The scantron corporation has made a proposal to the small graduate
institute I work for to supply an optical scanner, software license
and a service package that can turn our trimester surveys into data
with ease.  But it seems Scantron corp is trying to sell us too much. 
the offer is priced at 9 to 20 thousand dollars.  We do not need the
capability for expansion nor is time of the essence when deciphering
the surveys.
Here is what we need:
we need to be able to input about 1300 to 1800 sheets/surveys, each
with less than 20 multiple choice questions, per trimester.  the data
needs to be entered into our database program, 4-D, but it is
acceptable if it can be read into Excel, for conversion into 4-D. 
Time is not of the essence and we would be willing to wait a month
before receiving the results.

The question comes in two parts: 1, are there companies or
organizations that we can contract with to send out our test forms for
conversion into data at a price significantly lower than scantron's
lowest offer?  reliability is quite important but absolute reliability
is not imperative.  the idea of sending the surveys out and simply
receiving the data is very appealing as long it is a simple process.

2, are there companies that may do what we want at a significantly
lower price than scantron's offer? There are other companies online
like www.academytechnologies.com and datablocks, which offer scanners
with free software or combinations of services.  But it is difficult
to tell if they offer all of what we need and are reputable companies
with quality scanners.  the software for the former company converts
to a form that can be converted to excel--that seems very bulky, since
we must then convert it to 4-D.

Pearson inc. appears to only have the capacity to print forms, yet
they have told us that they will soon make a proposal.

We are not looking for frills and we don't need the ability to read
handwriting.  we want a simple method of digitizing 1300 to 1800
surveys 3 times per year.  please help
a price comparison would be much appreciated

http://www.datablocks.com/productsRMof.htm
Google Search: survey scan excel

This is significantly less than $9000
(http://www.datablocks.com/RMofpricing.htm), and if you have a page
scanner with Automatic document feeder, it'll probably be decent
enough for your job.

You might consider getting the complete Magenta Package to create a
form, though it doesn't seem to be necessary for use with the Remark
Office.

The simplest way is to pay some students peanuts to key in the data
for you. If the forms and database are designed for efficient data
entry, and you have less than 20,000 keystrokes, a 30wpm typist should
be able to do the job in less than a day, easily.

Owain

Why don't you just negotiate with a Back-office outsourcing company.
It would prove to be extremely cheap and can be completed very
quickly.

My mother used to work for a company that does exactly what you're
looking for.  It is called Research Data, Inc., and they can handle
any part (or all) of the process from designing forms, printing forms,
collecting data, reporting data, and/or analysis of the surveys.

I'm not posting this as an answer, because it doesn't address your
second question as to if there are cheaper and yet still reliable
optical scanners out there -- I don't know the industry well enough to
speak on reliability.

If you think this satisfies your question in whole, please let me know
so I can post this as an answer.

Research Data Inc's web site: [http://www.researchdata.com/]
  - Click on "Services" and then "Data Collection"

As for pricing, I did a quick Google search for RDI, and came across a
procurement sheet for a university utilizing RDI's services, and it
implies that scanning of two-sided 8.5"x11" surveys with "low
verification" would run $.97 apiece.  Thus, you should expect a price
around $1500 for your range of surveys each trimester if the surveys
resembled this (full page two-sided).  I would expect the cost to be
lower for single-sided or smaller surveys.

The VCU procurement sheet showing pricing for RDI's services:
[http://www.vcu.edu/procurement/contracts/UCP-001-04_CSS.pdf]

--Joey

You can get a nice software package such as
http://www.omniform.com/omniform/ and scan them on any tray fed
scanner.  This should be much cheaper.  If also presents less security
concerns than having students key in data.