What is the cost of implementing ERETES ?

Installation costs vary substantially depending on local conditions, which is why it is not easy to give a standard “estimate”. However, the following are some components which give a preliminary idea of the cost of the installation.

For successful installation, it is necessary to have :

Suitable computer equipment :

For each member of the national accounting team:

• 1 Pentium micro-computer with 64 megabytes and a CD reader

• a licence for Progress® Personal RDBMS™ (this is the database engine which stores the data)

• Microsoft® Excel software

• Access to a printer
  

The network is not indispensable, although it greatly facilitates the exchange of data between the members of the team.

The ERETES system:

• The system is offered free of charge to users by the co-owners (EUROSTAT, French Ministry of Foreign Affairs). However, to guarantee a high success rate for future installations, the co-owners require that this free offer is included in a global project to modernise national accounts. The specific provisions governing the project will be defined in an agreement between the co-owners and the future user.
  

Assistance in compiling the first two years of accounts for the country:

• Every installation is monitored by an ERETES expert who helps users become familiar with the tool by guiding them through each phase of the process.

Why is such assistance necessary ?

A person completing a training course on traditional software forgets a large part of what has been learnt in the week following the course. However, what is remembered is generally sufficient to use the software in a satisfactory manner.

In the case of ERETES, it is indispensable that users master the entire process of compiling accounts by the end of their training period: it is of no value to know only how to compile Supply/Use balances, or 'Who-to-whom matrices'. The objective is to be able to complete the process, right up to the stage of obtaining the synthesis tables, - the Supply/Use Table and the Table of Integrated Economic Accounts.

This is why an ERETES project always insists on regular monitoring of the project by an installation specialist: he is the guarantor of correct assimilation of the system by the national accountants.

How many monitoring missions are needed ?

In the approximately 20 countries where ERETES is installed, or is being installed, the number of monitoring missions has varied between 4 and 30! (however, in fact, the country which received 30 missions was a "pilot country" in the adjustment and debugging of the module, and many of these missions were in fact devoted to perfecting the system).
The number of missions depends in particular on the local team's experience of national accounts.

Generally, we believe that:

• if the team has a good level of training, seven missions are sufficient
• if the team is less experienced, and needs to supplement its national accounting knowledge, 15 missions would be necessary
  

What is the duration of an ERETES project ?

Again, the reply to this question varies according to local conditions.
ERETES can only be installed in a country where a new “base year” is being introduced in the accounts. The time required to complete such a project depends on:

• The ambitions of users: to what extent do they wish to expand their accounts?
• The sources used: the availability of a household budget survey is important for the quality of the accounts, but clearly there is a cost attached in terms of the time required to process the corresponding data,
• Compliance with deadlines by the suppliers of the basic data; we do not need to dwell on this sensitive issue here !
• The possible recruitment of new officials; time will then have to be spent on training ...
• A “standard” project is deemed to take between 18 months and two years, at the end of which the country has completed one base year and the first current year using ERETES.
  
  
  

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