EUROSTAT
Directorate A: Resources
Unit A-5: Information and dissemination /
DISSEMINATION WORKING GROUP
13 + 14December 2004
DOCUMENT N° 11
User support – first experiences
Responsable: Wolfgang KERN
Chairman :Gunter SCHÄFER
DISSEMINATION WORK GROUP MEETING13/14th.12.2004
– Agenda point: User support – First experiences –
I.Introduction
With the start of the free dissemination , Eurostat as well as the Member States had to face an entirely new situation since most of its European statistical information was now accessible free of charge for everybody interested via the Internet.
Although the implementation phase of this new dissemination policy cannot be regarded as being finished, the switch to a free of charge online offer, which came into force on 01/10/2004, was certainly the most important milestone in 2004 in the implementation process. As such it was a major challenge for the participating National Statistical Institutes (NSIs) and for Eurostat.
This document summarizes first experiences gained (first two months) with a particular focus on the new organisation of the support function at national and European level.
II.General experience gained at national level
Member states were asked to communicate their first experiences to Eurostat for further analysis.The general judgement was positive. All Member States welcomed the switch to a free of charge dissemination whilst some underpinned that there are still some “teething problems that need ironing out”.
Detailed feedback (including concrete proposals for improvements) was provided by 9 NSIs.
The answers mainly focused on flaws and problems, of course, but most of them also included positive remarks. This document emphasises the most frequently mentioned problems.
a)Evolution of support requests at national level
Although the “basic support” for European statistics has just begun and a first reporting on support activities will only be available in January 2005, national support centres already communicated their “first impressions”.
None of the national support centres have reported a significant increase regarding the number of incoming requests since 1st October. Berlin provided exact data, according to which they received 3.8% more requests in October than the monthly average of the first nine months.
b)NSIs’ perception of the new free of charge online offer
Although one MemberState found the turn tothe new free of charge dissemination offer too brutal, the step as such was broadly welcomed by all NSIs. The fact that many users did not really recognize this important change in policy is perceived as being the consequence of “too little publicity”. So far the free dissemination policy received smaller emphasis than it deserved. Eurostat was asked to make this more visible on its web page.
The implementation of the new unified navigation tree for Eurostat’s databases (New Cronos and COMEXT) as well as the thematic approach to access the data is seen as strong points of the new offer. In addition, the availability of a new user-friendly extraction tool for external trade data (COMEXT easy) is regarded as a real improvement.
The availability of a “bulk download facility” for mass downloads including the temporary provision of data in native New Cronos format (dft) is another positive point.
However it needs to be stressed that there are still some major deficiencies. The following list summarizes the most important ones:
Functional and content related problems:
The lack of a single entry point for registration (to become a “registered user”) led to confusion on the user side
A clear overview about data availability compared to the situation before “free dissemination”
The absence of a well working search facility and keyword system
Missing or wrong translations (EN and DE) on the web site
Absence or insufficient quality of methodological information (SDDS)
Meta data quite often written in “expert jargon”
Sometimes too many ways to get to the same data
Technical problems:
Temporarily non availability of the web site/data bases
Too many structural changes on the web site (loss of hyperlinks)
Configuration problems as regards:
- The use of extraction tools (e.g. EVA JAVA plug in)
- The use of specific browsers (e.g. Netscape, Mozilla)
- The use of specific operating systems (e.g. Macintosh)
Cell limitations in extraction tools (registered/unregistered users)
Problems while converting data to csv/excel format
Occasionally problems to download pdf publications
c)NSIs’ perception of the new support structure
It has to be noted that with the start of the free dissemination 18 NSIs received grants from Eurostat to provide support for European statistics at national level. The network is still under construction (two of the NSIs will start the support function with effect of 01.01.2005).
Also the development ofonline support facilities is still under construction. Thus a specific functional mailbox was provided for NSIs for any kind of communication related to support requests from 01.10.2004 onwards.As from the 27.10.2004 the central system for registration of requests was functional. NSIs were then asked to use this system for requests to be sent to the central user support at Eurostat.
In general, the new support structure is perceived as being more transparent than before. The fact that national support centres are well informed about the treatment of complex requests at Eurostat (Central support team and experts/authors in production units) is appreciated.
NSIs emphasised that the Eurostat web site has become their most important tool for answering requests. In addition it is stressed that there is a good co-operation with the Eurostat central support team and that almost all support requests sent to Eurostat are dealt quite quickly.
Almost two thirds of all requests received by national support centres (from those which provided detailed information) were related to whether information exists to answer a specific question (Availability of data).
Basically, NSIs report that they are still in the process of composing various standard answers and user guides to improve the treatment of requests. The co-operation in this field is strongly appreciated. The French support centre just recently sent their collection of standard replies to the network.
However, some points are requested to be improved in the future:
The registration form should include information on contact details such as the phone number of the user
It should be possible to attach files to support requests
Support requests dispatched to national support centres should always provide concrete information on when the request arrived at Eurostat
There are still too many steps between the creation of the request and the final treatment
The check for completeness of a given request should be carried out at the earliest possible stage
III.General experience gained at Eurostat central support
At present information can only be provided on the evolution of written requests.
Requests coming from EU Institutions or NSIs which are replied immediately by phone are not covered by this first analysis. On the other hand, requests arriving by phone which cannot be replied immediately are registered in our central registration system. Thus they are included in the figures below.
a) Evolution of written requests received at Eurostat central support
The launch of the free dissemination policy changed both the amount and the distribution of incoming requests. During the reference period (first two months) the use of Eurostat’s online offer increased significantly. The number of data base extractions - being four times more than before - might be a good indicator for this.
Although the increase of the number of support requests could have been stronger (due to the advent of free dissemination), it needs to be stressed that the monthly average of all requests increased by one-third. It is interestingto note that NSIs sent fewer requests than before. However, it is less surprising that the number of requests sent by the“general public” increased to about 136% more than in the past
The following table and graph show the evolution of the monthly average from “before” and “after” the start of the free dissemination policy.
Monthly average of requests addressed to Eurostat central support by “type of user”Period
Type of user / Jan – Sep 2004 / Oct – Nov
2004
EU Institutions / 90 / 88
NSIs / 132 / 92
General public / 239 / 565
Total / 561 / 747
Fig. 01: Monthly average by type of user
Fig. 02: Graph monthly average by type of user
As regards the type of requests received at Eurostat, the following evolution could be noted:
The number of requests per week ranged from 152-226 in October and November, thus its volatility was rather low.
Weekly evolution of number of requests by type of request (Total)Date / Total / Availability of data/publication / Data Validation/ Method. / Technical requests / Other
Week (01-03 October) / 30 / 18 / 5 / 5 / 2
Week (04-10 October) / 226 / 148 / 12 / 39 / 27
Week (11-17 October) / 171 / 113 / 8 / 37 / 13
Week (18-24 October) / 211 / 140 / 14 / 42 / 15
Week (25-31 October) / 152 / 116 / 17 / 13 / 6
Week (1-7 November) / 153 / 89 / 25 / 25 / 14
Week (8-14 November) / 154 / 94 / 16 / 26 / 18
Week (15-21November) / 161 / 109 / 17 / 27 / 8
Week (22-26 November) / 184 / 118 / 25 / 19 / 22
Total / 1442 / 945 / 139 / 233 / 125
Fig. 03: Weekly evolution of number of requests by type of request
The distribution of requests by type is by far more interesting. Two-thirds of incoming requests dealt with availability of data or publications, 10% with data validation and methodological issues. 16% of requests contained technical questions. The national support centres of France and Germany confirmed a similar experience during the first phase of free dissemination.
Fig. 04: Overview “requests by type”
Regarding the requests forwarded by national support centres to Eurostat’s central support, data validation and methodological issues are overrepresented with a ratio of 26.5%
b) Further treatment of support requests received at Eurostat central support / Co-operation with national support centres
With the implementation of the new support treatment procedures, Eurostat opted for a central registration and dispatching of all kind of requests.
Received requests are first analysed on completeness and to whom the request has to be sent for appropriate treatment. The following graph shows who finally were asked to treat the request.
Fig. 05: Overview “further treatment” of requests
50% of all requests could finally be dealt by national support centres, whereas only 15% of all requests required the intervention of Eurostat experts contacted by the central support team.
26% of all requests were answered by Eurostat’s central support team in A-5, whereas about 9% of all requests required the intervention of other services i.e. other Commission DGs.
Eurostat informed Member States about important issues by means of regular Info letters and ad-hoc mails. In parallel, Eurostat provided more detailed information about forthcoming publications via its web site (under preparation).
Several Member States requested further initiation and training on how to support users and how to use Eurostat’s data bases. A regular meeting (once or twice a year) of national support centres is suggested.
IV.Conclusions
The start of the free dissemination era and the implementation of a new support structure were generally appreciated by NSIs and users
There is a general feeling that the free dissemination policy received less attention than it deserved (due to lacking promotion)
A general increase of requests of about one third could be noted at the central support
The newly implemented system of co-operation with the national support worked well and about 50% of all requests could be answered at national level
There is yet no significant increase as regards support requests going directly to national support centres. This maybeis linked to the absence of a real promotion for “free dissemination”
Most of all support requests are dealing with questions on the availability of data
The feedback of the NSIs and Eurostat’s own experience led to the creation of an internal action plan which is followed up regularly.In particular the points mentioned under points II b and II c are subject to improvement actions.
Eurostat will further develop standards to monitor the quality of its online offer. This entails the creation of performance indicators to be derived from the analysis of received support requests
Member States expressed a requirement for further training and regular meetings of the national support centres
The results of this first analysis (over the first two months) need to be confirmed by further long-term-analyses