Dissemination Working Group Luxemburg 25 & 26 October 2010 User support Henric ANSELM

I. Core business – Major Findings II. Promotional activities of Eurostat and the support network III. Assist - improvements IV. Development of user support network 2

European Statistical Data Support First level support via Eurostat website (FAQs etc) Second level support via the user support network Third level support via “Eurostat User support” – help on standard and complex requests which requires special competence Around 22 000 user requests per year*! *(2009/2010) 3

Major Findings Number of requests 2004/2005: 23 993 2005/2006: 24 320 2006/2007: 24 977 2007/2008: 26 447 2008/2009: 21 550 2009/2010: 22 074 4

Major Findings First year: Many technical and general requests Second year: Switch of user types and requests clearly defined Third year: Increase in complex requests Fourth year: Further increase in complex requests Fifth & sixth year: Big part of requests, received at Eurostat, are complex requests General trend over these years: increase in complex requests 5

Increase in Complex Requests (when Eurostat Production Units need to be consulted) 2004/2005: 1 478 2005/2006: 1 660 2006/2007: 1 859 2007/2008: 2 195 2008/2009: 2 232 2009/2010: 2 138 Trend: more detailed questions, either because users cannot find the data or metadata via the website or they are questioning the figures. 6

Type of users Q3:2010 7 NSI Estat Commercial company/enterprise 42,77% 30,73% Student or Academic 30,43% 12,59% Public administration/Government 8,47% 3,57% Private user 8,07% 3,10% Other 2,09% 2,91% Press and other media 4,58% 0,56% National Statistical Institute 1,62% 41,73% Political parties and political organisations 0,68% 0,38% EU institution/agency 0,52% 1,97% International organisation 0,77% 2,44% 7

Direct contact with users! Promotional activities by the Network (2009/2010 supported by the grants) Fairs Events Web sites Conferences Presentations Mailings Animation (17 lg + update project) Posters Direct contact with users!  8

Web-based Request Treatment Tool Assist Web-based Request Treatment Tool Transparent workflow Monitoring of requests Module administration Improvements 9

Assist - recent key improvements Search function Tracking of related requests (work-flow) Improved communication email - in the chosen language Export requests to XML format Attachment function + text box Reporting function 10

User Support Network Call For Tender Status October 2010: (Change from country wise approach to language approach) - 6 lots awarded to NSIs: Spanish, Danish, German, Latvian, Dutch and Norwegian - Sogeti Lux SA: English, French, Polish and Swedish - New call for tender ASAP: Hungarian Lithuanian, Portuguese, Finnish and Icelandic 11

User support network October 2010: Gentlemen’s agreement: Bulgaria Czech Republic Estonia Greece (Greek + Cypriot) Italy Romania Slovenia Slovakia Switzerland (Swiss requests in German + French) Multi Beneficary Programme MBP (old Phare) contract: Croatia Turkey Countries in Western Balkans (01/01/2011) 12

Country flags with the official language(s) October 2010 onwards New support web page – Country flags with the official language(s) 13

Legal obligation of ALL NSI’s in the ESS Basic support recommendations Web related activities needed! (Art. 18 of the EC regulation 223/2009) Dissemination of European statistics Art. 18 (2) User support Art 18 (3) 14

Legal obligation of ALL NSI’s in the ESS The requested (basic) user support: European statistics and the support should be clearly mentioned on their websites Indicate where to find relevant statistics How to access Where to address in case of failure to access the data. 15

• Technical problem solving • Checking of availability of data or publications • Verification of data • Methodological information etc. 2011: Workshop on 20-21 January