With extremely limited access to the Internet in many remote and rural areas in Africa, the Middle East, South and Central Asia and Latin America, offline data collection is a necessity. Surveys are also tailored to include features that allow interviewers to adapt to changing realities during fieldwork without the need to synchronize devices online.

RCS allows for complete and comprehensive back-checking and interview verification, be it completed onsite or centralized, in-person or over the phone. RCS back-checking and re-contact surveys allow for supervisor follow-up to ensure interviews occurred correctly. In combination with live access to data, back-checking ensures potential issues in data quality are caught early and stopped immediately, saving time and money.

RCS leverages device-based GPS receivers so the exact location of the survey can be captured offline when the app is in use. Location is then monitored to ensure interviews occur in places they are required. GPS monitoring can also be enhanced through geofencing: setting location parameters (specific coordinates and radius around the area) within which interviewers must be present, and automatically flagging data collected out of range.

In many locations around the world, it is difficult to employ fully tablet-based surveys due to security and crime concerns. RCS can be customized to support interviewing on smaller, more discrete phones that aid pen-and-paper research. Such tools include GPS coordinate collection, photo taking, and instruments programmed to assist with household enumeration and respondent selection.

Even the most complex of surveys can be programmed in RCS. Where a question type does not exist, the platform hosts an open editor for analysts to code new functions in JavaScript. Complicated filters, startup functions, logic routing, looping, randomization, rotation dynamic test, and split samples can seamlessly be incorporated into any questionnaire.

All projects have access to a standard web portal that allows productivity monitoring, basic data analysis, and access to datasets and other information captured in field.

Beyond the standard portal, RCS can be tailored to meet the exact output needs of the user. Customized portals have also been created to include automatic report generation and monitoring of fieldwork by interviewer, date, location, and key demographics, without access to PII. This provides clients with a fully transparent view of how their projects are moving forward.

RCS can collect various types of data, including standard listed and open-ended questions; single and multi-answer variables; text and numeric variables, battery options; looped questions and looped sections; page-by-page or question-by-question timestamps; altitude readings; audio, photo, and video capture and display; GPS coordinates; and digital signatures. RCS is even capable of linking with external applications and devices as need for a project (for example, fingerprint scanners and Bluetooth printers). Collection of personally identifiable data will vary with local laws and respondent consent.

Translations in RCS are included in the same instrument and can be switched at any point in the survey as needed.