SSG Facilities

The expansion of our physical facilities is a testament to SSG’s rapid growth. Since SSG was founded in 2004, we have expanded our offices three times to accommodate new personnel, technology, and services. In addition to this current infrastructure, we routinely investigate new technology and potential collaborators in order to provide support for large, unique, or complex projects.

Office Space

Our 5,500-square-foot, state-of-the-art headquarters are located in downtown Ann Arbor, Michigan—a major hub of survey methodology research. Our offices house all of the technology needed to make your research successful, including a telephone center, monitoring stations, and a dedicated server. They also boast multiple spaces for meetings, presentations, and qualitative investigations (such as focus groups, usability testing. and one-on-one cognitive interviewing).

Telephone Center

The SSG telephone center is equipped with both the staff and technology to meet the most advanced survey needs. We use a Voice-Over-Internet protocol (VOIP) that is equipped for both inbound and outgoing calls and a computer-assisted telephone interviewer (CATI) system that that seamlessly integrates data from telephone and online instruments. Our well-trained staff is equipped to field surveys and provide respondent support during the daytime, evenings, and weekends. The call center accommodates 14 interviewers—with room for further expansion, as needed.

Technology

  • Internet Surveys System: SSG’s internet surveys use the DatStat Illume survey product, widely regarded as a leading online datacollection system. Its dual-server system features Microsoft Server 2003 and uses Microsoft SQL as a database back end. All external connections to our system are encrypted by 128-bit Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) technology.
  • Sample-Management System: SSG is uniquely equipped to manage sample information and data. Our custom sample management system provides a sleek interface between the study sample, the interviewer, and the datacollection system. Since our CATI system utilizes the same back-end survey engine as our web-based surveys, we are also uniquely equipped to integrate multi-mode data.
  • Servers: In order to safeguard your data, SSG’s servers are fully redundant and backed up every 24 hours (at minimum). They are supported in a data center equipped according to industry standards, including an auxiliary power source. All data stored on SSG’s system are further protected by stringent security measures. Access to our servers is restricted by physical and logical barriers, and SSG-networked computers utilize firewalls and password protection.

 

Facilities