Colectica and Statistics Netherlands Announce Partnership to Build Standards-based Survey Design Software

Minneapolis, MN and Heerlen/The Hague, Netherlands May 25, 2016

Colectica and Statistics Netherlands have agreed to enter into a long term partnership starting with building two software products. These products will allow survey researchers to build surveys faster, to leverage metadata standards, and to generate rich documentation and reports. The tools will improve transparency into the data capture process.

Blaise Colectica Visual Survey Designer will offer an intuitive survey design surface and questionnaire palette, allowing survey designers to build questionnaires without learning a domain specific language. Surveys designed with this tool can be fielded using Blaise 5 on the desktop, on the Web, and on mobile devices. The software will store questionnaire specifications using open standards, and can connect to metadata repositories and question banks powered by Colectica software.

Blaise Colectica DDI Connector will convert Blaise 5 data models to and from the Data Documentation Initiative’s (DDI) standard for documenting surveys and statistical data.

This partnership will make it possible that more types of users will be able to use Blaise 5 with less training and less programming knowledge required. This leads to faster Survey Development and this is enhanced by the possible use of a Question Bank and standardized DDI metadata. I’m very pleased with this partnership.

Harry Wijnhoven MSc, Member of the Board of Directors and pCIO of Statistics Netherlands/CBS and CEO Blaise

The survey design tools will launch at the 17th International Blaise Users Conference (IBUC). IBUC takes place from 4-6 October 2016 in The Hague, Netherlands.

About Colectica

Launched in 2010, Colectica® is the fastest way to design, document, and publish statistical research using open data standards. The Colectica Platform is an ideal solution for statistical agencies, survey research groups, longitudinal studies, public opinion research, data archivists, and other data centric collection operations that are looking to increase the expressiveness and longevity of the data collected through standards based metadata documentation. The company offers a range of highly specific products and services designed to give power to people through easy integration and access to data.

About Statistics Netherlands

Statistics Netherlands (CBS) is the independent provider of high quality, coherent, public statistical information about all sectors of the society in the Netherlands. It provides official statistics, statistical services and products for a large national and international community. One of CBS' products is the software suite Blaise. Blaise is a powerful and flexible software package suitable for creating computer assisted surveys.