1. Accelerating the Centralisation of Data Collection at the Australian Bureau of Statistics Jenine Borowik, Adrian Bugg, Bruce Fraser Program Delivery Division, ABS 2017 Seminar on Statistical Data Collection Geneva, Switzerland, 25-27 September 2013 jenine.borowik@abs.gov.au

2. ABS Data Collection ABS Offices in 7 states and 2 territories 3 decades ago each state did all of its own collection Individual survey areas each centralised in one location (eg. Tourism in Queensland, Agriculture in Tasmania) Each survey area ran its own collection activities: –Design and build survey forms –Mail out and receipt –Managing reminders / follow-up –Sample management –Data entry

3. Drivers for Centralisation of Data Collection Activity Rapid expansion in availability of data Increased expectations and requirements from the users of ABS statistics Community expectations for more convenient and consistent data collection approaches Community expectations for productivity improvements from government agencies

4. Electronic Collection Australian Electronic Transaction Act (1999) Expectation that ‘eforms’ would be available Excel versions of survey forms and electronic secure deposit box Standardised Business Reporting (2006) modelled on Netherlands approach XBRL Online forms for Australian 2006 Population Census 2009 first online business survey form 2011 Population Census 2011 Agricultural Census 2012 Proportion of Monthly Population Survey (labour force) 2013 eight business surveys

5. Traditional Collection Workforces for household and business surveys and Census Centrally managed, geographically split, domain split Access to labour markets across Australia Telephone collection operations for Business Surveys – 3 locations Household survey collection home based workers Large Census workforce recruited across Australia Dispatch and Data Capture unit for paper forms Workforce and sample management Collection Instruments and tools Collection methods and procedures

6. Accelerating Centralisation Organisational Structure –Progressively centralised –Inclusion of Census in same division as Collection and Dissemination Corporate approaches to –Policy (example - workforce health and safety) –Infrastructure - all transformation to be done within the Transformation Group –Enterprise Architecture –Workforce design –Capabilities (people, process, systems, methods, standards, other) Electronic forms –Significant real savings to fund transformation –Use of existing software –Translate now, transform later –High take up rates for business respondents –Big challenges but strong progress

7. Accelerating Centralisation International collaboration – acting as an industry not a collection of organisations Strategic partnerships Common generic statistics production GSBPM GSIM MethodsTechnology Statistical Concepts Information Concepts Statistical HowTo Production HowTo conceptual practical

8. In Summary Long journey Recent acceleration driven by strong business needs Industrial strength and quality Ability to change rapidly