Session IV-

Use of administrative data for data collection

-Statistics Belgium

Geneva, 31 October – 2 November

Agenda

• Administrative simplification techniques

• E-government– XBRL standard– Architecture

• Main results

• Lessons learned

Administrative simplification techniques

• Administrative simplification techniques– Before 2008:

• Gold-plating– Checking to what extent national surveys are in line with

European statistical demands• Questioning fewer enterprises

– Reducing sample size by using estimation procedures (threshold…)

• Changing survey frequency– Reducing frequency

• Avoiding double questioning– Information already known to public administrations is not

asked for twice (administrative sources)» Such information is removed from the questionnaire

– Using authentic sources

Administrative simplification techniques

• Administrative simplification techniques– Before 2008:

• Avoiding double questioning:

• Conclusion– Variables should be deleted only when entire sections of the survey form can be

deleted. – Randomly deleting variables from parts of a questionnaire should be avoided as

much as possible.

 Positive Negative

Enterprises

- shorter questionnaire- Reduced administrative burden- more time for core business

- Short-lived satisfaction- Enterprises still have the impression that Statistics Belgium is asking for the same information twice- Filling in a questionnaire is more complex as the logical structure is lost after simplification- More ex-post contacts are needed with enterprises

Statistics Belgium

- Fewer complaints about the burden - Consistency problems between survey data and administrative sources

Administrative simplification techniques

• 3 questions needed to be answered:– How can we still delete variables from parts of a

questionnaire when the information is already available in an administrative source?

– How can we further reduce the administrative burden for enterprises?

– How can we ensure greater consistency between data from administrative sources and survey data?

• Solution = E-government– XBRL standard

– Uploading information directly from the enterprise software

– Pre-filled questionnaires

E-government

• XBRL standard– Electronic reporting language based on XML

(open standard) for the exchange of business data through the internet, limiting operations as much as possible

E-government

• XBRL standard– Taxonomy

• Xsd schema + 3 xml files (linkbases)– Xsd schema = type of dictionary in which elements are

defined once • Linkbase:

– Label linkbase: 4 languages– Reference linkbase: references– Presentation linkbase: tree structure of documents– Calculation linkbase (formula linkbase): order of operations

– An Instance• Form with values

E-government

• “Form-based” approach– Starting point: defining the content of the

questionnaire, related definitions and explanations

• Mapping needs to already existing taxonomies – External (national) consistency (NBB, Ministry

of Finance)– Internal consistency

E-government

E-government

E-government

• Mapping needs to administrative or statistical sources– Consistency between data from different public

administrations or from different statistics

• Investigating whether the information is directly available within the enterprise without requiring any transformation– Uploading information from the software– Taking into account data types

E-government

• Investigating whether the information is directly available within the enterprise without requiring any transformation– Close cooperation with federations and

software vendors• Federations:

– what are the most common software tools?– Promoting XBRL upload

• Software vendors– Information on software products (content)– How are data ‘presented’ in the software?

E-government

• On the basis of mapping information, information from Federations and software vendors, we create the needed DTS– through a taxonomy editor or through SAS

procedures

• If it is possible to upload from software systems, the taxonomy is published on our website + the technical protocol and versioning– http://statbel.fgov.be/xbrl/

• Testing phase (about 3 months) for software vendors before the launch of the survey.

Architecture

• Main functionalities – Based on the XBRL standard– Generic (all (non-) dimensional taxonomies)– Uploading instances directly from software systems– Manual encoding in automatically generated web

pages– Instant validation

• Business rules through XPath (no use of Formula Linkbase)• The SAS-procedure generates a txt-file with validation rules

– PDF report– Standard ETL to export data into DWH– Benchmark reports

Architecture

• Main functionalities – Pre-filling all data known (mapping)

• Based on the mapping results, items to be pre-filled are identified

• Pre-filled data are often:– Annual accounts (e.g. SBS)– Social Security (e.g. SES, Job vacancy…)– Data from other questionnaires (e.g. Producer Price Index)– Business register (all surveys)

• Pre-filling possible through the creation of a plain file with data to be pre-filled

– Independent of data source– Converting into a txt-file through the SAS-procedure – Architecture does not need to be modified if a new data source

is available– Not only data from administrative sources are pre-filled, but

also data from other surveys

Architecture

FOD Economie

DB systemsFOD Economie

Taxonomy Management

FOD Economie Business rules, enterprise data,

translation management

FormsXBRL

Taxonomies

XBRL Instances (complete)

XBRL Instances

(incomplete)

DB2-PureXML

WebSurvey XBRL System FOD Economie Survey Mailing/Post System

External GUI- Authorisation- Manual keying of XBRL Data - Uploading XBRL intances- Saving XBRL instances- Printing XBRL instances

XBRL Instances ValidatIon and

Business Rules Validation

TransformationBatch process

NBB

FOD EconomieUser 2

FOD Economie

DB with NBB data

DatEnq (internal users) &

eDatEnq (external users)

System

Follow upInterface

User Management

Interface

FOD EconomieUser 1

Internal GUI- Authorisation- Manual keying XBRL Data- Saving XBRL instances- Printing XBRL instances

Belgian Companies

Off-Line Forms Generator

Off-Line XBRL Instance Generator

Taxonomy & Enterprise list loading

Business rules loading

Main resultsChanges

  Before 2008 After 2008

For Statistics Belgium

Application tailored to one survey Generic tool for different surveys

Labour-intensive manual task Flexible process

Avoiding double questioning by deleting itemsAvoiding double questioning by pre-filling

questionnaires

Strong reliance on IT Greater autonomy

Almost no answers through a web formAbout 96% of answers through a web form or

upload

Costly process Cost-effective process

Major inconsistency between survey data and administrative sources

Consistency between survey data and administrative sources

For enterprises

Unclear link with administrative sourcesExplicit link between the questionnaire and

administrative sources

No upload possible Uploads possible from the software

Manual process Pre-filled web form

Ex-post corrections Online corrections

Lessons learned

• Lessons learned– Absolutely necessary to share a unique identification

number for enterprises– Upload: need to block pre-filled data– Push-on-the-button solution

• Price of the solution• Stability of the questionnaire• Real simplification

– Sharing a standard among different administrations– Consistency checks for pre-filled information– Promoting the use of a web survey or upload by sector

federations