2.4.4 Choosing tools

Many different tools can be used for analysis of data coming from quantitative data collection. To see things a little more clearly, you may want to ask yourself specific questions that can guide you in the choice of a tool, and look at your constraints reducing available options:

• Connectivity: If you have low connectivity, you will not be able to use online websites to do your analysis.

• Skills: you will need to choose a tool that can be set up and maintained and used by your teams to ensure sustainability. Think about technical staff but also end users (people producing or using analysis)

• Budget: if you want to set up a stylish online dashboard, this could entail costs that you might not have planned and budgeted for.

• Organizational IT infrastructure & guidelines: Make sure that the tool is in line with any guidelines or IT organization constraints that might be existing (i.e. developing an Excel with macros when macros are automatically deactivated on the laptops used by your organisation)

• Data protection: Make sure that the tool respects any data protection measures necessary, based on the sensitivity of the data you are analyzing and sharing.

For data specifically coming from mobile data collection (and more widely - quantitative collection), you can consult section 9 Analysing your data of the Mobile Data Collection toolbox composed of a section to help you to choose your analysis tool and another section which focuses on how to use and how to import your data from your MDC tool to your analysis tool .

As a quick recap, there is various types of tools that can be used for data analysis (refer to the document for more details):

• Online Tools
  • Analyser on your MDC Website
  • Online dashboard such as PowerBI, Tableau
  • Collaborative tools such as google sheets

• Offline
  • Excel (using pivot tables, charts)
  • Advanced statistical packages such as R, SPSS, Stata
  • BI desktop application such as PowerBI, Tableau