IBUC 2006 Abstract

In-house Support for Blaise Application Developers and Users
Janica Cajhen & Pavle Kozjek ; Statistics Slovenia, Slovenia

At Statistical Office of Slovenia, Blaise is used as a standard tool for survey data collection and editing. In twelwe
years (from the beginning in 1993) it becomes one of the key tools at SORS, used by different profiles and levels of
users (developers, interviewers, data editing staff, subject-matter specialists…) for different purposes: data
collection and editing in CAI surveys, post collection data editing, high speed data entry, various kinds of data
processing, web data collection etc. Such wide range of usage requires efficient and well organised support to
each specific group of users.

With some other software tools and systems used at SORS (e.g. SAS, Oracle) support is mainly organised by
external organizations that provide courses, knowledge and literature for SORS employees. In case of Blaise we
decided to establish an in-house basis of knowledge, which is maintained and improved by a small number of
“power Blaise users”. They are responsible to follow the development of the Blaise system, take and study the
SORS relevant modules and solutions from it, and spread the new knowledge to the other Blaise users at SORS.

The main mode of spreading knowledge are internal courses and workshops on different Blaise topics, intended for
different profiles of Blaise users.

The paper describes the general approach and organization of support for different Blaise users at SORS and
stresses some most successful solutions like internal courses and training, on-line manuals and developer’s
guides, help desk etc. Through this support, the better understanding of software purposes and functionality is
achieved, and it helps the Blaise system to be well integrated into the complete statistical process at SORS.

Contact: janica.cajhen@gov.si