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Applications Alternatives

    Survey Information Technology Experts

Information Technology Survey Experience

 Applications Alternatives specializes in providing Information Technology expertise for the processing of informational surveys for both government and commercial end user organizations. We have the following experience:

 2004 - Present: For the Decennial Management Division, U.S. Bureau of the Census, Applications Alternatives is participating in the development of a SAS Intranet based reporting system of the status of Decennial Census survey tests.

 2002:  For the Maryland Adolescent Survey (MAS) project, Applications Alternatives developed an I.T. based data cleaning and reporting application.

1996 – 2001: Applications Alternatives provided IT applications expertise for the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) as a subcontractor to Westat, Inc, for AHRQ of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. MEPS provides comprehensive information about health care use and costs in the United States by collecting data on the specific health services that Americans use, how frequently they use them, the cost of these services, and how they are paid for, as well as data on the cost, scope, and breadth of private health insurance held by and available to the U.S. population. For MEPS, Applications Alternatives designed and developed a receipt control system in Microsoft Access tracking the processing of Medical Provider forms as they moved through the editing and CADE processes; designed and developed a SAS generated reporting system for field staff; performed SAS programmed data cleaning of survey data; performed SAS programmed imputation, editing, and reformatting of survey data for final delivery to the client.

 1998-2001: Applications Alternatives was responsible for processing six customer satisfaction surveys for Xerox which included the design and development of computer applications that supported them. We developed the survey samples from large (over 1M records) data files of product and service records by randomly selecting cases in distinct sampling categories using Foxpro programs. We developed the survey forms, formatted as templates, and generated them in Word where each customer was identified on each survey form. We then printed the surveys, prepared envelopes for mailouts, and mailed the surveys out. When received from the respondents, we keyed both the entries in check boxes on the forms and hand written comments. We took these survey results and produced reports, in Excel, that showed numerical summaries of the survey results as well as graphic representations.

 1995 – 1996: Applications Alternatives provided IT applications expertise for the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) as a subcontractor to Westat, Inc, for the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) of the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). NHANES provides current statistical data on the amount, distribution, and effects of illness and disability in the United States by collecting information about the health and diet of people in the United States. For NHANES, Applications Alternatives performed tests on the data collected, as directed by the NHANES survey specialists, for verification and review, using SAS programs and procedures. As a result, editing of the data was accomplished using SAS programs. When the data was finalized it was reformatted, using SAS, into datasets that were ready for delivery to the NCHS client.

1988 – 1994: Applications alternatives designed and developed the Customer Satisfaction Measurement System (CSMS) application for Xerox’s marketing division. Using Base SAS and SAS/AF, an interactive application was developed to allow for the drilling down of customer satisfaction data by end users. We developed SAS based editing programs that took the keyed survey data and edited and reformatted it, loading it into indexed SAS files in a mainframe environment. From there, a SAS/AF front end took data requests from users and generated SAS reports that were available on CRTs or in printed form. These reports showed totals, percent satisfied by month and in rolling 3 month averages, by product category, region, and time frame. The application processed 10,000 report requests per month from 400 users. The application included 57 formatted reports as well as free-form reports that were generated by using user entered parameters. The CSMS application contributed to Xerox receiving the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award in 1989.

Applications Alternatives has also developed a proprietary survey application tool for customer satisfaction surveys that drastically reduces the development time for the processing of survey results. Developed in Microsoft Access, the Customer Satisfaction system reads formatted text files containing survey results that can contain a varied number of questions, responses for each question, and unique question names. It generates a historical database and produces structured reports and graphs of the results. The results include a significant difference calculation that aids the user in determining whether changes in satisfaction from one time frame to another have any true meaning.

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