1. Second year of User Support
Dissemination Working Group meeting 23-24/11/2006
Norbert REINERT & Henric ANSELM

2. Introduction
First level: Online Help
Second level:
National ESDS Team
Third level: ESDS Team
Conclusion and improvement objectives

3. First level: Web site Online Help
Access to Help Pages:
First visit
Links
FAQ’s: Frequently Asked Questions
Metadata: SDDS
(Special Data Dissemination Standard)

4. Second level: National ESDS Team
ESDS and the grant scheme
Until September 2006: 20 countries,
Portugal and Switzerland under Gentlemens agreement
Since October 2006: 22 Countries, Switzerland still with Gentlemens agreement

5. General findings
Total number of requests during the second year was
An increase of 9% compared to requests for the first year.
Please bear in mind that the contractual years, with the National Statistical Institute (NSI), are running from 1 October until 30 September of following years.

6. Country
Q4: 2004
Q1: 2005
Q2: 2005
Q3: 2005
Total
Q4: 2005
Q1: 2006
Q2: 2006
Q3: 2006
Czech Republic
142
182
176
109
609
153
227
195
125
700
Denmark
237
226
232
165
860
181
220
190
135
726
Germany
2345
2287
2655
2488
9775
2051
2485
2203
2188
8927
Estonia 40 38 51 62
191 46 57 52
193
Greece 55 99
110 71
335 93
112 90 80
375
Spain
328
261
275
145
1009
152
290
249
175
866
France
206
216
217
178
817
268
269
168
858
Hungary
n/a
107
189
151 67
514
Italy
530
668
566
455
2219
512
525
332
316
1685
Cyprus
n/a. 17 16 5 15 13 60
Latvia 96 77
253
143
121 63
502
Lithuania 44 22
167 66 76 68 18
228
Malta 19 29 35 28
160
Netherlands
231
130
101
637
180
283
221
851
Poland
104
185 91
600
Portugal 34 50
199 20 78 54
192
Slovenia 41 42
166 25 43 36
126
Finland
105 74
371 87
407
Sweden
320
1064
202
229
811 UK
696
656
560
564
2476
742
995
920
942
3599
Norway 65 70 61
256 33 59 49
Switzerland
117 85
404
354
Eurostat directly
767*
711*
272
326
2076
197
257
494
446
1394
5511
5722
5729
4955
21917
5183
6773
6341
5569
23866
* = higher figure due to technical problems known during the two first quarters after the free dissemination policy was implemented.

7. Type of requests (1/2)
Requests related to the availability of data and publications increased from 62% in the first year to about 70% during the second year.
Methodological requests are still about 10%.
Technical requests and demands for the verification of data decreased slightly.
This change can be explained by more familiarity of many users with the Eurostat Internet Site and also better documentation of statistical data and a more stable IT environment.

8. The user groups which use the Eurostat Internet Site for a longer period, such as the users from NSIs and international organisations required less support.
Compared to the first year, requests from:
NSIs decreased from 13% to 2.5%
EU institutions/Agencies decreased from 7% to 0.4%
International Organisations decreased from 4% to less than 1%
Type of requests (2/2)

9. Request treatment About 54% of the requests were dealt with by
, either sent directly to the NSIs (36%) or sent via the Eurostat portal (18%).
The requests which were answered by phone, increased to 42% during the third quarter.
Please note that a phone service is offered by the majority of the NSIs mainly in line with the support given on national statistics.

10. Types of users
Requests from the Commercial company/enterprise sector increased from 25%, in the first year, to 40% in the second year.
Student or Academic sector is stable with about 30%.
The two sectors together represent 70% of the requests during second year - compared to about 55% in the first year
As in the first year, 93% of all requests are addressed in English

11. Third level : Eurostat ESDS Team (1/3)
Central Support
National Statistical Institutes Support

12. Third level : Eurostat ESDS Team (2/3)
Although most requests are answered within the stipulated deadline (24 hours for standard requests and 5 working days for complex), Eurostat tries to speed-up the internal response time.
One concrete action is the implementation of internally centralized functional boxes (at present 27 are implemented).

13. Third level : Eurostat ESDS Team (3/3)
A vast majority (63%) of the support requests required the specific competence of the Eurostat production units. This shows a clear trend that the users have less general problems but have more and more in-depth questions.
Involvement of the different Eurostat units in treating the complex user requests (including three requests forwarded to other DGs) is shown in the following table.

14. Total Origin Treatment by
End users
NSIs
B6 team
NSI
Units
Q4: 2005
791
577
214
197
228
366
Q1: 2006
979
677
302
257
465
Q2: 2006
726
494
232
140
205
381
Q3: 2006
709
446
263
153
108
448
3 205
2 497
1 011
747
798
1 660

15. Feedback from users (all suggestions are carefully analyzed)
User suggestions, for improval, received from both NSIs and end users
(all suggestions are carefully analyzed)
Increased number of positive comments and feedback

16. Website of NSIs Pertinent information Clear information on free access
Some NSIs have very clear information on free of charge and chargeable activities
Good selection of links to Eurostat website or other useful sites

17. Outlook for the future Continuation of the grant scheme?
Eurostat strives to have an even more harmonized level of quality
Trainings
Experiences concerning the grants claim

18. Thank you for your attentation!
Dissemination Working Group meeting 23-24/11/2006
Norbert REINERT & Henric ANSELM