EEG6/Working Group 4 - New Ways of Collecting Raw Statistical Data

EEG6/Working Group 4 (EEG6/WG4) is concerned with investigating new ways of collecting raw statistical data.

In order to reduce the burden of compiling statistical information on individual organisations, the vital job of statistics gathering needs to be integrated into the information systems currently being used on a day to day basis by the economic operators (e.g. payroll, accounting, production, distribution).

Ideally, this integration should support both regular surveys and ad hoc enquiries for ALL declarative purposes (statistics, customs, trade associations etc.).

The target public for such messages includes the National Statistical Administrations, the economic operators and the professional bodies representing the economic operators (e.g. the professional unions and chambers of commerce).

The objectives of this group represent the most challenging work for the EDI Expert Group 6 (EEG6).

The technical aspects of the work are concerned with the development of EDI messages which are used for declarative purposes; one such type of message is a generic message which supports the responses to a questionnaire.

Initiatives in this field had been taken in America, Australia and Europe:

• In 1993, the US Bureau of the Census started developing RDRMES (Raw data Reporting message)
• In early 1994, EEG6/WG4 started developing a general data model for questionnaire data
• The two projects were merged and a new version of RDRMES, which meets the requirements of Europe, Australia and North-America, was finalised during the UN/EDIFACT Joint Rapporteurs' Team Meeting (JRT) of September 1994 in Vienna.

The data modelling method was applied for the design of RDRMES and one conceptual data model was designed. This allowed its implementation in more than one EDI syntax:

• An EDIFACT message has been implemented which reach the EDIFACT Status 1 in September 1995.
• An SGML (Standard Generalized Mark-up Language - ISO 8879) and HTML (Hyper-Text Mark-up Language) version is foreseen for the near future, in order to adapt RDRMES to the new concept of EFI (Electronic Form Interchange) showing that EDI and Internet can be intelligently combined.

The message has been successfully trialed in 1995 and 1996 in a number of pilot projects within the framework of the SERT (Statistiques d'Entreprises et Réseaux Télématiques) project:

• in Belgium and the Netherlands, the EDIVAT project (sending VAT declaration)

• in the United Kingdom, the statistical returns from the UK Steel Industry (within the ECSC framework) and the UK Tax Administration is carrying out a pilot project for the collection of tax returns using RDRMES as an alternative to the paper declaration

A RDRMES 96 Message Reference Guide and an "RDRMES 96 - Quick Results" short implementation Guide are now available.

A leaflet specifying the differences and the synergy between GESMES and RDRMES, and when one message - or the other - should be used - will soon be written up.