Part A - The Corporate Context
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3.3 SMS Benefits
Statistical organizations and other metadata stakeholders can benefit when metadata exists from data creation until data archiving, rather than as captive to a particular statistical processing system or infrastructure package. The following benefits are valid for all categories of users outlined above:
- Improved statistical information and more efficient operations
- Improved interpretability of statistics
- Improved quality of metadata
- Better location, retrieval and exchange of data and metadata between organizations to enhance availability to users of statistics
- Use of a common set terminology, names and descriptions for standard metadata elements to improve communication
- Central metadata repositories organized to facilitate reuse of existing data
- Increased use of metadata standards
- Improved knowledge of metadata flows
Benefits for Internal Users
(a) Senior Management
SMS facilitates design, planning, decision-making and evaluation processes of SIS. SMS should provide the tools for answering the questions like: to what extent do users actually use the statistical outputs? Are they satisfied with the quality of data and metadata with regard to content, accuracy, timeliness, availability and coherence? Are there complaints or unmet demands from respondents? SMS should help in giving answer to these questions and should also serve as the administrative management of statistical system. And, last but not least, senior managers of SIS will be interested to learn about the costs and benefits of individual statistical activities.
For these purposes especially the following metadata will be needed:
- End users needs and other stakeholders requirements on a national and international level
- External information systems related to SIS
- Suppliers of data into SIS with special attention to the state administration and business enterprises
- Sources of data for SIS
- Available statistical services
- Statistical publications, publication calendar, copyrights and others
- Statistical production process
- Responsibilities inside the SO, legislation, performance
- Cost and revenues of the SO
(b) Designers and Evaluators
Designers and evaluators of a statistical system are responsible for the design, implementation , maintenance and evaluation of statistical systems. Planners and evaluators need access to metadata from similar systems, either within or outside the organization, to inform the design, development and implementation of a new system.
For existing systems under their responsibility, they need feedback about performance (qualities and costs), usage and users’ satisfaction.
When designing and developing statistical system the following information is required:
- How similar systems have been designed in the past
- What observation data is already available and how these data can be observed
- How can this data be obtained
- What methods, tools and software components are available and how can they be used
For maintenance and evaluation of statistical system the following information will be needed:
- Detailed, up-to-date documentation of the system
- Feedback information, both formal and informal, concerning production and usage of the SIS
- Experiences from similar systems
- Knowledge about methods, tools and software components
- Special evaluation studies performed on an ad hoc basis
(c) Methodologists
An SMS creates a framework for design and implementation of statistical tasks and surveys to meet statistical obligations in production of official statistics and needs of end users. The SMS provides tools for safeguarding the integration of SIS at national and international level. Furthermore, maintenance, use and further development of statistical classifications and nomenclatures, use of statistical registers, evidence and maintenance about statistical standards, knowledge about statistical methods and relevant research methods, are all activities for which an SMS is indispensable. This group of users will operate namely with metadata relating to the following:
- Content of available statistical data (microdata, macrodata) and associated data concepts
- Quality of statistical data (relevance, timeliness, accuracy, availability, coherence and comparability)
- Existing statistical tasks and surveys (questionnaires, other sources etc)
- End users and their feedback
- Requests of international organizations and related standards
- Data sources and their links
- Respondents’ information systems
- Administrative data
- Information systems and their output databases (portals)
- Statistical registers (population, farms etc)
- Statistical classifications, nomenclatures and related international standards
- Statistical population, statistical units, measurement units time series
- Statistical methods and relevant research projects
(d) Subject Matter Statisticians
The subject matter statistician is the expert in a particular field of statistics within a national statistical organization. They have the crucial role of understanding the users information requirements, in the context of the policy and program decision making of the users, and the capabilities of their national statistical office, ie what they can do to provide the required information. Subject matter staff work with other NSO specialists to design and construct an appropriate survey and generate statistics. However, the statistician then has the role of communicating the information to their user community through the creation of statistical products and the provision of associated metadata to assist users in understanding the results. Evaluation is also an important responsibility for the subject matter specialist.
Given these roles, the SMS (in very broad terms) is a knowledge management system for the subject matter statistician. In this information system ideally) they would want to be able to create, update, search, browse and retrieve many different types of metadata entities that would cover many aspects, such as:
- users (customers) requirements
- standard concepts, data elements and classifications
- operational information and quality metrics about the operation of their survey system
- documentation about statistical techniques (methodology) applied to their survey
- products created from the statistical data
The benefits of an SMS to the subject matter statistician include:
- a knowledge base about their statistical collection, including all previous cycles. This is an invaluable resource for new employees coming into a statistical field and for statisticians in other fields who might be researching a new collection - there may be elements in another survey that can be reused
- access to a consistent store of standard classifications, data elements, process engines that can be used in new survey development with the knowledge that using these elements will assist greatly in ensuring statistical integration
- as the SMS is a corporate facility, then it would be expected that many tools and links will be provided that utilize the information repository of the SMS, for example, the product creation environment of the NSO would use the SMS as a source of metadata and so enable the subject matter statistician to more easily create statistical products for the organization’s web site with a 'common look and feel'
- associated with the SMS are standard processes e.g. registration of new data elements, which would provide a common method across the organization for the subject matter statistician to create and use metadata, thereby reducing training efforts because of various local solutions. There would be better support and consultation services because of a common SMS, and more employees working with the same facilities
(e) Statistical Research and Development
Scientific studies of statistical systems would need contributions from behavioral and economic sciences and other disciplines. Researchers will need similar kind of metadata as for designers and methodologists who work on more corporate level (not only on individual surveys and production systems). In addition, SMS should ensure the following metadata specific for the research purposes:
- General knowledge about statistical systems and statistics production (e.g. recognized theories and methods, standards, current best methods, current best practices)
- Specific knowledge and experiences from different statistical organizations
- Costs and quality aspects in SIS processes
(f) Administration of Metadata Content
SMS should ensure smooth and systematic update and maintenance of statistical metadata. Maintenance of metadata content will be performed through a network in which subject matter specialists, methodologists and standards/metadata specialists responsible for metadata content will cooperate. Metadata should be updated by the Administrator of the SMS corporate metadata repository (CMR), once only and in one place. This will help avoid inconsistencies and unnecessary redundancies. All linked updates to all the dimensions of the CMR should be automated. The administrator will need a user-friendly interface, avoiding any special technical skill. To this end the administrator will need the following metadata:
- All metadata related to the content of and links between statistical metadata
- Information about organization of metadata in CMR
- Metadata allowing discovery and retrieval
- Updating methods and procedures
(g) Technical Administration of Metadata
Technical administrator (IT expert) will use SMS tools for technical maintenance of the CMR. They should cooperate with designers, evaluators and content administrators in solving technological aspects and further development of SMS. The technical administrator will use, oversee and maintain the following metadata:
- Technical metadata related to the CMR, and to the links for e- production systems
- Information and knowledge about technological aspects of statistical production
- Information about technical links to other information systems
- Information about tools and software used by content administrator
(h) IT Unit Responsible for Statistical Data Processing
Important metadata users are those people operating and monitoring the statistical e-production process.
Metadata driven statistical production creates favorable conditions for standardization and thus efficiency of statistical production system. Metadata on the content of statistical data and associated concepts, including all other delimiting metadata (statistical classifications, statistical units, measurement unit, time series, statistical population etc), are a key condition for the whole throughput of production phases (data collection, storage, evaluation and dissemination). Technical metadata on the organization of CMR and links to the production systems belong to the metadata set needed for fulfilling functions of e-processing.
Ideally, statistical production processes will generate metadata about their own performance, giving producers feedback about functioning and efficiency of metadata driven production. In this respect, producers should cooperate with SMS designers, subject matter specialists and methodologists, content and technical administrators on the design, implementation, evaluation, and further development of the SMS.
(i) Benefits for Data Providers
Respondents are important partners of any SIS. Statistical data suppliers are often also the users of statistical data. Their role is becoming more important with the growing number of systems and on-line communication possibilities. In the past it was sufficient for respondents to know requests for statistical data in the framework of the methodological definition of statistical questionnaires, the requests of data suppliers nowadays are more demanding. Bearing in mind the possibility of on-line supply from respondents’ information systems to the SIS and the possibility of on-line access of respondents to the SIS it is evident that the requests of data suppliers change. SMS will play a key role in those tasks.
As for the content, there is a growing need to harmonize methodological definitions of data and related metadata from respondents’ and statistical information system. The attention should be drawn to the implementation and use of relevant technological metadata standards. Within the business information systems the standard XBRL (Extensible Business Reporting Language) is frequently introduced as a technical metadata standard. Especially for statistical purposes the metadata standard SDMX (Statistical Data and Metadata Exchange) has been developed. The metadata standards and guidelines published and known as SDMX, aim at establishing a set of commonly recognised rules and guidelines, adhered to by all players. This makes it possible not only to have easy access to statistical data, but also access to metadata, making the data more meaningful and usable. The standards will allow national organisations to fulfil their responsibilities towards users and partners, including international organisations, in a more efficient way, among other things by using their online databases to give access as soon as the data are released.
Data suppliers will require from SMS especially the following information:
- Metadata related to the content (definitions, terminology) of statistical data in the input stage of the statistical production
- Security and confidentiality of microdata
- Feedback from statistical surveys
- Information about the content of statistical warehouses
- Knowledge about comparability of statistical and respondents data/systems
- Technical parameters for search and retrieval of metadata in CMR and links to statistical warehouses
- Knowledge about potential interface between SIS and respondents’ information systems;
- Relevant technological standards for metadata and data e-supply;
- Information about software and other tools supporting e-supply of data and metadata;
- Information about strategies for further SMS development;
- Training in use of SMS;
(j) Benefits for End Users on the National Level
Understanding different communities of end users and their classifying could help in classifying users requirements. SMS will help users to better discover, understand, interpret and interrogate needed data. The proliferation of information has raised the issue of consistency and comparability of data. Comparability of data is desirable, but not always possible. It is important to know what the differences are and the reason for them, explicated to the different level of users’ sophistication. SMS will also assist to convey the credibility of statistical data and recognizing intellectual property.
It is important to monitor users feedback and to embrace the need for metadata in both directions. SMS will offer the possibility to understand how the users search and the terms/terminology that they use. SMS will also support handling access of users to microdata. The fact that users are increasingly requesting access to microdata, calls for tools that allow concerns about confidentiality protection to be overcome.
With spreading use of Internet it is important to provide clients with maximum information about statistical outputs via statistical websites. However, numerous statistical websites are offering diverse metadata to users for identifying and seeking statistical information. There is a potential to flood users with too much metadata. Appropriate communication of metadata should be based on principles of 'cognitive psychology', that is, there is a presentational aspect to metadata consumption.
This heterogeneity, together with more visible methodological differences and inconsistencies of statistics disseminated via Internet, poses difficulties for the users. Clearly, there is a need for a harmonization of metadata accompanying statistical information on Internet. Important role in this respect should play UN international standards (“Guidelines for statistical Metadata on Internet”, UN-CES Statistical Standards and Studies –No 52).
Last but not least, SMS should support integration of statistical output databases and portals with the portals of other external institutions.
The following metadata is vital for end users of statistical metadata and data at the national level:
- Availability of statistical outputs
- Metadata related to the statistical outputs (metadata and data concepts and definitions, classifications, aggregations, statistical and evaluation methods, terminology, history, etc)
- Coherence, comparability, explanatory notes
- Access to microdata
- Timeliness
- Time series
- Updating procedures
- Statistical revisions
- Responsibility for individual statistical outputs
- Links to other information systems both national and international
- Confidentiality
- Planned changes in statistical outputs
- Content related standards, both national and international
- Statistical websites
- Statistical output databases
- Outcomes from statistical analysis on users feedback
- Rules for searching, accessing and downloading statistical metadata and data from output databases
- Technological standards relevant for extraction and transfer of data and metadata
- Information about software and other tools supporting e-search, retrieval and downloading of metadata and data
- Users training possibilities
(k) Benefits for International Users
There are more and more demands by international users for greater consistency when interacting with NSOs. In the case of international organizations, the metadata and data requirements (and their collection and exchange) have to be coordinated not to overburden countries with duplicate requests. In order to fulfill this task, better integration of metadata at the national and international level is needed.
A lot of metadata is available on websites of international organizations. Links could be inserted from the metadata of international organizations to more detailed metadata on national websites. Coordination of access could be achieved through a single gateway for data and metadata, e.g. through a portal side. To this end, joint hubs based on. SDMX standards are at present under intensive development.
Another example is dealing with the multinational enterprises. MNEs can be significant in terms of a nation’s economy. To understand the behavior and impact of MNEs, it is important to assess the effects of globalization. MNEs’ information systems, however, may not correspond to concepts and models of the SIS. Such situations can potentially lead to gaps and anomalies in the measurement of the activities of MNEs by national SOs. National SOs should explore whether there are biases in national economics caused by gaps and overlaps in the coverage of activities of MNEs. To this end, standardization in the following areas will be needed: definitions of forms of organizations, statistical units, charts of accounts and classifications. Fulfilling such requests without existence of a coherent SMS would be very difficult.
Needs of international users increasingly impact the architecture of national SMS. National SOs face new tasks that can be solved only in close cooperation with international organizations and other international users.
Metadata needed by international users are quite identical with those needed by end users on national level (see the subchapter above). Furthermore, the following information would be required:
- Complying with international standards (coherence, comparability, explanatory notes)
- Standards used for e-metadata and data transfer (XBRL, SDMX, GESMES, others)
- Information about other international and national users
- Indication of needs for revision and/or standardization of statistical data and metadata concepts
XBRL website at http://www.xbrl.org/Home/.
SDMX website at http://www.sdmx.org/. The name SDMX (Statistical Data and Metadata Exchange) refers to an international standard started in 2001, sponsored by 7 international organisations: Bank for International Settlements (BIS), European Central Bank (ECB), Eurostat, International Monetary Fund (IMF), Organisation for economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), United Nations (UN) and the World Bank (WB), who are committed to establish, implement and comply with common standards. The SDMX version 1.0 set of technical standards has been approved by ISO as a technical specification (TS17369 2005). Version 2.0 has been publicly released in November 2005 and its approval process by ISO is ongoing.
The UNECE published A Guide to the Websites of National and International Statistical Organizations, 2001. Available online at http://www.unece.org/stats/publications/Webguide.pdf [accessed 27 January 2006].
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A.1. Introduction
A.2. Target audiences
A.3. Corporate Value Proposition for Metadata Management
A.4. Metadata management strategies and policy framework
A.5. Core principles for metadata management
A.6. Corporate Governance Models for Metadata Management
A.7. Case Studies and Experiences
Glossary of terms and abbreviations
References