GEIS is a program for creating and running electronic interviews without the need for a high level programming language. Instead, a text script is used to define all aspects of the interview.
Rapid interview development is achievable without the need for a professional programmer. Development of all aspects of a survey is done by the person most likely to understand the survey objectives — the survey designer.
Interviews may be conducted within GEIS using a number of modes, currently including CATI (Computer-Assisted Telephone Interview) and IVR (Interactive Voice Response), and email and CASI are also possible. Questionnaires are scripted using a common script syntax in all supported modes.
The GEIS script contains all the information needed to define the interview, including: question texts including variable-texts; answer-option texts and codes; range check information; logical question-branching information; interview termination status information; DO-loop information; and IVR information including key codes and voice message information. The GEIS script also provides a standard, non-proprietorial, open method of project documentation. This means that comparisons between survey projects can be achieved by publishing scripts. The script is thoroughly checked by GEIS for logical or syntactical errors. Since the GEIS interface is entirely specified by scripting, programming resources can be redistributed to more productive areas, such as reporting, quality control, and system integration.
In the current version the survey data are accumulated within SAS data sets. The data may be analysed immediately they are collected using SAS. GEIS can handle very large data sets and any number of interviewers but interview responsiveness is not affected by questionnaire length nor survey size.