Strategic Intelligence in Statistics Finland
3rd Nordic Marketing Conference
13.-15.6.2005
Tuula Hausmann
Targets of SI in Statistics Finland
To create a system which produce and communicate relevant
information about the operating environment of Statistics Finland
 Focus on monitoring the operating environment necessary for Statistics
Finland’s management and particularly for strategic decision-making
 To help to set strategic targets, re-evaluate strategy and attain strategic
goals
 The aim is to improve Statistics Finland’s capabilities to function
efficiently, productively and proactively
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Why SI in Statistics Finland?
The production and communication of SI in a systematic way
creates essential preconditions for strategic management
 improves the ability to set and re-evaluate strategic targets
 improves preconditions for total quality management
 improves knowledge of the information market and it’s “drivers”
 improves to identify new and potential needs of customers
 creates preconditions for the development of new statistics/services
 creates preconditions for proactive management
 helps identification of emerging threats and opportunities, etc.
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Monitoring of the operating environment in Statistics
Finland
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International operating environment
(meetings of DGs/specialists, international networks, organisations,
conferences/seminars etc. in the field of statistics)
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Domestic administration
(meetings of DGs/specialists, co-ordination in the field of national statistics etc.)
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Information market
(customer management and customer feedback systems, key account
manager system, customer satisfaction survey etc.)
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Interest group relations
(meetings of DGs, advisory board of SF, various expert groups etc.)
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Public image
(media monitoring, image-surveys etc.)
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Strategic intelligence -system (2003 -->)
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SI versus other monitoring activities
Prevailing monitoring systems offered a good starting point to the
development of the SI-system.
 SI -system doesn’t offer a substitute to the other monitoring systems.
Rather it helps to fill certain gaps and brings more systematic approach
to the whole monitoring of the operating environment.
 The purpose of the SI process is to intensify, to deepen and to
systematise the monitoring of the operating environment
 SI-system is expected to reduce overlapping work, to intensify
dissemination of intelligence and competence as well as learning of the
personnel and the total organisation.
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Key elements of the portal application
User-friendly, web-technology-based application
 Two-way exchange place for intelligence content
 One window to needed content
 Tools for retrieving, adding, editing and communicating content
 Users can personalise the portal to best suit their individual needs
 Focus on relevant, structured, filtered and organization-specific content
 The portal is hosted and maintained by Novintel
 100 users of the portal in Statistics Finland (heavy users 40 %, more or
less occasional users 40 %, passive users 20 %)
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Information categories in the SI-portal
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1) Politics and public administration
 Policy programs, domestic legislation, central government (ministries and
authorities), regional government, research and education etc.
2) EU/international
 EU-legislation, EU -institutions, EU soft law development, Eurostat, European
Statistical System, Countries/NSIs, International Statistical Organisations, etc.
3) Information market
 General economic development, supply of information, use of information, private
sector customers, Competition in the information market, Statistical topics, etc.
4) Resources
 Human resources, Raw material issues (register and survey issues, confidentiality,
information security), ICT, Statistical methods, etc.
5) Critical/Strategic themes
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Society’s megatrends, information society, e-government, electronic data collection
and dissemination, new information services, role of statistics in the decision making
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Information architecture of SI/Statistics Finland
1) Politics/ public administration
Market
signals
Reviews
& analysis
Strategic
documents
2) EU/ international
3) Information market
4) Resources
5) Critical/ strategic themes
Relevant news sources,
business news services,
www-pages etc.
Scenarios, strategydocuments etc.
Theme- and market
analysis, documents,
benchmarking
reports, briefings etc.
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Production of content to the SI-portal
In-house production of content (appr. 10 power users)
 Outsourced production of intelligence content (Novintel)
 Search machines etc. (technical tools that help the production of content)
 Focus on relevant information (human involvement)
 Categorisation of the information (3 -level categorisation)
 Info architecture is based on analysis of operating environment
 Main information sources (news services, www-pages, domestic and
international networks etc.)
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Monitoring of international environment
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EU statistical legislation
All available commission documents of public interest, Official journal of the European
Union, recent proposals not yet included in the Directory etc.
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EU and national statistics policy news
News service of EU institutions (Eurostat news service, ECB news service, Rapid etc),
Semiofficial EU News services, Newspaper and news database services (Factiva, etc.)
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OECD Statistics policy news
OECD Newsletter, OECD Briefing, OECD Forum, OECD OLIS News etc.
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Statistical policy news from United Nations and its organisations
UN Statistical Commission, DESA News, ECE News, IMF Statistical Topics, World Bank,
ILO, WHO, Unctad, WTO News etc.
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News from different national statistical offices
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Building of SI- process at Statistics Finland
The preliminary definition phase project in spring 2002
 The implementation phase project (April - June 2003)
 The pilot phase (May 2003 - February 2004)
 Submission of SI-portal to open tender (December 2003)
 Launching of permanent SI-activity (February-March 2004)
 Maintenance and development of the SI-process (March 2004 -->)
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SI can be used for
regular news&views -analyses
 theme -analyses from different strategic themes
 market area reviews; information industry trends etc.
 ad hoc analyses/reports for special purposes
 interactive management team discussions and seminars
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each user to her/his own purposes
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SI - user -satisfaction survey (November 2004)
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necessity of the monitoring of the operating environment, yes 42 *)
content of SI-tool - relevance to Statistics Finland, yes 42
content of SI-tool - relevance to users own work, yes 39, no 2
categorisation of the information - fit for use, yes 41
SI-tool - easy to use (in technical meaning), yes 42
need for technical assistance for users, yes 5, no 37
the main way of using the SI-tool, alert & email 32
content of the SI-tool is relayd to colleagues, yes 27, no 14
need for special SI-products, yes 21, no 18
are you interested to produce content to the SI-tool, yes 7, no 30
*) out of
42 answers, the survey was sent to 100 users of SI-tool
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SI customer inquiry, customer comments
“Broadens the viewpoint of one who works alone”
 “Keeps one well up-to-date with statistics-related issues”
 “Serves well as distributor of documents”
 “SI is part of daily monitoring of events”
 “Fights against introversion, narrow-mindedness and ‘Statistics Finland
centricity’”
 “The main benefit from the system is systematicity of the monitoring”
 “Information content has developed favourably after the pilot stage”
 “I get every day some essential information about the field”
 “I utilise the tool in all day-to-day management”
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