What's the big deal about EpiSurveyor?

EpiSurveyor lets anyone set up a worldwide, mobile-phone-based data collection system in minutes, for free. It is now the most widely used mobile data collection software in the world, with thousands of users in almost every country on earth.

 

What are the benefits?  Cost, Speed, Reliability, and Security.

Cost

With EpiSurveyor, you'll save a LOT of money over either paper-based data collection or other electronic systems.  In a 2011 report, the World Bank documented a 71% decrease in data collection costs compared to paper, with improved quality.

That's because EpiSurveyor is so simple to use that you won't need programmers or consultants. You just need to know what data you would like to collect.

The paid "pro" and "enterprise" versions of EpiSurveyor are dramatically less expensive than other commercial programs – in some cases more than 60% less expensive.  And EpiSurveyor is also almost always cheaper than "free" software products, because those products almost always require skilled (and expensive) technical personnel to set up and maintain the system, software, and servers.  

With EpiSurveyor, there's no need to spend money on technical personnel, and no servers to set up; you can securely design forms and view data from any connected computer -- even in an internet cafe.

Speed

Another benefit is speed: real-time data helps you to understand better what is happening.  Whether you are tracking supplies, or measuring attitudes in the population, or monitoring disease, or any other kind of data – getting your critical data in real-time – instead of months or years after the data collection activity – will make your organization more effective.  And with EpiSurveyor you can be up and running today.

Reliability

WIth many mobile data "solutions", support is provided by "the community", so who can you turn to when you need help right now?   EpiSurveyor has been around for more than five years, and has been online for two years -- with no data loss and no downtime.  Have a problem? Our tech support staff are quick to respond.  At DataDyne, we take our perfect record with EpiSurveyor very seriously, and we are always standing by to help.  Ask our users and they'll tell you that our product is fantastic, and our customer service is terrific.

Security

EpiSurveyor uses industry-standard encryption protocols: your data is secure on the phone, during transmission, and on the servers.  We use servers from the Rackspace.com corporation, with frequent automatic backup to multiple locations.  

 

EpiSurveyor helps hundreds of organizations in more than 170 countries all over the globe, including

• The World Bank, which noted in a 2011 report from an anti-corruption activity in Guatemala that EpiSurveyor "drastically cut costs while facilitating quality control and improving implementation speed."
• Aquaya.org – a non-profit founded to improve health through clean water innovation, Aquaya uses EpiSurveyor for many projects, including to enable 50+ rural water system operators in Thua Thien Hue province of Vietnam to submit daily operational data to managers
• Camfed International uses EpiSurveyor to monitor their educational programs in Africa. Read the report.
• International Federation of the Red Cross – the Red Cross uses EpiSurveyor to evaluate anti-malarial bednet distribution and use throughout sub-Saharan Africa, and also to evaluate the "coverage" achieved by vaccination campaigns
• African Conservation Centre – ACC uses EpiSurveyor to track health and investigate unexpected deaths in endangered animals
• TulaSalud – a small non-profit in Guatemala working to improve health delivery, particularly to mothers and children, TulaSalud like EpiSurveyor so much they made a YouTube video about it.
• JSI – JSi uses EpiSurveyor to monitor drug supplies in many African countries for the USAID Deliver project. Case report.
• MSH - MSH uses EpiSurveyor to strengthen pharmaceutical systems at its programs in Africa, reducing costs and increasing sustainability. Case report.

Not to mention the CDC, the World Health Organization, the California Department of Health, the Kenyan ministry of health, Abt Associates, UNICEF, Children's National Medical Center, the University of Nairobi School of Public Health, the International Rescue Committee and many, many other organizations.

How much does EpiSurveyor cost? And who pays?
For most users, EpiSurveyor doesn't cost anything at all. Yes, you read that right: for most users, EpiSurveyor is completely free. We do charge those users who want additional levels of service or support or training, and use that funding to pay for free access for everyone else.

EpiSurveyor has so far been funded by grants from the United Nations Foundation, the Vodafone Foundation, and the World Bank, and by DataDyne.org with funds we receive from providing extra services to a subset of users. The majority of EpiSurveyor users don't pay a single dollar, and never will, but we do charge those users who want additional levels of service or support or training. This is a very new way of funding and scaling technology, and we think it's the only way that will result in building capacity for everyone, not just the richest organizations.

We do impose some limits on the free version: you can have a maximum of 20 forms (ie, questionnaires) and 100 questions per form. You can upload a maximum of 5000 forms per year to our website, and store up to 500 records per form there at any one time. These limits don't stop 99% of our users from using EpiSurveyor to collect their mission critical data.

 

 

Things that are not part of the free version:

• a Pro or Enterprise account at episurveyor.org -- Pro and Enterprise accounts remove the 500 record-per-form limit, the 20 form limit per userid, the 5,000 uploads per year limit, and the 100 question limit per form. An Enterprise account is needed to use our API, which allows larger organizations to automate thier access to their EpiSurveyor.org data from another piece of software. If you're planning to use the API, or to collect thousands and thousands of records from many, many users, then at least one of those users needs to have a Enterprise account. The Pro and Enterprise accounts also allows for priority 24-hour email tech support.

• custom reports -- please contact us if you would like any custom reports created. These custom reports will work with the data you collect in your forms, letting you run them at the press of a button on whatever data you've collected. Custom reports require a Pro or Enterprise account.

• custom support or training -- if your work with EpiSurveyor requires phone support, training, or other extra work on our part, we'll have to charge you for it (but don't worry: we'll plow the money right back into improvements for EpiSurveyor that will benefit you and everyone else).

What phones can I use?

Find the list of phones that can run the EpiSurveyor app at www.episurveyor.org/m

 

Can I collect data using SMS?

Pro and Enterprise EpiSurveyor users can collect simple data by sending plain text messages (SMS) from any phone at all without installing the EpiSurveyor app. For more info, watch this video.  [This is different from uploading data collected using the EpiSurveyor app and uploading it via SMS, which is available to all users.]

 

Do I need to be "online" or connected to collect data with EpiSurveyor?

No!  We understand that many of our users are working in areas with poor or no coverage.  With EpiSurveyor you can collect data while "offline" (unconnected to the network), save it, and transmit it whenever you are in range of the network again.

How do I create forms?

First, create a free account at www.episurveyor.org and follow onscreen directions. You can see a demonstration video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aS6R1fUCBU

First, create a free account at www.episurveyor.org and follow onscreen directions. You can see a demonstration video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aS6R1fUCBU

Where do I download the application for my phone?
Go to www.episurveyor.org/m and click on the model of your phone to start downloading. System messages may pop up depending on your mobile phone and service.  Press "Yes" and "Accept" for prompts requesting access and/or downloading rights.

What's the best way to learn how to use the software?

Read the user guide, and watch the video tutorials! See the links at right for more info.

I don't have a phone, can I still try the software?

Yes, use the Online Phone Emulator, which is software in your browser that acts just like a phone (you can even enter real data). Go to www.episurveyor.org/emulator

You can also create forms at www.episurveyor.org and then click the Preview button, which will show you a live on-screen preview of what your forms will look like.

I want to replace my paper data collection process with EpiSurveyor. Can somebody help me get started?

Absolutely! First, we recommend that you a quick video tutorial. That will give you a good idea about the software. Then email  support at datadyne dot org with a description of what you'd like to do.

I have some ideas for new features for EpiSurveyor. Who do I talk to?

Email your thoughts/questions/ideas to support at datadyne dot org

How reliable and secure is EpiSurveyor.org?

We have taken key precautions to make sure your data is secure, encrypted, backed up, and always available online. Episurveyor.org is hosted by Rackspace.com, a leading provider of hosted online applications. All data transmission uses HTTPS secure protocols.

Where is my data stored?

If you upload your data to our website, it is stored on DataDyne's secure, encrypted servers.  You can choose to store it elsewhere if you wish.

Who owns my data once it's stored on the EpiSurveyor website?

YOU do, of course! Your data belongs to you, and can be seen ONLY by you, unless you explicitly give someone else permission to look at it. DataDyne does not want to own your data, control your data, look at your data or EVER restrict your access to your data.  You are always free, at any time, to download your data to your own computer and delete your data from our site (or delete your whole account).

I don't want to store my data on your servers. What can I do?

No problem: we don't force you to upload the data via our servers. Once you've created a form and downloaded it to your mobile phone (or phones), and then collected data on the phone, you can always download the data from your phone to a memory card, and then transfer it to your laptop or desktop.  If you're an Enterprise user, you can also use the EpiSurveyor API in order to automatically transfer data from our servers to your own servers.

Can I host EpiSurveyor myself?

At this time, there is no way for you to host a copy of EpiSurveyor on your own servers. However, with our API, released in 2010, you can access your EpiSurveyor data from your own software systems.  Paying customers can also host their own version of EpiSurveyor completely on their own servers, at additional cost.  We can also create a custom-branded, "white label" version of EpiSurveyor for you. Ask us at info at datadyne.org.

---

 

Technical and Troubleshooting FAQ

How much memory do I need on my phone?
The EpiSurveyor Mobile client software is about 500k in size, so your phone must allow the installation of applications of that size. Beyond that, the answer really depends on how long your forms are. We've had no problem with forms of 50-75 questions using a Nokia 6300 and its internal memory, and with forms of 150 questions or more using a Nokia E71 GPS phone. Longer forms need more built-in phone memory (not external memory card memory, which doesn't help with this particular issue). When using the application, you might run into one of these memory-related errors (you can avoid these errors b y creating shorter forms or getting a phone with more memory):

• OutOfMemory
• OutOfBound Error
• NullPointer Exception

 

I am having problems connecting to the internet. What should I do?

Contact your cellular service provider to configure the internet settings on your mobile phone.

 

My phone has internet, but I am getting the error message “Could not connect to server. Please try again later.”

The may be two reason why this might happen:

 

1. You don’t have enough credit on your phone, thus you would need to top up the phone credit.
2. The APN setting (which EpiSurveyor uses) is not correctly set.  If so, you can contact your GSM provider to provide you with the settings or you can set up manually.

 
Steps to set APN setting for some common phones

For Nokia Series 40 phones (e.g. 6300)

1. Go into Settings.
2. Go into Configuration.
3. Go into Personal Configuration Settings.
4. Now, press Add New (visible if you don’t have a previous Personal Setting created) or press the Options button. When you have pressed the Options button, choose Add new.
5. When you have pressed Add New, you will get a new menu, which will give several options to choose from.
6. Now, scroll down and choose the Access Point and press Select. (Please note that this option is not available on the Nokia 3220 model and maybe on some more models, you can instead use the Services option instead of the Access Point option on the Nokia 3220.) Do not choose the Web option, since this will not work with EpiSurveyor.
7. Now go into Access Point Settings.
8. Go into Bearer Settings.
9. Go into Packet Data Access Point.
10. Now, enter you APN address corresponding to your provider. Click here to check settings
11. Then press OK.
12. Go back to the Personal Configurations Settings menu, where you now should be able to see an Access Point selected.
13. Now press the Options button, and then choose to activate this Access Point.

 For Series 60 phones  (e.g. n70, 6600, etc)

1. Go to Menu > Tools > Settings > Connection
2. Select Access Points > Options > New access point > Use default settings
3. Name the connection
4. Set Data bearer to Packet data
5. Fill in access point name (APN); click here to check your settings
6. Set Username – check on link above
7. Set Prompt password to No
8. Set Password – check on link above
9. Set Authentication to Normal
10. Set Homepage to whatever site you like
11. Back * 2
12. Select Packet data
13. Set Packet data conn. to When available
14. Leave Access point blank
15. Finished

For E Series phones (e.g. e63, e71 etc)

1. Go to Menu > Tools > Settings > Connection
2. Select Access Points > Options > New Access Point
3. Set Connection Name = GSM Network name
4. Data Bearer = Packet Data
5. Access Point = click here to check settings
6. User name = check on the link above
7. Password = check on the link above
8. Homepage = none
9. The rest of the fields are left to default
10. Click Back to Save
11. When you open EpiSurveyor to connect, Select the new APN you have just set up above

For Sony Ericsson Devices
Follow the steps on setting APN here
For access point, click here to check for your GSM provider settings

 
For Samsung devices

1. Go to Menu > Settings > Browser Settings > Profile Settings
2. Select unused profile
3. Set Profile Name = GSM Network Name
4. Home URL = blank
5. Bearer = GPRS
6. Proxy = Enable
7. Click on GPRS Settings
8. Proxy = leave as default
9. Proxy port = leave as default
10. APN = click here to check your GSM provider settings
11. Login ID = check on the link above
12. Password = check on the link above
13. Click Save

Is the source code for EpiSurveyor.org available?

Yes and no:

• episurveyor.org -- In 2010 we released an API (Application Programming Interface: a portion of the EpiSurveyor code) that allows other developers to connect their software with EpiSurveyor, but we have no plans to release the full source code. The API description is at http://datadyne.org/episurveyor/api

• the EpiSurveyor J2ME client -- yes, the full code for our J2ME mobile phone client, which is built on the framework of the JavaROSA open-source project, is available.

• the EpiSurveyor Android client -- yes, the code for our Android client is available, and is based on the excellent work done in the ODK project at the University of Washington

• the EpiSurveyor Windows program -- yes, the software for the older, Windows-based EpiSurveyor is available at sourceforge.net/projects/episurveyor/

• the EpiSurveyor Palm OS client -- yes, you can also find the source code for the Palm client at sourceforge.net/projects/episurveyor/ (note: the Palm OS client does not work on the Palm Pre or the Palm Pixi, both of which runs WebOS, not Palm OS).

But why won't you let me see the source code for the website??

Our target audience for EpiSurveyor are regular people, not programmers or technologists, and regular people don't read source code.  We are following the model of the web applications that we all know and love: Hotmail, Yahoo Mail, Google Maps, Gmail, Facebook, Flickr, etc, etc, etc. All of those programs are "closed" and provide great free functionality. We want to be the Gmail of data collection. :-)   If you happen to be a programmer, and like to read source code, please have a look at our API in the menu at right -- so you'll be able to connect your software with ours.