1. 30 September 2010 Sami Saarikivi
Revision project of the Business Register (BR) and business statistics in
30 September 2010
Sami Saarikivi

2. Background / Results from the present status description (1)
Overlapping work is made between different business statistical systems/units
Data copies are made and data are processed differently
Changes are made to several different databases or in the worst case errors are corrected only in one place!
Different definitions in different databases/production systems
Unit structures (establishment, enterprise, etc.)
Industry, sector, turnover...
→ Inconsistent statistics

3. Background / Results from the present status description (2)
Change pressures for comprehensive development of the data system are also produced by:
Statistics Finland's operational strategy and strategy for economic statistics
International regulations and decrees
The previous data system revision was made in
→ The technical service life is coming to an end

4. Information Services

5. BR into the core of data on enterprises – timetable for 2009-2014

6. YR45K project organisation in 2010-2014
Steering group
Top authority and project marketing
Tasks in 2010
YR45K
To plan a joint production database for business statistics
To plan and advance the creation of warehouse of data on enterprises
Sub-project:
YR50E
To plan and implement a system for receiving administrative data
Main project
(YR45K)
Project Manager 1 + members
Help when needed
Other
experts
(e.g. support group from IT and Business Structures units during the defining phase )
Sub-project1
Project Manager 2
+ members
Sub-project n
Project Manager n
+ members

7. Collected results of the BR desired state
System part
Key development targets
Benefits to be gained
Reception of administrative data
Utilisation of metadata
Process management
Variable editor and editing
Intensification / Introduction of uniform practices to pre-checking of data
Direct data collections
Uniform tools
Facilitation of responding
Improvement of quality and intensification of activity
Databases
Adoption of the enterprise concept
Uniform production database
Improvement of quality
International comparability
Non-response and response burden get smaller
Application programs and processing of data
Intensification of processing (decrease of applications)
Introduction of a process management application
Warehouse of data on enterprises
Uniform location for data on enterprises
Basic data search
Comparison of data
Coherence of statistics
Statistics and products
Introduction of a unit information service (Internet)
Adoption of a chargeable target group definition service (Internet)
Improvement of customer service
Yritystilastojen yhteiset asiat
Yritystietovaraston määrittely
Yritysten suhdanteet / Yritysrekisteri 7

8. General workflow of receiving administrative data
Statistics production begins

9. Problems and challenges of the present situation (Reception of administrative data)
Although the reception processes contain the same phases, they are not uniform. That is, overlapping work is done
Risks and ineffectiveness are caused by
Person dependency
Non-uniform modes of operating (e.g. data copies), overlapping and differing error checking
Lack of transparency
Varying technical solutions
Deficiencies in data descriptions

10. Solution
A uniform process-controlled system will be developed for receiving administrative data.
Utilisation of metadata
The system helps to manage reception of data until the start of statistics production
Data descriptions are saved
Responsibility data are saved and the progress of the project is followed
Pre-checking of data is made on the basis of the data description
Data are saved for the use of statistics production

11. Benefits Benefits from the project are Intensification of activity
Reduction in overlapping work
Improving the transparency of the data process
Unification of technical solutions and modes of action
Reducing person dependency
New possibilities to divide work
Uniform practices for the whole of Statistics Finland
This year for business data
To be extended in coming years to individual data, too

12. Metadata related to receiving administrative data
Data concerning the data flow
E.g. who delivers, who is responsible at Statistics Finland, where the files go to, with what name, how often, where transferred for further processing
Data concerning the receiving process
Tasks needed for receiving the data, their order, whether performed successfully and when
Data concerning the data content
E.g. names and descriptions of variables, location in file, length, validation rules, ranges of variation, expected number of data records

13. Information Services
17/05/2018

14. IT solutions in
Due to long-term development, IT solutions are made separately in sub-projects
The ICT strategies of state administration and Statistics Finland are followed, e.g.
Use is made of uniform application development tools,
SAS is primarily used for statistical data processing and tabulation
The Microsoft.NET environment for user interface and database processing.
Sybase databases are transferred to Microsoft SQLServer
→ Use of the PowerBuilder application is discontinued
If necessary, application development is purchased externally
Use is made of the XML-based statistical metadata system
Information Services
31 August 2010

15. Further information about the revision:
Mr Sami Saarikivi,
tel
Thank you!
Business Trends / Business Register
17/05/2018