A .Net component for processing a scanned questionnaire?

Question

I am looking to incorporate scanning as a way of collecting feedback from paper questionnaires in my desktop application (a feedback management app).

Questionnaires are completed using tick or cross marks as well as free text. The questionnaires are designed using the applications' designer.

I am looking for a components that will pick out the responses and allow me to tie them back to question numbers so I can save the feedback to the database, aggregate and analyse it.

Looking at some survey software companies, they appear to offer scanning capability with off the shelf scanning software like Remark http://www.gravic.com/remark/officeomr/. Outside of the question of cost, is there a reason to prefer something like Remark to (kind of) rolling your own by using a component?

Would appreciate your ideas as to your experience with .Net componets for this as well as Remark type software.

Many thanks

AbsFabs

Answer 1

Ultimately cost is the big factor here, and it takes many forms.

• Cost to aquire a component vs building your own
• Cost to maintain your component vs ongoing license/contract costs
• Cost of your time trying to workaround shortcomings in a purchased component
• etc

Really, any pro or con ties back to cost. The major tradeoff is aquisition cost vs flexibility. A 3rd party solution will almost always be cheaper, but is never truly as flexible as a solution you build yourself. You have to assign some kind of value to what you'll gain by doing your own solution, and weigh that against the price of the commercial solution. (And you can certainly assign value to the learning experience of doing this yourself).

I don't know if you're working for a for-profit company, a non-profit, or if this is an academic project. But in any case, spending time or money on an economically less efficient solution will cost you money or opportunity (being able to move on to another project, or put more into this one).

I have no personal experience with Remark, but have faced this decision many times. In my experience, I typically find that a commercial component from a reputable developer that does exactly what I need is a better value than a home-grown solution. You'll get well tested code that will drop right into your app, letting you move on to the next challenge.