Market Research

VANCOUVER, February 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Techneos announces today that the American Legacy Foundation(R)'s Schroeder Institute for Tobacco Research and Policy has selected its SODA(TM) platform to power an innovative study examining the effectiveness of mobile phone support for the D.C. Tobacco Quitline. The project is funded by a $977,346 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) under a prestigious program for which only about two percent of all applications received funding.

The SODA(TM) Mobile Access Platform is the first research software of its kind. SODA(TM) has the capacity to engage participants in a brand new way which extends beyond simple questions and answers. Capabilities including social media tools, photo capture and GPS/location capture are now enabling the unprecedented tracking of choices, thoughts, movement and patterns.

Beyond the capacity to run on a wide variety of mobile phones such as BlackBerry, Nokia, Android, Windows Mobile and other Java-enabled devices, the SODA(TM) solutions suite equips customers with the entire infrastructure required to create, deploy and manage multi-lingual wireless insight and engagement programs on mobile devices.

"Typically in research, people are questioned about their thoughts, opinions, moods and behavior," says Sean Conry, VP Business Development for Techneos. "What's exciting about this project is that Legacy's Schroeder Institute, Dr. Thomas Kirchner and their research collaborators are closing the gap by initiating dialogue with their participants. They won't just take information, they'll provide it too. Our software will enable people to access details about their very own smoking habits on demand. They'll even be able to reach out to others in their situation to share their experience and ask for advice. We've never seen a project of its equal."

"This application of the SODA(TM) solutions suite represents a new era in mobile research, wherein two-way communication and greater participant engagement in the mobile process will help researchers to obtain the most intimate and salient insights possible," says Dave King, CEO for Techneos.

About Techneos

Founded in 1995, Techneos provides mobile survey, customer and enterprise feedback, panel and community management solutions to Fortune 500 firms, global market research organizations, government and academic institutions around the globe. With clients in over 50 countries and support for over 200 languages, Techneos provides the world's most advanced survey software for mobile phones, PDAs, netbooks and other mobile devices. Techneos software may be licensed for installation within a client's own IT infrastructure, or as a hosted SaaS offering.

For further information on Techneos, please visit http://www.techneos.com.

For more information on the American Legacy Foundation and this study, visit http://www.legacyforhealth.org/3246.aspx.

For further information: Samantha Singh, Director, Marketing, ssingh@techneos.com, Tel +1-604-435-6007 x111