Indonesian Central Bureau Of Statistics (BPS) Cuts Processing Times by 90%

Gathering and analyzing census data in a nation of thousands of islands is a task that is made manageable Kofax technology. Using a suite of Kofax products, BPS-Statistics Indonesia reduced processing time for the 2013 census by 90%.

Indonesia is the world’s 15th-largest country, encompassing islands on both sides of the equator. Any organizational census covering such an expansive territory would be challenging, but BPS-Statistics Indonesia faces additional complications for its census. Indonesia has a population in excess of 254 million citizens, many of whom reside in remote areas in which electrical power is not always reliable. For a census, BPS has to mobilize 700,000 temporary workers to collect as many as 600 million pages of census data from across the country.

Also, there is a hard and fast deadline of six months for completion of each census because the results are an integral part of the Indonesian president’s speech to the House of Representatives on Indonesian Independence Day.

“Based on previous experience, we understood that it is almost impossible to conduct a census on time and with the desired quality of data,” said Dudy Sulaiman, Deputy Chief Statistician for Methodology and Statistical Information.

The time had arrived for an information technology solution.

Sulaiman’s approach to meeting these and other challenges is to view IT as an enabler for the business. In these cases, IT enables BPS to streamline processes, improve the quality of data collected and pull new efficiencies out of that data.

The first Kofax implementation for BPS, which occurred during the run-up to the 2010 population census, featured Kofax Capture™ and Kofax Transformation™. Imbued with this solution, BPS deployed the necessary hardware to 33 provincial branches throughout Indonesia and at the BPS headquarters in Jakarta. As census forms were collected, the hardware facilitated the capture, validation and extraction of the incoming data. This activity continued over three shifts per day, 24 hours a day, every day of the week.

To further enhance quality control, BPS used Kofax Monitor™ to highlight issues and flag problems. In the end, a data capture and analysis process that would ordinarily have required two full years was executed in just six months.

“Quite an achievement, I must say,” Sulaiman said.

2013 Agricultural Census

Based on lessons learned in 2010, BPS ran a series of simulations and determined that processing all incoming data for the 2013 census without the Kofax solution would have taken about two years. With Kofax solutions in place, the BPS team processed 260 million pages (comprised of three different types of questionnaires) from 26 million agricultural households in just three months. That equates to a time savings of more than 90%—and an incalculable amount of savings in resources (e.g., people, hard costs, etc.).

2016 Economic Census

As it prepares for the 2016 economic census, BPS will further rely on Kofax technology to help it evolve into a more agile organization. The 2010 census used two types of questionnaires; three were used in 2013. The 2016 census will require the processing of 29 different types of forms. Managing that explosion of scale would have been impossible had BPS not applied new technologies and its own best practices to its data gathering operation.

In preparation for 2016, BPS has armed itself with additional Kofax tools that promise to send efficiency and customer satisfaction to even higher levels.

By leveraging Kofax Mobile Capture™ BPS will eliminate delays caused by power unreliability. Census respondents in remote areas of Indonesia will be able to capture relevant documents with a cellphone camera and upload them directly.

BPS also implemented Kofax TotalAgility®—the world’s first smart-process application development and deployment platform. With it, in addition to capture and transformation of the data it collects, BPS now has the power to further strengthen its census processes with process intelligence, e-signature and targeted, personalized citizen communications.

Beyond the census

BPS also has leveraged Kofax Kapow™ and Kofax Insight™ to monitor more than 20 news sources, including local newspapers, blogs and social media for comments relating to the organization and its work. Using Kapow to automate the collection of this online information and Insight to analyze it, the bureau gains increased efficiency, faster insight and greater statistical accuracy due to better quality data. This improved visibility into processes empowers BPS to be more responsive to breaking news and citizen sentiment, resulting in improved customer satisfaction and confidence.

Sulaiman and his team expect the 2016 economic census to generate in excess of 240 million pages of data (29 million businesses completing an eight-page form). That much information would once have been frighteningly large and would have necessitated two full years to wade through. With its suite of Kofax solutions in place and operational, Sulaiman has confidence in the people and processes he now marshals.

“We’re going to try for three months this time,” he said

Processing census data in such an abbreviated timeline will enable BPS to provide current and relevant data, rather than two-year-old information, for better governmental economic planning.