Collection Architecture 2009 MSIS Meeting – Oslo, Norway Karen Doherty May 18, 2009

Statistics Canada Statistique Canada 2 Agenda  Collection at Statistics Canada  Business Architecture Initiative  IT Architecture of Collection systems  Lessons Learned

Statistics Canada Statistique Canada 3 Collection at StatCan  HQ (0ttawa) plus eight regional collection hubs (Halifax, Montreal, Sherbrooke, Toronto, Sturgeon Falls, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Vancouver)  Collection methods Face-to-face interviewing (CAPI) Telephone interviewing (CATI & Random Digit Dialing) Paper questionnaires (Canada Post) Electronic data reporting (Internet) Call Centre (mainly for Census)

Statistics Canada Statistique Canada 4 Business Drivers  Cost: Budget cuts => need to reduce costs  Telecom: Canadian moving to cell phones => hard to reach  Electronic Reporting: Canadians (especially younger ones) want Internet services  Geography: Large tracts of land (remote areas, far north, etc.) will continue to be a challenge  Admin Data/Registries: Use is increasing  Multi-mode Collection: Flipping between modes is more and more common

Statistics Canada Statistique Canada 5 Business Architecture Initiative  StatCan embarked on a business architecture project in partnership with a private sector firm  Input sought from a wide range of stakeholders  Looked at business drivers, requirements, services, responsibilities, organization  Restricted to collection activities  Excluded Census but Census requirements considered during systems specification stage  A lot of push back and scepticism at the beginning even from very senior management

Statistics Canada Statistique Canada 6 BA Recommendations  Provide respondents with a menu of response options  Realign the organization to match the business delivery model  Separate operations from development  Adopt common services, processes and tools Invest in new technology (corporate IT services, wireless, thin client, etc.) Develop new collection applications

Statistics Canada Statistique Canada 7 Survey Master Control System  Functionality includes: Management of case load regardless of collection mode Movement of cases between modes Transfer of case data to and from legacy stand-alone collection applications (until they are replaced) A data repository for all cases Reporting tool for all collection activity

Statistics Canada Statistique Canada 8 Survey Master Control System

Statistics Canada Statistique Canada 9 Survey Master Control System  Designed by the in-house architecture team using a Service Oriented Architecture model  Technology StatCan’s MS.net Development Framework MS Biztalk integration platform MS SQLServer database  Development outsourced to a private sector firm  Production in 2009

Statistics Canada Statistique Canada 10 e-Questionnaire & e-File Transfer  e-Questionnaire: Internet-based questionnaires (similar to what was used for 2006 Census) Production in 2009  e-File Transfer: Managed bi-directional movement of files between StatCan and respondents, clients, users Production in 2008  COTS products acquired via tender  Access control & full end-to-end encryption

Statistics Canada Statistique Canada 11 E-Questionnaire & e-File Transfer

Statistics Canada Statistique Canada 12 Other Tools  Generalized Tracking System Tracking of paper questionnaires, supplies, etc. In-house developed MS.net application Production 2009  Case Management Requirements definition in 2009  Field Management System Developed for Census In use for 2009 Census Test Will be adopted by survey Field Staff

Statistics Canada Statistique Canada 13 Adherence to StatCan EA  All applications run on the standard suite of infrastructure services  All development done using standard development frameworks  Requirements and documentation managed via the IBM Rational Suite (Rational Unified Process) and Team Foundation Server  Heavy use of IBM automated testing tools

Statistics Canada Statistique Canada 14 Lessons Learned  Take the time to review the business architecture (question everything, challenge the status quo)  Need strong governance (senior management support)  Need effective change management process throughout  COTS products can be expensive and take a long time to procure but implementation is quick if you don’t customize much  Use of common tools speeds up development but must make sure resources are properly trained