Page 48 - Invited Paper Session (IPS) - Volume 2

IPS178 Stephan Müller
4. Workstreams within the Bundesbank to facilitate communication
processes

a) Direct daily communication
In order to improve the internal communication processes between the
producers and users of statistics, direct personal interaction forms the basis of
positive relationships between different departments and contributes to the
development of mutual cooperation. At the Bundesbank, such direct daily
communication processes take place in many different workstreams and
across various organisational boundaries. One use case is the communication
between data users and data experts for the purpose of exchanging microdata.
Bilateral communication and output orientation have priority here. In each
area, there are dedicated data experts who act as contact partners for
microdata users, and a single point of contact is currently being set up for all
requests for microdata. Users come from different sectors, mainly from the
economics, banking supervision, financial stability, markets, and risk
controlling departments. It is important that these users communicate which
microdata they are looking for as precisely as possible. To enable the users to
do so, the data experts are conducting a kind of roadshow at the Bundesbank
to present their services and give an overview of the available microdata. In
the context of the provision of microdata, primary communication takes place
at two specific times. The first instance is when the user contacts the data
expert and describes the type of microdata that they are looking for. At this
time, the data expert can give an initial response with first indications
regarding the request. More importantly, however, this is the time for
dedicated queries on data formats or the actual use case to specify the data
needs. The second instance of intense communication takes place after the
analyst has received the microdata. At this stage, communication mainly
concerns clarifying ambiguities and interpreting the microdata. Statisticians
also benefit from this kind of communication, as it helps them to gain a
different perspective and to detect possible flaws in the datasets, which are
then rectified.
A similar project was the introduction of data specialists, who assist users
in searching for the desired data in internal and external databases. In
particular, they are experts for the databases of international organisations
such as the BIS, IMF, OECD, Eurostat, ECB, UN, World Bank, etc. as well as for
databases from private data providers. An essential way of communicating
with data users is by carrying out customised training. Thus, data users not
only become familiarised with the different databases and the various types
of data, but also with a range of tools, programmes and search engines. It is
also possible to contact the data specialists by telephone or email at any time
and ask them to find specific data or time series that analysts or other users

35 | I S I W S C 2 0 1 9