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?

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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)

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What is eDaCS?• Second Phase

• Survey of Living Conditions (SLC)• Household Expenditure Survey (HES)• Adhoc Surveys

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Why eDaCS?

• STATIN has always been a paper-based operation

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A paper-based operation6

It greets you in the walk way7

In the individual offices

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Gets Worse!!!

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

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Still more order!!!

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We vacuum the paper!!!!

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It started in the field…

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Difficult to check….

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Difficult to manage….15

Why eDaCS cont’d?• 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

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How will eDaCS benefit STATIN?• Two major dimensions of benefits:

• Internal - STATIN • External – the public & clients

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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

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From…..

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To Less Paper…. 20

Less Paper21

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

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STATIN WAN

Remote Office Remote Office

Remote Office 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 StaffSTATIN’s Databases

Download Data from remote sites

Data stored

CPI

LFS

PPI

LFS

PPI

CPI

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Data Collection25

Data Collection26

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

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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

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

work day of 2013.

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Looking Forward to IT…!!!30

Thank You !!!

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