In this article
Note: The Concurrent Sampling functionality is an add-on and is subject to payment.
In a normal sampling task, each sample is calculated from the available resources (the panelists that have not yet been selected for other jobs) with no awareness of the requirements of any following samples. This process is called Sequential Sampling, and the result is that the first samples extracted have first rights to the resources. As later samples are extracted, the pool of resources in certain categories may be exhausted leaving none available. The sample selection operator would normally attempt to look ahead at the sample jobs in the queue, and make manual adjustments to the earlier job specifications so that some scarce respondents will be available for later jobs. This process is dependent on the skill of the operator, but is also rather crude and imprecise. Furthermore, comparison of such jobs, presumably of equal priority, is very difficult.
The Concurrent Sampling functionality processes multiple sample selection jobs simultaneously. Each job will have a different selection criteria and structure, with different target sample counts, based on output or returns, and will make the trade-offs when allocating scarce panel resources. The result in this case will be that scarce resources are allocated fairly across multiple sample jobs.
Go to the Sample Management > Concurrent Sampling menu command. The Concurrent Sampling window opens - .
Figure 1 - Example of the Concurrent Sampling window
The window contains two main areas:
- Concurrent Sampling List – lists the concurrent sampling jobs that are currently available to be run.
- Concurrent Sampling Job List – the jobs that have been selected to be run in the concurrent sampling task.