Collecting Data Using Technology During COVID-19 With Havuta

One lesson we have learned from the painful COVID-19 pandemic and the tailwinds caused by the health impact and the economic impact of lockdowns and other virus-curtailing measures is the value of getting data quickly and regularly when things are changing quickly.

Compounding this is the need to remain socially distanced. The coronavirus pandemic has created a perfect storm: distance making data collection more onerous and a devastating health and economic crisis making data collection more important than ever.

Havuta’s data collection solution caters to both face-to-face and remote interviewing. That flexibility has allowed organisations to gather data from their beneficiaries, communities and other stakeholders through self-completed surveys that are easy to send, easy to complete, and incentivized to encourage participation.

Our digital infrastructure is still building: we are working on developing ways to allow assisted self-completion or interviews across the internet — all powered and verified by blockchain technology.

But most importantly, the use of self-completed quantitative surveys has allowed organisations to conduct critical studies and obtain critical data despite the constraints of distance.

And while we all hope that the socially distanced world won’t become the norm, 2020 has shed some light on what is possible:

• Self-completed data collection is viable and generates high quality data if the right technological measures are in place to verify data collection geography and time to complete
• Incentivized subjects make for well motivated panels and excellent sources of data
• Involving stakeholders in decision-making remains crucial and remains possible with the use of mobile and internet technologies

The pandemic has posed many complex problems. But it needn’t result in foregoing data collection. What COVID-19 has shown is that the technology that keeps us connected in normal times is highly effective at keeping us connected in unusual times, and can be deployed to fulfill functions that cannot otherwise be accomplished.

The need to collect data doesn’t stop when it becomes more difficult to collect in traditional ways, and innovative organisations are embracing the promise of Havuta’s technological solutions.

Website | LinkedIn | Twitter | Medium | Telegram | OpenSea | YouTube