1. SDMX at the BIS – from the core to the boundaries
SDMX at the BIS – from the core to the boundaries
Heinrich Ehrmann
Head of Statistical Information Systems, BIS
SDMX Global Conference
Addis Ababa, 2-5 October 2017
The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the BIS or the SMDX sponsors.

2. SDMX usage in a nutshell
SDMX usage in a nutshell
use attributes to drive calculations
VTL for expressions
mapping from XBRL ?
input processing
EXCEL templates
mapping
transformation
exchange formats
information model ==> storage model
structure validation
“reporting universe” validation
search/retrieval
VTL for validation
“calculate” attributes
aggregation

3. Core features and their current usage
Core features and their current usage
.… storage model
common set of tables containing metadata (SDMX IM)
common set of tables for config/access control (BIS specific)
dataflow specific sets of tables for each Dataflow (SDMX IM)
…. exchange format
almost all data exchanges with the BIS data providers and recipients are based on SDMX formats
remaining cases are transformed to SDMX with simple pre-processing scripts

4. Core features and their current usage
Core features and their current usage
.… provisioning of (new) dataflows
validate and load metadata (concepts, DSDs, codelists, … )
create tables for dataflow(s) (generated from metadata)
add complementary config information (manual/interactive step per dataflow)
validate and load data (routines are generated at runtime)
search/retrieve/disseminate data (interfaces and routines are generated at start-up/runtime)

5. New features (work in progress)
New features (work in progress)
.… storage model
add constraints, hierarchical codelists and structure maps to the common set of tables containing metadata (SDMX IM)
…. further automation of data processing
make use constraints for validating the reporting universe
make use of hierarchies to calculate aggregates
generate EXCEL reporting templates (using related metadata) process input data from EXCEL templates
make use of structure maps to convert between DSDs
expose data via SDMX Restful webservice
expose data via ODBC interface (table-valued functions generated from metadata)

6. Outlook (pending progress of SDMX roadmap 2020)
Outlook (pending progress of SDMX roadmap 2020)
use VTL for communicating and implementing calculations
integrate entity-level data (e.g. instrument level data)
map to/from neighbouring exchange standards (e.g. XBRL)
extend “attribute based calculations”

7. Limits of automation (work without progress)
Limits of automation (work without progress)
.… use attributes for calculations
only the simple cases of standardised homogenous attributes lend themselves for automatic usage in calculations (e.g. “observed” – indicating the max-/min-/sum-/end-of-period characteristic of an observation)
standardisation and semantics of key attributes like “UNIT” are typically not up to a level that allows programmatic use
…. create attributes via calculations
even for homogenous components of an expression statisticians find it hard/impossible to specify algorithms that would set the resulting attributes (e.g. averaging across 10 confidential observations)

8.
In summary …
SDMX is tremendously useful for the BIS statistical data processing of aggregated data for the core phases as described by the GSBPM
extending the processing to entity level data is (not yet) a smooth fit to the SDMX information model – but progress is under way
automatic use or creation of SDMX-attributes in calculations - still a vision -

9. Thank you Heinrich.Ehrmann@bis.org +41 61 280 6754 (office)
Thank you
(office)
(mobile)