The Importance of User Relations for a Modern National Statistical Agency

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The Importance of User Relations for a Modern
National Statistical Agency

• Presentation given by Petteri Baer at the Seminar
  on Dissemination
• NBS Moldova, Chisinau 27 May 2010

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Director General Heli Jeskanen-Sundström
Advisory Board of Statistics Finland
Scientific Advisory Board
Co-operation Committee
Advisory Board of the Library of Statistics




Secretariat of Director General
SocialStatistics
Econo-micStatistics
PricesandWages
Popu-lationStatistics
BusinessTrends
BusinessStruc-tures
Management Services
Information Services
Library of Statistics
Interview andSurvey Services
IT and Statistical Methods
Statistical Research and Methods
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Statistics Finlands services, 1/3

• Online services
• in total around 120,000 web pages
• Publications
• Roughly 90 publications per year. The majority
  are also available in electronic form
• Software products
• Geographical information, statistical tables,
  classifications etc.
• Classification services
• Handbooks and applications

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Statistics Finlands services, 2/3

• Special compilations
• Tailored compilations from existing Statistics
  Finland data or by collecting new research
  material
• Interview and research services
• Commissioned surveys and compilations according
  to customers needs
• Training in statistics
• Training on statistical methodology, graphics and
  reading and user skills. Tailored courses for
  customers
• Business Register
• E.g. address data of enterprises for marketing
  purposes

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Statistics Finlands services, 3/3

• International consulting in the field of
  statistics
• Expert help in developing statistics
• Regional service offices in Turku, Tampere,
  Seinäjoki and Oulu
• Offer all the services of Statistics Finland
• Library of Statistics
• National central library of statistics, open to
  everybody
• Information service
• Information service queries by telephone or e-mail

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Good user relations are important, because

• Only used statistical information is useful
  information
• Statistics is mainly not produced for the
  archives
• If statistics does not serve as a tool for
  decision making and helping to understand
  on-going phenomena, it has failed its core
  function

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Basic statistics - an infrastructure of modern
society

• Basic statistical information is a tool for
  safeguarding democracy
• In order to participate in decisions of society,
  citizens should have access to basic information
  on structures, development
• Statistics serves decision making
• This infrastructural service of basic statistical
  information, often generates demand for more
  sophisticated and customized statistical
  information on additional topics and phenomena
• More labour- and/or investment-intensive
  statistical services and service products are
  usually chargeable

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In a world with growing information overflow a
tough question is

• Will Official Statistical Agencies in the future
  have the role of a key provider of
• correct, objective, non-partial, non-biased,
  understandable, comparable and easily accessible
  information, relevant to stakeholder and user
  needs?
• Or will they degenerate into
• under-funded producers of historical data,
• having a limited role as a background source for
  users mainly in public administration and in
  institutions of economic and social history?

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User relations are of strategic importance

• The question of the development of services,
  development of modern service products,
• the questions on marketing and dissemination of
  statistical information
• Both are questions of a strategic importance for
  any National Statistical Agency.
• They are not just side functions or minor
  activities.
• They are questions about the future of any
  statistical agency.

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Proactive is the magic word

• Statistical agencies need a well balanced,
  proactively communicative and professionally led
  and administered comprehensive approach to the
  development of their information services
• The information services are, together with the
  data collection and production of statistical
  information, one of the CORE FUNCTIONS of any
  statistical agency
• Reference is made to the
• Fundamental Principles of the UN
• The Generic Statistical Business Process Model,
  developed by the UNECE and Eurostat

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The importance of user friendly Database services

• Statistical agencies produce quite a lot of
  statistical information
• Different users have different aspects of
  interest, they want information
• By industries, By enterprise sizes
• By regions
• Comparisons over different time periods
• International comparisons
• And numerous other aspects
• PC-Axis, PX-Web User friendly services!

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In the East European countries

• the top layer of the state administration is
  usually well served with statistical information
• Presidents office
• Ministries
• Central Bank
• But what about other stakeholders?
• District and local administrations needs?

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The media is our partner

• In disseminating the main results of all your
  agencys hard work on statistics
• In making problematic issues known
• Help the media to be well informed!

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Relations with the business community difficult
but rewarding

• The business community is a much broader target
  group than often believed
• Banks
• Insurance companies
• Big corporations
• Medium sized enterprises
• Chambers of commerce
• Branch organizations
• Employers organizations
• Foreign companies
• Etc.

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The research community aspects for building
good relations

• Co-operation in methodological development
• Recruitment of new statistical professionals
• Promoting the use of statistical information in
  general
• Continuous pressure for providing good metadata
• Finding ways for a broader use of microdata
  without violating confidentiality

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Other important stakeholders and users of a
statistical information

• Libraries
• Educational institutions
• International organizations
• Non-governmental organizations (NGOs)
• Trade unions
• Social issues
• Environmental issues
• Information brokers
• Information service agencies
• Business intelligence systems
• Knowledge managements systems

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The importance of good contact information

• User lists
• Existing customers and contacts
• Regular and heavy users of economical statistics
• Contact directories
• Feedback contacts
• ? Contact / Customer database
• ? Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

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For good user interaction at least a Customer
Database is needed

• For contacting
• For surveys on satisfaction or dissatisfaction
• For presenting new targeted services
• For other forms of interaction

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Statistical agencies profit much from active and
critical feedback (1)

• Having more feedback will help us to develop our
  services
• Interaction with critical customers will help us
  in having a positive pressure on performing
  better

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Statistical agencies profit much from active and
critical feedback (2)

• A demanding customer is like a grain of sand
  within the mussel. It doesnt feel good but the
  result may be a beautiful pearl!
• Thank you for your attention!
• petteri.baer_at_stat.fi