1. The usage of a data capture tool in statistical surveys on enterprises Rossana Balestrino, Patrizia Larese Istat - Via C. Balbo 16 - 00184 Roma - Italy UNECE/Eurostat OECD meeting on Management of Statistical Information Systems (MSIS) Geneva 17-19 May 2004

2. Classes of respondents Households Sampling surveys Limited coverage of technological equipment and access to the Net Face-to-face and CATI/CAPI techniques Enterprises Total surveys Web and Internet Adequate technological equipment Known profile Sampling surveys Heterogeneous technological equipment Information systems not homogeneous Unknown and changeable profile Self-interviewing Institutions UNECE/Eurostat OECD meeting on Management of Statistical Information Systems (MSIS) Geneva 17-19 May 2004

3. Multi-technique approach to data collection lets us introduce innovation in the processes without forcing the respondent environment; overcomes population coverage problems in selecting sample units; favours the respondent who can select the way he prefers; provides the advantages of CASIC techniques (timeliness, cost, quality) but implies a higher management cost; UNECE/Eurostat OECD meeting on Management of Statistical Information Systems (MSIS) Geneva 17-19 May 2004

4. Teleform - (VERITY U.S.A.) Teleform product is a bridge between paper forms and electronic forms; It turns paper into digital forms treated through OCR engines; It can generate electronic forms HTML or PDF, which can be administered by web or by e-mail; It allows the fax-server use for mailing and receiving paper forms; At ISTAT Teleform was selected in 2000 because of the positive relation between quality and price; UNECE/Eurostat OECD meeting on Management of Statistical Information Systems (MSIS) Geneva 17-19 May 2004

5. Teleform architecture Posta Fax Mail server Directory Scanner Verifier Reader Database Image Storage Fax Server Directory img Control Center Web Server cgi/ASP Designer UNECE/Eurostat OECD meeting on Management of Statistical Information Systems (MSIS) Geneva 17-19 May 2004

6. Surveys list 1.Survey on retail sales (monthly - 2 forms for three pages - 2,700 respondents); 2.Survey on Telecommunications (annual – 3 forms for nine pages – 534 respondents); 3.Survey on employment, working time and salary (monthly – 2 forms for three pages – 1,500 respondents); 4.Survey on vacancies and worked hours (quarterly – 1 form for four pages – 8,000 respondents); UNECE/Eurostat OECD meeting on Management of Statistical Information Systems (MSIS) Geneva 17-19 May 2004

7. Perception of the statistical users Positive perceptions : Reduction of time and costs; Increase in productivity; Instant storage and retrieval of data immediately available in the production data base; Negative perceptions : Lack of product experts for assistance during the collection procedures; Long response time using the Verifier module to fix data coming from paper forms; Impossibility for respondents of saving partial versions of PDF forms; UNECE/Eurostat OECD meeting on Management of Statistical Information Systems (MSIS) Geneva 17-19 May 2004

8. Central IT Directorate Evaluation UNECE/Eurostat OECD meeting on Management of Statistical Information Systems (MSIS) Geneva 17-19 May 2004 Teleform is an effective data capture software to deal with simple forms; It’s necessary to support costs for installation and maintenance of more adequate infrastructures (100Mbps network); It’s crucial to get tools for monitoring and managing service levels of involved servers and network; Teleform is not the only possibility: let’s analyze the survey process peculiarities to choose the right solution.