MEMO 9 February 2012 1(4) INFORMATION SERVICES Petteri Baer Marketing Manager P.O.Box 2B FIN-00022 Tilastokeskus Puh. (+358 9) 1734 2345 Fax (+358 9) 1734 2279 Mobile (+358 50) 551 2309 e-mail: petteri.baer@stat.fi Pr e se n tations on disse m in a t io n , co m m u n ica t io n a n d m a r ke t ing of statistica l in f o r m a t io n f o r t h e u se o f t h e G SI M Spr int 1 Wor ksh o p , L ju b lja n a 2 0 . 2 . – 2 . 3 . 2 0 1 2 1. Developing our Service Abilities - Strategic Challenges for Statistical Agencies. Presentation prepared for the IAOS Conference, Session 3, “User demands for official statistics”, Shanghai, China, 14 October 2008, Petteri Baer, Regional Adviser, UNECE This presentation includes the main point of my perception of the strategic importance of dissemination and active marketing as one of the core functions of any statistical agency, which is willing not only to produce its statistical information but also to disseminate it in a systematic and active way. Different user categories need very different kind of statistical services, so there is no successful way in understanding the challenges of dissemination to be solved in only one, general way. Segmentation and differentiation in approaches is needed, if one wishes to be successful and really build developing user and customer relations. 2. Is Marketing and Dissemination a Strategic Function for a National Statistical Agency? Group work preparation prepared for a Training Workshop on Marketing and Disseminating Census Resulsts and Statistical Information, Doha, Qatar, 3 - 7 October 2010, Petteri Baer, Marketing Manager, Statistics Finland Strategic or non-strategic is the discussion theme with the aim to convince participants that marketing and dissemination are strategic functions. At the end of the presentation some quotations of statements of different national statistical agencies can be found, out of which the last one, from Croatia, has a pretty good formulation on the issue. 3. Official Statistical Information - A key source for monitoring development and allocation of resources. Presentation prepared for a Training Workshop on Marketing and Disseminating Census Results and Statistical Information Doha, Qatar, 3 - 7 October 2010, Petteri Baer, Marketing Manager, Statistics Finland The theme of the presentation is finding ways to communicate the importance of statistics and statistical information to high level decision makers, so that they error! number cannot be represented in specified format. 16.2.2016 2(4) would better understand the fundamental importance of statistical information in their decision making. The presentation builds on another one, given by the UNECE Statistical Division’s Director Heinrich Bruengger in Berlin in November 2007. 4. Effective Communication of Indicators and Statistical Information Presentation given at a Training Workshop on Marketing and Disseminating Census Results and Statistical Information – Rehearsal Session, Doha, Qatar, 3 - 7 October 2010, Petteri Baer, Marketing Manager, Statistics Finland The materials highlight the importance of understanding that different users and customer groups have different needs concerning statistical information. That is why a key element to build up systematic dissemination activities is about listening to users and potential users, not just bluntly to drown them with product and service materials. The second theme in the presentation is the search for efficient communication methods and tools and also ways of expression. The third theme is about different basic visual presentation ways of statistical information, certainly better presented in UNECE’s “Making Data Meaningful, Volume 2”. 5. New Communication Tools and National Statistical Agencies Presentation given at a Training Workshop on Marketing and Disseminating Census Results and Statistical Information, Doha, Qatar, 3 - 7 October 2010, Petteri Baer, Marketing Manager, Statistics Finland No meeting on communication takes place today without discussing the role and importance of social media. Here is a kind of basic introduction to it, as social media still seems to be a tabu for unexpectedly numerous statistical agencies. Better experience than my very basic presentation can be derived from e.g. Stephen L. Buckner’s two presentations in two UNECE meetings in Geneva last summer (Steve knows and probably has access to these) and also from the tiny Statistics Estonia, which has accumulated substantial experience in this field (Contact persons would be Ms Tuulikki Sillajoe and Ms Aira Veelmaa). 6. From simple user lists and Excel spreadsheets to a sophisticated CRM Sy stem Presentation given at a Training Workshop on Marketing and Disseminating Census results and Statistical Information, Doha, Qatar, 3 - 7 October 2010, Petteri Baer, Marketing Manager, Statistics Finland The presentation introduces the idea of doing systematic and active dissemination work. It is not sufficient only to post the information materials on the agency’s web site and hope that users and potential users will find them. Initiatives for contact building should come from the agency itself - and then we are back at the things covered in presentation 4. above. We have to learn to know more about our users, about their need structures for statistics. In addition, this intelligence should beaccessible for other relevant staff members in our organization, when needed. For contact building there are nowadays numerous good tools available, Customer Relationship Systems (CRM) being one of the most important ones. We need to have the contact information intelligence in an easily accessible system; otherwise, not very much proactive contact building will be done. We need to know exactly which persons are important in the obtaining/purchasing decision making chain and every now and then important persons should be both informed and invited to PR error! number cannot be represented in specified format. 16.2.2016 3(4) occasions and the like. Also for doing serious research on user and customer satisfaction contact information is needed in a systematic way. These are the reasons for the necessity of introducing and making use of a sophisticated CRM structure, software and orientation of doing the communication work. 7. Building Relationships with Users Systematically - A big Strategic Challenge for Statistical Agencies Presentation prepared for a Training Workshop on Marketing and Disseminating Census Results and Statistical Information, Doha, Qatar, 3 - 7 October 2010, Petteri Baer, Marketing Manager, Statistics Finland The presentation provides information about why Statistics Finland already at the end of the 1990’ies made the decision to obtain a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) System, how this system is structured and what kind of functions it performs. 8. Building Relations with the Media – With examples from Statistics Slovenia and Statistics Finland Presentation given at a Training Workshop on Marketing and Disseminating Census results and Statistical Information, Doha, Qatar, 3 - 7 October 2010, Petteri Baer, Marketing Manager, Statistics Finland The presentation introduces different interaction and communication structures with the media. It also discusses the reasons and the different cultural backgrounds for possible conflicting approaches of statisticians and media professionals to statistical information, which should be apprehended in order to make the interaction smoother. Practical examples of advice and recommendations for ways of communication with the media, accumulated by experience in Statistics Finland, are also presented. 9. Strategic Intelligence / Business Intelligence A presentation on the Business Intelligence system used in Statistics Finland since the year 2002 for a systematic follow-up of the operational environment of the statistical agency. Presented first during a visit of Director Siu Ming-tam from ABS to Finland and later for the UNECE Statistical Division. The existing Business Intelligence system has technically been developed pretty much from the time of this presentation, but the basic ideas and functions remain in tact. Due to the fact that Statistics Finland’s main “raison d’etre” is not doing business, we have named our system “StatIntelligence - the Strategic Intelligence System”. 10. The Utility of Data - From a User Perspective Keynote presentation of professor Denise Lievesley at the European Conference on Quality in Official Statistics, Helsinki, Finland 3–6 May 2010. Professor Lievesley discusses relevant themes in relation to user needs of official statistics - relevance and quality. She poses the question - “Are we too shy?” and perhaps modest in bringing out our materials in a more digested and analytic way, which apparently would serve user and customer needs better that is usual today. error! number cannot be represented in specified format. 16.2.2016 4(4) 11. Satisfying Customer/User needs from a Quality Perspective Presentation by Christina Cronsioe, Marketing Manager, Statistics Sweden at at the European Conference on Quality in Official Statistics, Helsinki, Finland 3–6 May 2010. Ms Chronsioe shortly presents the tools Statistics Sweden’s is making use of in their approach to find ways to satisfy user and customer needs for statistics. error! number cannot be represented in specified format.