• Two-way and three-way cross-tabulations
• Fully-labelled 'hard-copy-format' output with ranking, percentaging options, etc.
• Spreadsheet output including formatted Excel (XLS) files.
• High-quality graphs
• Output transfer by cut-and-paste or industry-standard files
• Correspondence analysis
• Data screening
• A.I.D.
• Speciality features for media surveys

High performance:

• Very high speed (up to 200,000 respondents/second)
• Very large datasets (big samples, long questionnaires)
• Compressed database files

Ease of use

• Standard Windows 'look-and-feel' for quick familiarisation.
• Powerful menu management allows quick searching for required data.
• Full labelling in data menus eliminates ambiguity
• Save tasks in "report folders" to simplify management and recall

Flexibility

• No aggregation of data: every response to every question by every respondent is held in the database.
• All questionnaire data accessible, in all combinations.
• Rows and columns selectable as:

• complete variables (e.g. 'sex', 'age', 'marital status');
• individual groups from variables (e.g. 'men', 'age 50+', 'divorced');
• ad hoc definitions (e.g. 'unmarried men aged 50+ with no dog or cat').

• Table filters (bases) definable as any combination of attributes (as for ad hoc rows).
• Data not predefined is still accessible.
• Customisable.

• Many features (page format, percentaging, weighting, etc.) user-selectable.
• Data dictionaries may be edited and re-organised.
• Individual users may create their own private dictionary extensions.
• Interactive definition of new variables.

Statistical capabilities

• Quantities (e.g. expenditure, number of visits) can be accumulated.
• Hierarchical data sets supported.
• Weighting. Supports up to four alternative user-selectable weight sets for any database. Can be disabled. Unweighted counts also available when weighting is used.
• Significance testing (including weighted data).
• All statistical measures (e.g. standard errors, 95% confidence limits, c ² include allowance for the effect of weighting.
• Automatic adjustment of weighted estimates (optional) where a subset of the sample relates to a subset of the time period of the survey either explicitly (specific weeks/months) or implicitly (e.g. question added/dropped part-way through the fieldwork).

Data management

• Automated software and data installation.
• Simple database management (limited number of files)
• Access rights for individuals (to a database or parts of a database) may be customised
• Data security

• Databases encrypted to prevent extraction of individual records
• Sensitive data attributes may be protected to prevent identification of respondents

Support

• Comprehensive on-line help with full searching, plus full hard-copy manual.
• In-built introduction/tuition/demonstration programme.
• For registered users:

• free internet downloads of software updates
• telephone/fax/e-mail help-desk.

Licensing

ASTEROID uses a unique database design which can be produced only by Roy Morgan Research or by an authorised agent. The fee for producing the database includes unlimited use of the user software, there is no more to pay. You may make copies of programmes and documentation for use within your organisation.

Technical Information

Hardware: Any IBM-compatible PC, Pentium or better, minimum RAM as recommended by Microsoft for your operating system.

Operating System: Windows 95, 98, Me, NT4, 2000 or XP.

(Windows 3.1x, MS-DOS and DEC VMS versions also available on request).

Installation: single-user or networked with unlimited simultaneous users.