provide an FTP client right in the program so you actually upload (Publish) the completed questionnaire to your Website without having to leave SurveySolutions, this worked right away, no difficulty. It even comes with a library of over 200 sample questions and a selection of complete survey templates if you want to get a running start. For sure it is easy to create very decent-looking surveys and get them online. Moreover, they're easy for your clients to fill out. - in Sarasota PC Monitor, July 2001 Perseus's new Web-based software makes conducting customer research easy and affordable Small or large, no company can survive without good customer research, and the best way to get that is to ask customers what they think. But hiring a company to do surveys can be prohibitively expensive, well beyond the means of small and medium-size businesses. Enter SurveySolutions 4.0 for the Web from Perseus Development, introduced this week at PC Expo/TechXNY. Starting at under $300, this product is particularly handy for creating fast surveys because there is no scripting, programming, or difficult dialog boxes to master. It includes many design wizards that make it easy for novices to produce professional-looking survey forms, says Jeffrey Henning, Perseus's president of software services. It can also produce instantaneous results on a Web page, he says, and will put those results into Microsoft Access databases. The software features built-in capabilities for creating summary statistics, cross-tabs, and frequency reports, and will export results directly to Microsoft PowerPoint. - in PCWorld.com, June 2001 PC World PC Expo Pick for Best Software But What Does the Survey Say? Perseus released version 4.0 of SurveySolutions for the Web here. The relatively inexpensive ($229) software uses an easy-to-understand word-processor interface, so you can craft professional-looking surveys in just a few minutes. It's pretty obvious why organizations like the NBA and Harvard University use this product--it's the real deal. - in PCWorld.com, June 2001 Perseus Development Corp.'s SurveySolutions Enterprise 4, a Web survey application, offers the capability to produce site feedback surveys, exit interviews, and sign-up forms through the Web or email. The product is Microsoft Office compatible and uses a word processor for questionnaire design; it stores responses in an Access database. The Enterprise version offers server-side database support. Through an alliance with Critical Path Software, the SurveySolutions In-Hand feature allows questionnaires to be distributed and collected from PDA users. For example, conference surveys for the PalmSource 2000 event were uploaded by attendees via HotSync server stations. Also new is the save and continue function, which allows Web users to return to their questionnaires. New custom Enterprise Services include SurveySolutions technology combined with professional research services and project management. - in Software Magazine, April 2001 Designing a survey is not exactly an art or a science, but it's a skill that takes some practice--and requires a tool that doesn't demand too much attention to figure out. That's where Perseus Development's SurveySolutions software comes into its own. The latest version, 3, comes in four different flavors, ranging from the free one-question SurveySolutions ExpressPoll to an industrial-strength Enterprise version that supports SQL database environments including Oracle, Sybase, Informix, and SQLServer. On the whole, it earns a strong recommendation in its handling of all three main phases of surveys: design, data collection, and result analysis. Armed with Perseus's strategy and a good idea of what you want from a survey, it's possible get a survey up and running within a day. If you're in a rush to get started, you can download SurveySolutions for the Web 3.0 from Perseus's site and give it a trial run for a month. You can buy a 'license-plate' code to unlock the program, and optionally upgrade it to the Professional version... When you read a bald list of some of the product's features--especially those in the Professional version--SurveySolutions sounds daunting. Nothing could be further from the truth. It's easy to create decent-looking surveys and get them online. And they're easy for your clients to fill out. SurveySolutions gets a hearty recommendation. - in ComputerUser, January 2001 SurveySolutions' interface resembles the interface of Microsoft's Office applications, particularly Microsoft Word. If you've used that program, you'll feel right at home writing your survey questions. One thing I like about the software is that you don't need to know Perl or have your own CGI script in order to publish your survey on the Web. SurveySolutions for the Web is set up to use a CGI script on the Perseus server (although you can purchase its big brother, SurveySolutions Professional, if you want a CGI script to use on your own server). I also liked that the database management in this version of SurveySolutions has been upgraded to support the Microsoft Access 97 and 2000 file formats. After you've created a results database, you can use the AutoPresent Wizard to create a report that will show percentages and 3D charts of your survey's results. The Wizard is very easy to use. If you're in the market for survey software, be sure to check out the free trial version of SurveySolutions for the Web. I liked the software and I'm no survey guru. It's an easy way to get started doing surveys -- even if you've never created one before. - in WINMAG.com, November 2000 SurveySolutions for the Web 2.0 - Perseus Development Corp. If you're looking for a good Web-based survey system, our Editors' Choice, Perseus's SurveySolutions for the Web 2.0 ($229), has an exceptionally fine balance between ease of use and more advanced features, in part the result of a well-designed user interface. Almost the entire survey process is handled in a word processing environment. The approach carefully follows Microsoft Office guidelines for look and feel, which should help many users and makes SurveySolutions feel more modern than programs such as EZSurvey 99 for the Internet and MarketSight 2.5. We especially liked the question library's preview window, which makes it easy to see the question layout. Sometimes you just want to borrow the format of a sample question and rewrite the details. - in PC Magazine, February 2000 Previous reviews | More reviews
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