Frequent Asked Questions
Q1: Who is SuperCollect for?Q2: What are the main components of SuperCollect?Q3: Why should organisations being interested in SuperCollect?Q4: What kind of software and hardware do you need for SuperCollect?Q5: What kind of user interfaces are available for the respondent?Q6: What does the SuperCollect system cost?Q7: How can I integrate SuperCollect in the existing infrastructure?Q8: How secure is SuperCollect?Q9: Does SuperCollect support the flow of the questionnaire through the organisation?Q10: Is it possible to link software of software publishers to SuperCollect?
A1: SuperCollect can be succesfully used by:
- Organisations collecting data from their business units.
- Governmental institutions collecting data for various reasons (tax, social security, statistics) from enterprises.
- Professional organisations collecting data from their members.
- Accounting offices collecting raw data from their clients.
- Organisations transferring data from their Internet applications (E-Commerce or E-procurement) into their legacy information systems.
A2: The main components of SuperCollect are:
- A Workbench to create questionnaires in XML. The representation of the questionnaires can be: Excel form, SC-form and HTML form. All kinds of validation checks can be built in the questionnaires as well as links with code systems.
- An Operation System to control and maintain the database with the repondents, questionnaire and the answers.
- A Formloader that takes care of the procedures to service the respondent in filling the questionniares.
A3: Organisations should be interested in SuperCollect because:
- The SuperCollect system saves money in the administrative processes: automated control and correction build in the questionnaire, no data entry costs, open standards used like XML, easy to implement because of open standards.
- The SuperCollect system reduces administrative burden on the respondents of the questionnaires: linking questions with administrative sources, no data entry, automated validation of the data, overview of status and progress of filling the questionnaires.
A4: The requirements of the hardware and software needed to use SuperCollect are:
|
subsystem type of standard |
Collector |
Provider |
SuperCollect Server |
| hardware |
PC Pentium 1 |
PC > 486 |
PC Pentium 2 |
| RAM |
64 |
16 |
256 |
| operating system |
W98 or higher |
W95b or higher |
Windows 2000 Sp 1 |
| standard application software |
Excel 97/none |
Excel 97 or higher/none |
IIS 5, other MS software |
| RDBMS |
none |
none |
SQL server 2000 |
A5: The following kind of user interfaces are available for the respondent:
- Formloader: to manage the incoming and outgoing forms, gives also an overview of the status of the forms being received and/or send from/to the data provider
- Excel form with possibilities to link data from administrative sources (p.e. financial information system) to questions, so that data automatically can be filled (Excel needed)
- SC-form (no additional software needed)
- Web form (HTML)
- Virtual interface with accounting software of software publishers, enabling data providers to fill in electronic questionnaires automatically from their own accounts.
A6: The price of the SuperCollect system:
- Depends on the use of the system: the more messages the more expensive
- Depends on the software platform to be supported
- Varies from 25.000 to 150.000 euro yearly for the use of the Workbench, the Formloader and the Operation Syste
A7: SuperCollect can easily being integrated in existing environment, because:
- The Operations part is completely Internet based: it can be seen as a "black box"
- The SQL database contains data types and all meta data types needed to assign questionnaires to periods and observation units as well as coding systems to be used by the respondent
- The interfaces are based on XML: an open standard for the definition of data
- It offers batch functions to import data (in XML) from existing environments and export data (encrypted XML) to existing environment, software to translate the XML files to Excel is available
A8: SuperCollect is a very secure system, because:
- It is based on Internet
- Heaviest encryption on the data itself
- SSL on the "labels" of the messages
- Private Key Infrastructue (PKI)
A9: The flow of the questionnaire through the organisation:
- Is currently supported by the possibility to exchange the Excel form
- Will be fully supported by work flow functionality: expected in Q4 2003 (Enterprise edition)
A10: The link between software of software publishers and SuperCollect:
- Can currently be made by using the open XML interface
- Can currently be made by using Excel as intermediairy between SuperCollect and the software of the software publisher
- Will be extended by using a standard toolkit (DLL's) in Q2 2003
