RangeGate improves World Bank survey cycle from 8 months to 1 day in world-first

Datatec subsidiary, RangeGate South Africa, has cut the World Bank`s quality-of-life survey data capturing cycle from eight months to a single day and its total report completion cycle to two months with a world-first locally developed mobile solution.

"Turnaround time is vital for our economic planning programmes," says Washington DC-based Bala Rajaratnam, senior econometrician, cluster survey, at the World Bank. Rajaratnam, who heads up the survey programme in South Africa, says the World Bank - the largest multi-national financial organisation in the world - started with its quality-of-life survey in Johannesburg in May at the request of the local government.

"These surveys, which measure non-income poverty factors as well as access to services, are undertaken in order to track poverty levels and to help the International Monetary Fund plan its aid programmes," says Rajaratnam. Speed and data integrity are critical for the information gathered to be useful: "Previously," continues Rajaratnam, "Using paper-based methods, it took up to eight months to complete this type of survey and data integrity was not guaranteed."

Quality-of-life surveys entail 25 field workers and their supervisors completing questionnaires with a representative sample of 5 400 people. Previously, each questionnaire form would have had to be input manually, the data correlated, checked for errors and only then turned into a full report. With RangeGate`s solution in place field workers are equipped with mobile Palm devices running RangeGate`s custom developed field survey application. Emphasising the anywhere, anytime, real-time advantages of the solution, Andrew Fosbrook CEO of RangeGate says, "Our electronic survey forms and real-time wireless synchronisation capability enables field workers to complete and submit questionnaires while in the field. Not having to return to the office to enter information and reconcile data means surveying becomes a considerably more dynamic, flexible, accurate and faster process. With the Palm automatically synchronising all collected data into the World Bank`s back-end systems, analysis and data collection become an almost simultaneous endeavour."

The speed of data collection has an immense impact on the World Bank`s work. "Our data previously reflected the situation on the ground of a year ago," Rajaratnam says. "Now, with our reduced data collection and report production time, we can program our aid packages to address near- real-time issues as they occur. This means we no longer risk allocating resources to problems that have already been solved or transformed by the time we are ready to act. Survey conclusions are always only as valuable as the freshness of the data collected and, of course, there is nothing fresher than real-time information"

Data integrity is also guaranteed by RangeGate`s solution. "Traditional paper-based questionnaires are notorious for missing entries or illegible handwriting," Rajaratnam says. "RangeGate`s field level integrity checking does not allow a data capturer to proceed with a query unless all relevant fields are correctly filled." For example, only a four-digit amount can be entered for monthly food spend, ensuring that obviously incorrect values resulting from data input errors are automatically weeded out at the data collection stage.

"The software can also detect outliers - extreme observations that are not the norm - which can skew econometric data," says Rajaratnam. For example, 10 houses in a street might be below the poverty line, yet the 11th house might belong to a millionaire. Expressed as an average, this might produce a mean income for the street that does not reflect reality. The software identifies such exceptions and they can be treated accordingly.

"The ability to detect errors instantly also means data capturers can be contacted immediately and, if needs be, asked to redo a survey before leaving a location - something which would have been impossible when errors could only be picked up months after survey completion," Fosbrook adds.

Another positive outcome is that annual survey report production times will continue to improve next year and in subsequent years, due to the aggregation of data and profiles that will then exist.

"This project is being watched very carefully by the World Bank`s donors, as this South African solution has revolutionised the way surveys are undertaken. I expect this new model for surveying to soon spread across the globe," Rajaratnam concludes.