ELECTRONIC DATA COLLECTION SYSTEM Howard Hamilton 2 Contents

ELECTRONIC DATA COLLECTION SYSTEM Howard Hamilton

2 Contents • What is e. Da. CS? • Why e. Da. CS? • How will it benefit STATIN? • How the system works? • Who will own it? • Where are we now? • When did e. Da. CS go into production?

3 What is e. Da. CS? • A data collection system • Will utilize portable/mobile devices such as Tablet Computers to collect data • First Phase: • Consumer Price Indices (CPI) • Producer Price Indices (PPI) • Labour Force Survey (LFS)

4 What is e. Da. CS? • Second Phase • Survey of Living Conditions (SLC) • Household Expenditure Survey (HES) • Adhoc Surveys

5 Why e. Da. CS? • STATIN has always been a paper-based operation

6 A paper-based operation

7 It greets you in the walk way

8 In the individual offices

9 Gets Worse!!!

10 Then we try to put some order to the paper!!!!

11 Still more order!!!

12 We vacuum the paper!!!!

13 It started in the field…

14 Difficult to check….

15 Difficult to manage….

16 Why e. Da. CS cont’d? • There is high demand for more timely data and information • Some questionnaires are complex and require a significant amount of paper and data processing resources • STATIN is in the process of redesigning and reengineering its business processes • Using the technology enables the innovation and automation of the business processes • We are in an information and technology era – which if leveraged effectively could reduce agency costs

17 How will e. Da. CS benefit STATIN? • Two major dimensions of benefits: • Internal - STATIN • External – the public & clients

18 How will e. Da. CS benefit STATIN? • Internal Benefits Include: • Enables a greener organization – use less paper • Reduction in cost • Improve the quality of data and information • More timely delivery of final results from surveys • More accurate data from the field • Improved skill sets for field staff • Training and use of technology • Easier to backup data – paper becomes vulnerable in disasters – paper becomes fuel for fires • May be able to administer more than one survey simultaneously if necessary • Lift the profile of the interviewers and ultimately the Institute

19 From…. .

To Less Paper…. 20

21 Less Paper

22 How will e. Da. CS benefit STATIN? • External Benefits Include: • Higher quality statistical products • Improved timeliness and accuracy • Ability to meet international standards such as the special data dissemination standard (SDDS) • Need to produce LFS within 12 instead of current 16 weeks • CPI is on time and meet international standards but we will also realize time savings here • PPI needs to be improved in terms of timeliness – 4 weeks from 8 weeks • Expect that an interview should take less time, therefore reducing interviewee fatigue

23 How the system works? Remote Office STATIN Head Office Remote Office STATIN WAN

24 How the system works? Interviewers collect data on Tablet Computers Upload Data to Server Download Data from remote sites CPI STATIN’s Databases PPI Servers at Remote Sites PPI LFS CPI LFS Data stored IT Staff

Data Collection 25

Data Collection 26

27 Who Will Own e. Da. CS? • The Field Services Division will take ownership of the system • IT Division will maintain and support the system • Other areas will use the outputs from e. Da. CS

28 Where are we now? • System Development completed • Training done during Nov. 19 & Dec 7, 2012 • Remote offices setup and configured • Wide area network (WAN) also established • Interviewers equipped • Now in the field collecting data for the start of 2013 • IT staff prepared to offer support

29 When Did e. Da. CS Go Live? • e. Da. CS went into production on January 2, 2013 – first work day of 2013.

Looking Forward to IT…!!! 30

31 Thank You !!!