ELECTRONIC DATA COLLECTION SYSTEM Howard Hamilton

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

What is eDaCS? 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) 3

What is eDaCS? Second Phase Survey of Living Conditions (SLC) Household Expenditure Survey (HES) Adhoc Surveys 4

Why eDaCS? STATIN has always been a paper-based operation 5

A paper-based operation 6

It greets you in the walk way 7

In the individual offices 8

Gets Worse!!! 9

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

Still more order!!! 11

We vacuum the paper!!!! 12

It started in the field… 13

Difficult to check…. 14

Difficult to manage…. 15

Why eDaCS contd? 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 16

How will eDaCS benefit STATIN? Two major dimensions of benefits: Internal - STATIN External – the public & clients 17

How will eDaCS 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 18

From….. 19

To Less Paper…. 20

Less Paper 21

How will eDaCS 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 22

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

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

Data Collection 25

Data Collection 26

Who Will Own eDaCS? 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 eDaCS 27

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 28

When Did eDaCS Go Live? eDaCS went into production on January 2, 2013 – first work day of

Looking Forward to IT…!!! 30

Thank You !!! 31