Strategic Intelligence - in Statistics Finland

1. Strategic Intelligence - in Statistics Finland 3rd Nordic Marketing Conference13.-15.6.2005Tuula Hausmann

2. Targets of SI in Statistics Finland • To create a system which produce and communicate relevant information about the operating environment of Statistics Finland • Focus on monitoring the operating environment necessary for Statistics Finland’s management and particularly for strategic decision-making • To help to set strategic targets, re-evaluate strategy and attain strategic goals • The aim is to improve Statistics Finland’s capabilities to function efficiently, productively and proactively

3. Why SI in Statistics Finland? The production and communication of SI in a systematic way • creates essential preconditions for strategic management • improves the ability to set and re-evaluate strategic targets • improves preconditions for total quality management • improves knowledge of the information market and it’s “drivers” • improves to identify new and potential needs of customers • creates preconditions for the development of new statistics/services • creates preconditions for proactive management • helps identification of emerging threats and opportunities, etc.

4. Monitoring of the operating environment in Statistics Finland • International operating environment(meetings of DGs/specialists, international networks, organisations, conferences/seminars etc. in the field of statistics) • Domestic administration(meetings of DGs/specialists, co-ordination in the field of national statistics etc.) • Information market(customer management and customer feedback systems, key account manager system, customer satisfaction survey etc.) • Interest group relations(meetings of DGs, advisory board of SF, various expert groups etc.) • Public image(media monitoring, image-surveys etc.) • Strategic intelligence -system (2003 -->)

5. SI versus other monitoring activities • Prevailing monitoring systems offered a good starting point to the development of the SI-system. • SI -system doesn’t offer a substitute to the other monitoring systems. Rather it helps to fill certain gaps and brings more systematic approach to the whole monitoring of the operating environment. • The purpose of the SI process is to intensify, to deepen and to systematise the monitoring of the operating environment • SI-system is expected to reduce overlapping work, to intensify dissemination of intelligence and competence as well as learning of the personnel and the total organisation.

6. Key elements of the portal application • User-friendly, web-technology-based application • Two-way exchange place for intelligence content • One window to needed content • Tools for retrieving, adding, editing and communicating content • Users can personalise the portal to best suit their individual needs • Focus on relevant, structured, filtered and organization-specific content • The portal is hosted and maintained by Novintel • 100 users of the portal in Statistics Finland (heavy users 40 %, more or less occasional users 40 %, passive users 20 %)

7. Information categories in the SI-portal • 1) Politics and public administration • Policy programs, domestic legislation, central government (ministries and authorities), regional government, research and education etc. • 2) EU/international • EU-legislation, EU -institutions, EU soft law development, Eurostat, European Statistical System, Countries/NSIs, International Statistical Organisations, etc. • 3) Information market • General economic development, supply of information, use of information, private sector customers, Competition in the information market, Statistical topics, etc. • 4) Resources • Human resources, Raw material issues (register and survey issues, confidentiality, information security), ICT, Statistical methods, etc. • 5) Critical/Strategic themes • Society’s megatrends, information society, e-government, electronic data collection and dissemination, new information services, role of statistics in the decision making

8. Market signals Strategic documents Information architecture of SI/Statistics Finland Reviews & analysis 1) Politics/ public administration 2) EU/ international 3) Information market 4) Resources 5) Critical/ strategic themes Scenarios, strategy-documents etc. Relevant news sources, business news services, www-pages etc. Theme- and market analysis, documents, benchmarking reports, briefings etc.

9. Production of content to the SI-portal • In-house production of content (appr. 10 power users) • Outsourced production of intelligence content (Novintel) • Search machines etc. (technical tools that help the production of content) • Focus on relevant information (human involvement) • Categorisation of the information (3 -level categorisation) • Info architecture is based on analysis of operating environment • Main information sources (news services, www-pages, domestic and international networks etc.)

10. Monitoring of international environment • EU statistical legislation All available commission documents of public interest, Official journal of the European Union, recent proposals not yet included in the Directory etc. • EU and national statistics policy news News service of EU institutions (Eurostat news service, ECB news service, Rapid etc), Semiofficial EU News services, Newspaper and news database services (Factiva, etc.) • OECD Statistics policy news OECD Newsletter, OECD Briefing, OECD Forum, OECD OLIS News etc. • Statistical policy news from United Nations and its organisations UN Statistical Commission, DESA News, ECE News, IMF Statistical Topics, World Bank, ILO, WHO, Unctad, WTO News etc. • News from different national statistical offices

11. Building of SI- process at Statistics Finland • The preliminary definition phase project in spring 2002 • The implementation phase project (April - June 2003) • The pilot phase (May 2003 - February 2004) • Submission of SI-portal to open tender (December 2003) • Launching of permanent SI-activity (February-March 2004) • Maintenance and development of the SI-process (March 2004 -->)

12. SI can be used for • regular news&views -analyses • theme -analyses from different strategic themes • market area reviews; information industry trends etc. • ad hoc analyses/reports for special purposes • interactive management team discussions and seminars • each user to her/his own purposes

13. SI - user -satisfaction survey (November 2004) • necessity of the monitoring of the operating environment, yes 42 *) • content of SI-tool - relevance to Statistics Finland, yes 42 • content of SI-tool - relevance to users own work, yes 39, no 2 • categorisation of the information - fit for use, yes 41 • SI-tool - easy to use (in technical meaning), yes 42 • need for technical assistance for users, yes 5, no 37 • the main way of using the SI-tool, alert & email 32 • content of the SI-tool is relayd to colleagues, yes 27, no 14 • need for special SI-products, yes 21, no 18 • are you interested to produce content to the SI-tool, yes 7, no 30 *) out of 42 answers, the survey was sent to 100 users of SI-tool

14. SI customer inquiry, customer comments • “Broadens the viewpoint of one who works alone” • “Keeps one well up-to-date with statistics-related issues” • “Serves well as distributor of documents” • “SI is part of daily monitoring of events” • “Fights against introversion, narrow-mindedness and ‘Statistics Finland centricity’” • “The main benefit from the system is systematicity of the monitoring” • “Information content has developed favourably after the pilot stage” • “I get every day some essential information about the field” • “I utilise the tool in all day-to-day management”