Session 1: Understanding the Value of Official statistics:

Introduction

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CES seminar, 9th of April, 2014

Mariana Kotzeva, Adviser Hors Classe and Acting Director of Dir. B: Methodology; Corporate statistical and IT services, Eurostat

Introduction:

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Papers in the session:

• How to add value to official statistics? (Mexico)• What is the value of official statistics and how do we communicate

that value? (Romania)• Big data – an opportunity or a threat to official statistics?

(Eurostat)• How do we define the value and benefits of official statistics in an

increasingly competitive data industry? (Australia)• Marketing the national statistical office’s value proposition - a call

to action and examples of good practice (HLG-MOS under UNECE);

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Mexico: How to add value to official statistics?

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The valuable information is the one that has:• Credibility: best practices, coherence in data, independence and

objectivity;• Accessibility: access for everyone, appropriate language, timely

information, open formats;• Desirability: attractive, visualization, storytelling;• Usability: web architecture, navigation, intuitiveness,

categorization;• Usefulness: functionality, differentiation, satisfaction for users,

personalization of data;• Findability: search engine, easy naming,

marketing campaigns.

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Mexico: How to add value to official statistics?Criteria for valuable information

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Best practices

Coherence

Independence and objectivity

Functionality

Differentiation

Satisfaction

Personalization

Search engine

Naming

Marketing

NavigationIntuitiveness

Website architecture

Categorization

Story telling

Visualisation

Attractive

Browser compatibility

Appropriate formats and channels

Timeliness

Appropriate languageEqual access to data

Romania: What is the value of official statistics and how do we communicate that

value?

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The paper: • asks what does official statistics mean and where does

this brand, that represents a special value of statistics, come from;

• delineates the scope of official statistics from the one of statistics in general and from the administrative sources using some examples.

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Criteria for a statistics to qualify for as official statistics:• statistical product is generated to serve all categories of users;• production is line with UN fundamental principles of official

statistics and quality criteria, as, for example, of the European Statistics Code of Practice;

• statistics is based on law allowing for its professional independence;

• statistics is produced under a unitary, coherent and logical coordination of a centre with well-defined position in a democratic state, i.e. normally national statistical office;

• production of statistics respects confidentiality.7

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Romania: What is the value of official statistics and how do we communicate that value?

Eurostat: Big data – an opportunity or a threat to official statistics?

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In particular the paper asks:• What will be the role of official

statistics in the world of new data sources?

• Does data deluge will change the way in which official statistics are produced?

• Are big data going to substitute the production of official figures?

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• Start producing short term indicators without translating Big Data structures into statistical ones but using their own;

• Continue with a combination of data mining, machine learning and statistical procedures to produce the desired statistical figures.

• Use other statistical figures available for the same or related phenomenon as framework to compare and study its representativeness and coverage.

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Eurostat: Big data – an opportunity or a threat to official statistics? Big data as a big opportunity for official statistics:

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The paper calls for developing NSIs value proposition:• Define our favourable points of difference that set us apart from our

competitors;• Better explain how our values benefit governments and the broader

community; • To back up the explanation of our competitive advantages by

demonstrable, concrete actions so our words are not simply hollow.

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Australia: How do we define the value and benefits of official statistics in an increasingly competitive data

ABS: The Value Proposition Elements:

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• We are independent;• We are trusted, authoritative and apolitical;• Our work is of high quality;• Our statistics are relevant, reliable, consistent, comparable• Our services are customisable;• We are flexible, responsive and supportive;• We have expertise across a comprehensive range of statistical

subjects;• We are national, and scalable;• We can inform on outcomes, outputs and inputs in an integrated way;• We are trusted by our providers, because we protect the

confidentiality of their information.

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HLG-MOS: Marketing the national statistical office’s value proposition – a call to action and examples of good practice

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The paper states that:• The value proposition of NSIs is

certainly under-exploited;• We can and should do a better job

of explaining our point of difference to the wider public;

• We can do a better job of describing the unique values of our collective assets as a statistical community.

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HLG-MOS: Marketing the national statistical office’s value proposition – a call to action and examples of good practice

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Our unique values (strengths):• focus on quality;• international network of official statistics organisations;• standardized concepts and classifications;• a strict confidentiality regime; • a huge, well-documented microdata sets;• maximum accessibility of our statistical outputs;• independence;• very good reputation and a positive public image.

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HLG-MOS: Marketing the national statistical office’s value proposition – a call to action and examples of good practice

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Our weaknesses:• lack of timeliness in some cases;• our responsiveness to new user needs could be better;• long new product time from the development to the market;• our statistics have often limited appeal for individual users

with specific questions.

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HLG-MOS: Marketing the national statistical office’s value proposition – a call to action and examples of good practice

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Some examples of good marketing:• New Zealand: Valuing the Census and measuring use and trust;• Denmark: Towards sales and marketing;• The Netherlands: Supplying customised statistics and cooperate

with advisory boards;• Ireland: Improving statistical literacy and promoting statistics in

primary and post-primary education.

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Questions to the authors:

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• Mexico: Which are the most important features of the information that make it valuable?

• Romania: How the definition of official statistics could help to understand better its value?

• Eurostat: Are the big data an reputational issue for official statistics?

• Australia: How do our users see us? What do they value? • UNECE: Why marketing needs to act upon the value of

official statistics?

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Voting Pad Questions to the audience

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1. Which are the 3 most important features of the information that make it valuable?• Credibility; • Accessibility; • Desirability; • Usability;• Usefulness;• Findability.

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Voting Pad Questions to the audience

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2. Which are the 3 most important competitive advantages of the official statistics?• We are independent;• We are trusted, authoritative and apolitical;• Our work is of high quality;• Our statistics are relevant, reliable, consistent,

comparable;• Our services are customisable;• We are flexible, responsive and supportive;• We have expertise across a comprehensive range of

statistical subjects.Eurostat

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Thank you for your attention!

mariana.kotzeva@ec.europa.eu http://ec.eurostat.europa.eu/