ELECTRONIC DATA COLLECTION
SYSTEM
Howard Hamilton
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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 operation
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It greets you in the walk way
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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….
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Why eDaCS cont’d?
• There is high demand for more timely data and
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•
•
•
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…..
To Less Paper….
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Less Paper
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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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How the system works?
Remote Office
Remote Office
STATIN Head
Office
Remote Office
Remote Office
STATIN WAN
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How the system works?
Interviewers
collect data on
Tablet Computers
Upload Data
to Server
PPI
Download
Data from
remote sites
CPI
STATIN’s
Databases
CPI
Servers at
Remote Sites
PPI
LFS
LFS
Data stored
IT Staff
Data Collection
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Data Collection
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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.
Looking Forward to IT…!!!
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Thank You !!!