WinCati for Computer-Assisted Telephone Interviewing

Best Practices. Best Value.

Here you'll find answers to all of your questions about WinCati, including: What's new in WinCati 4.2? and What is Mixed Mode? Select a question from the list below or scroll down to read through the questions from start to finish. At any point, you can use the "back to top" links to return to this list.

• What is CATI?
• Why should I automate my telephone facility?
• What does WinCati offer?
• How do I write questionnaires?
• How do I set up studies?
• How is interviewing conducted?
• How does WinCati increase interviewer productivity?
• How do I process and analyze data?
• What are WinCati's reporting capabilities?
• What are WinCati's international capabilities?
• What sets WinCati apart?
• What are the system requirements?
• How is WinCati priced?
• Is onsite training available?
• How can I see WinCati in action?
• What features does WinCati have?
• What options does WinCati provide?
• What are users saying about WinCati?
• What's new in WinCati 4.2?
• What is Mixed Mode?

Click here for the Top Ten Reasons why WinCati is the Best CATI Value.

Click here to contact a Sawtooth representative about WinCati…

Q: What is CATI?

A: CATI is the use of computers to automate the key activities of a telephone interviewing facility. It stands for "computer-assisted telephone interviewing."

The most important aspect of a CATI system is that it uses computers to conduct the interviews. Because a computer controls the questionnaire, skip patterns are executed exactly as intended, responses are within range, and there are no missing data. And, because answers are entered directly into the computer, data entry is eliminated - data analysis can start immediately.

But interviewing is just a part of the way a facility can automate. It can also use computers to handle the administrative and telephony functions associated with interviewing, such as sample management, quota control, call disposition monitoring, productivity reporting, Rapid Dial or predictive dialing, interviewer monitoring and rating, and voice capture. Because the computer does record keeping automatically, your interviewing facility can operate more efficiently and you can get accurate, instantaneous information on the status of studies at any time.

CATI requires that the PCs be linked through a network to a main PC (server) that functions as a central storage location for sample and data. CATI can also combine telephone and Web to perform CATI/Web mixed mode interviewing, in which case the CATI system is connected to the Internet via a Web server.

Sawtooth Technologies offers software for CATI, Web and CATI/Web mixed-mode interviewing. Our WinCati system and WinCati Mixed Mode option are described on this page; our Sensus Web system for Web interviewing is described elsewhere on our site.

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Q: Why should I automate my telephone facility?

A: There are many advantages to CATI interviewing.

CATI gives you control of your research:
Questionnaires and sample are administered exactly as you intend, callbacks are made as scheduled, and quota cells are closed automatically. And, you can check sample status and quotas quickly.

CATI gives you control of your costs:
You can detect interviewer problems and track productivity through reports and remote monitoring, and you can analyze study results at any time - even while interviewing is in progress. And, because statistics on actual incidence, total dialings, and interview length are available as soon as studies begin, you can readily and consistently track your interviewing costs.

Other CATI benefits increase the control you have over your research quality, timing, and costs. These benefits include:

• Better Quality Data
  There are no missing data or out-of-range responses, and responses can be automatically cross-checked for consistency.
• Faster Results
  Key punching and data cleaning are eliminated, so you can begin analysis as soon as the last interview is completed.
• Increased Productivity
  Fewer supervisor and interviewer hours are needed to complete studies; the computer handles administrative and repetitive functions so that supervisors can supervise and interviewers can interview.
• New Opportunities
  You can execute more elaborate questionnaire designs and sampling procedures than can be done on paper.

For these reasons, client organizations and full-service research firms are specifying CATI interviewing for their telephone studies.

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Q: What does WinCati offer?

A: WinCati gives you full telephone interviewing automation, executed with the intelligence of a best practices researcher. And, since it runs in Windows, it is easy to learn and provides intuitive access to a broad range of features, including:

• Questionnaire authoring and administration
• Sample and call management
• Quota control and call disposition monitoring
• Inbound and outbound calling
• Auto dialing and optional predictive dialing
• Multi-lingual interviewing
• Optional sound playing and voice-capture openend recording
• Interviewer monitoring and rating
• Sample, quota, callback, disposition, and productivity reporting
• Summary statistics and two-way cross tabs
• Data coding and editing
• Direct data and label exporting to analysis systems
• Optional CATI/Web mixed-mode interviewing

You can find details of these capabilities and others in the answers to the questions below. Or, view a complete list of WinCati features.

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Q: How do I write questionnaires?

With Sensus, you have complete control over screen formatting for your questionnaire: you can place question and response text anywhere on the screen and use color and type fonts to guide interviewers.

You can design question screens such as the one shown here any way you like. You can vary the text placement, font, font size, color, response controls, and more.

Advanced Capabilities
In addition to these basic capabilities, Sensus has special features and efficiencies designed for researchers with advanced needs. For example, its powerful list handling capabilities let you ask questions repetitively with minimal setup. You can construct customized lists for each respondent based on previous answers and then ask additional questions for that list. You can also use this capability to construct rosters where you ask a series of questions for each member of a list.

Sensus provides other advanced capabilities as well. You can randomize choices within questions, questions within blocks of questions, and blocks of questions within questionnaires. You can create and administer multilingual studies; interviewers can switch between languages at any point during the questionnaire. You can write macros to create your own custom instructions that you can use throughout a questionnaire. And, if you own WinCati's sound option, you can incorporate commercial jingles or other sound bytes as part of the interview and record open-ended responses.

Sensus lets you put multiple questions on one screen. You can use this, for example, with the list and randomization capabilities to create rating grids where custom lists of products and attributes appear in random order.

Time-saving Features
Sensus uses a set of simple instructions to create questionnaires. Typing a single command can implement advanced capabilities within your survey.

Sensus expedites questionnaire writing with its point-and-click menus, dialog boxes, context sensitive on-line help, text position indicator, use of colors for different parts of the questionnaire script, and comprehensive manuals. Its question navigator speeds creation of long questionnaires.

You can create questionnaires using your own word processor or Sensus built-in editor. You can construct questionnaires from scratch, or cut and paste questions from existing surveys, then edit them to form a new questionnaire.

You can create questionnaires using Sensus' built-in editor or using a word processor, such as Microsoft Word shown here.

Sensus lets you insert or delete questions with little or no modification to your branching and skipping instructions and you can even modify your questionnaire once interviewing is in progress. You can specify defaults for many of the instructions that govern questionnaire presentation and logic. For example, you need only specify text placement, screen color, answer ranges, and key assignments once. Of course, you can override these defaults at any time.

Once you have created your questionnaire you can use the Sensus' Auto Test feature to check it. Auto Test runs your questionnaire by entering responses for each question that are within the ranges of responses you set when constructing the questionnaire. It follows the branches and skips you specify. You can inspect Auto Test's simulated data to identify problems with your questionnaire before interviewing begins. You can spot, for example, response ranges, skips, or randomizations that are mis-specified or branches that are never followed. You can also use the data for setting up cross tab and analysis specifications.

Questionnaire Capacity
WinCati comes with the 500-variable version of Sensus. You can upgrade to a version that lets you create questionnaires with an unlimited number of variables, for an additional fee.

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Q: How do I set up studies?

A: In addition to providing you powerful, work-saving questionnaire authoring, WinCati gives you flexible and efficient setup for defining study specifications. And WinCati's point-and-click interface lets you have easy access to the features you need to control your research and your costs.

Best Practices Research
With WinCati you can conduct rigorous, effective research using study specifications that can be set up quickly and easily. You can establish an unlimited number of time zone rules to avoid calling into time zones during lunch or dinner hours. You can specify an unlimited number of "no answer" callback rules, fixing how many times you want respondents to be called in one time period before being called in another. You can create your own set of disposition codes that you can copy to other studies.

You set up study specifications using standard Windows interfaces. This screen shows the specification window for defining time zones.

With WinCati, you can establish an unlimited number of quotas. You can define regular quotas, hierarchical quotas, multiple quotas, and quota constraints. Quotas can be assigned based on information gathered during the interview, or information known in advance.

You can assign sample to interviewers based on disposition codes or database fields. For example, you can assign Spanish speaking respondents to Spanish speaking interviewers,or you can assign refusals to refusal converters. You can also assign priorities to sample to ensure that you reach low-incidence sample quickly.

At all times WinCati oversees your studies like a best practices supervisor.

Straightforward Setup
WinCati not only lets you specify exactly how all aspects of a study should be handled, but also lets you set up your specifications quickly and easily. You can copy your study specifications from an existing study; you can start from scratch by entering new specifications; or you can create some new specifications and copy others.

For example, you might copy disposition codes and time-zone calling rules from one study, copy "no answer" callback rules from another study, and then create the remaining specifications. Of course, you can edit any copied specifications to meet the unique requirements of your new study.

WinCati organizes study specifications as if each set of specifications were its own index card or tab. One tab contains the timezone rules, another holds the disposition codes, and so on. To create or edit study specifications you select the applicable tab, then use the tab window to enter or modify the specifications.

Windows for defining study specifications are arranged in a "tab view." You enter each set of specifications by clicking on the appropriate tab then using the window that displays to set up the specifications. You use the window shown here to specify the settings for controlling sample.

Flexible Sample Database
WinCati uses a standard, commercial, ODBC-compatible database for storing sample. You can import sample into the database from a wide variety of formats, including standard database formats and those formats used by sampling services such as Genesys, Scientific Telephone Samples, and Survey Sampling. WinCati lets you create a "never call" list which can be checked as you import sample. You can also copy sample from an existing study, generate random digit dialing (RDD) samples, or have interviewers dial from paper lists.

You can import sample from a wide variety of formats, as shown here.

You can move information from the sample database to the questionnaire if you want to include contact or user-defined data in the interview, or move information from the questionnaire back to the sample database if you want to update sample records based on information gathered during the interview.

You can create large sample databases and control the sample in replicates. The database contains fields for all contact information (including international phone numbers), complete call histories with notes, and over 10,000 characters of user-definable information.

Each piece of sample is stored as a record in the study's sample database. The record, as shown here, contains contact information, any custom fields you define, information indicating its dialing status, and a history of all call attempts. You can view, edit, search, or copy records in the database.

Easy Setup Navigation
The Study window serves as an on-screen navigator to guide you through the study set-up and reporting processes. You start at the top left of the window and work your way through to the bottom right as you proceed through a study.

The Study Window shown here serves as a guide to navigate you through the execution of a study. All of the features you need to use can be accessed from this window. You start in the upper left of the window and work your way through to the lower right as you progress through a study.

All of the functions you need for creating and monitoring the progress of a study can be accessed from this window.

The Check Setup feature lists the steps you must complete before you can begin interviewing. You can access it at any time to see which steps have been completed and which steps remain.

You can password-protect studies to limit access to both the study setup and reports. And, you can assign a separate password that permits your staff to run reports only.

Overall, you'll find setting up studies with WinCati to be quick, powerful, and uncomplicated.

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Q: How is interviewing conducted?

Before dialing, interviewers can review complete information for a sample record, including contact information, the history of call attempts, and any interviewer or supervisor notes attached to the record. If the interviewing PCs are equipped with modems, the PC can dial the number; otherwise the interviewers dial. If you use Rapid Dial or the predictive dialing option, the system will dial and record dispositions automatically.

You can require that your interviewers always dial the number given to them, or you can allow them the flexibility to display a list of alternative records to dial (including callbacks waiting). You also can give interviewers the option to retrieve specific records from the sample database, for example when fielding studies that receive in-bound calls.

The Start Window shown here displays at the interviewing station before each call attempt. It shows the call history for the sample record to be dialed next. For each study, supervisors can give interviewers the options to retrieve records from the database, transfer records to other interviewers, or review the callback queue. Rapid Dial is being used here. Interviewers simply press hot keys to automatically record dispositions for answering machine, busy, disconnect, fax/modem, or no answers call attempts.

Simple Interview Administration
Interviewers conduct an interview by reading questions and entering responses using the keyboard or, if you prefer, the mouse. Minimal training is required. Skips, branches, randomizations, and splits are followed automatically.

With the sound option, openends are automatically recorded and jingles or other sound bytes play at the appropriate times. You can allow interviewers to back up at any point in an interview or only to certain questions. Interviewers can terminate an interview at any time and terminated interviews can be restarted where they left off.

Results and call dispositions are stored at the end of each attempt. Interviewers are then given the option to continue with the next call, log off, or switch to another study. If they continue, the next sample record to dial automatically displays. To switch to another study, interviewers select from the list of their assigned studies and begin interviewing on that study within seconds.

Interview Monitoring
You can monitor which interviewers are interviewing at which stations by displaying the Log On Status Window from the supervisor station. And you can use our Super View feature to conduct on-screen monitoring of interviews in progress. Super View also lets you rate interviewers on your own rating scale using your own criteria. And you can run ratings reports to review and compare interviewers' performance.

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Q: How does WinCati increase interviewer productivity?

WinCati's core capabilities and optional add-ons make interviewers more productive and decrease your cost per complete.

WinCati's auto dialing eliminates wrong numbers and speeds the dialing process. WinCati's callback management and disposition recording capabilities let interviewers handle administrative tasks swiftly. And, WinCati's interviewer productivity reports show supervisors which interviewers can improve their performance. Also, WinCati's Super View feature lets supervisors visually monitor interviewers' screens while interviewing is in progress. Supervisors can then rate interviewers' performance using your own criteria and they can run reports of average ratings. Supervisors can review this report along with the interviewer productivity report when comparing interviewers.

WinCati's features build on these core capabilities to provide measurable cost savings project after project. WinCati's Rapid Dial and predictive dialing option go beyond auto dialing's capabilities to quickly (in the case of Rapid Dial) or automatically (in the case of predictive dialing) record dispositions such as no answers, busys and answering machines. Rapid Dial can result in 10-20% productivity gains. Predictive dialing can result in 33-75% productivity gains.

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Q: How do I process and analyze data?

A: WinCati gives you the tools you need to quickly analyze, edit, and code your data.

Quick Analysis
WinCati's quick analysis features let you monitor your surveys while they are in progress and are available to your clients online. They let you generate frequency counts, compute basic survey statistics, and produce 2-way cross tabs.

Data Editing
WinCati includes a versatile data editor for making any after-interviewing edits. It lets you view and edit respondent numeric and openend data, and view any interviewer notes associated with each question.

Openend Coding
The integrated coder for openends makes coding quick and easy. You can code by question or by respondent so several people can code simultaneously.

In-depth Analysis
You can use any cross tab or statistical package when it's time to analyze your data in depth. You can seamlessly export your data and variable labels to SPSS and you can export your data directly to over 20 standard formats such as Access, ASCII, dBase, Excel and SAS.

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Q: What are WinCati's reporting capabilities?

Flexible Pre-Defined Reports
Standard reports can be run at any time and are both flexible and powerful. You can run the reports based on any range of times and dates, interviewers, quotas, disposition codes, and so on, that you specify - the reports are generated automatically. WinCati includes the following Standard Reports:

The Sample Report lets you monitor the status of your sample: how many records are available for dialing, how many have been exhausted, and so on. It gives a breakdown of sample by dialing status, quota, last disposition, number of attempts, time zone, and replicate. It helps you anticipate how many interviewers to assign to a study during a shift and if you will need additional sample.

The Quota Report lets you see how the study is progressing toward reaching its quotas. It provides a count by quota cell of the number of completed interviews and the number of completed interviews for the entire study. It lets you spot if there are difficult-to-fill cells so that you can adjust your quotas or sample distribution priorities accordingly.

The Disposition Report lets you assess the quality of your sample. It shows a count of call attempts by disposition (No Answer, Busy, Disconnect, Business, and so on) and computes the actual study incidence. If your study uses the AAPOR (American Association of Public Opinion Researchers) standard disposition codes, all AAPOR outcome rates are reported automatically.

The Callback Report lets you see when callbacks are scheduled. It displays the number of callbacks scheduled by interviewer and type in half-hour increments. It helps you in scheduling interviewers and letting interviewers know when callbacks can be expected.

The Interviewer Productivity Reports let you monitor your interviewing production rates and identify your most productive interviewers:

The Interviewer Productivity Disposition Report displays a count of call attempts by interviewer and disposition code, including Refusals, Mid-Terminates, and Completes.

The Interviewer Productivity Time Report displays log on hours, number of dialings, number of completes, and so on, by interviewer. It computes measures such as the average interview length and completion rate so you can estimate when a study will be completed and control its costs.

The Interviewer Productivity Ratings Report displays average ratings received by interviewers from supervisors who have visually monitored their performance. The Ratings report is available with the Super View option.

These three interviewer productivity reports can help you in preparing payroll, computing interviewer bonuses, and trouble shooting interviewer problems. You can also use them prescriptively to better manage interviewing costs; for example, you could check whether interviewing for a study is more productive during evenings, weekdays, or on weekends and then adjust interviewer schedules accordingly.

WinCati has a complete set of built-in reports. You can specify quota cells, disposition codes, interviewers, the dates and times to be included in the reports, and so on. The report shown above is the Interviewer Productivity Time report.

The Refusal Report lets you track the number of refusals and how many of those have been converted.

WinCati reports can be based on the entire sample or only on sample that matches a search specification. They can run by study or across study.

Custom Reports
Custom reports are reports that you can create if your needs go beyond those covered by the standard reports. For example, you could analyze patterns of call attempts to determine when to stop dialing particular types of numbers, or you could transfer study and interviewer information to a spreadsheet to update your daily cost projections.

Because the WinCati study information is in a commercial database format, you can use readily available tools to create these custom reports. You can also export study information using one of several common file formats and create reports with tools such as Excel or dBase. And once you create custom reports, you can reuse them in other studies.