Statistics South Africa has used scanning technology in the last 2001 Census as well as the subsequent surveys as means of capturing the large-volume data. The implementation of the scanning technology has allowed Stats SA to draw some important lesson in the implementation of an innovative approach in capturing system. Thereafter, corrective measures were implemented with success in the large survey called the community survey. Stats SA has acknowledged that the lack of proper assessment, planning, testing and development of a full complete system at pilot phase has resulted in some weaknesses of 2001 Census data processing. The common challenges in the developing countries are the absence of good local knowledgebase in information technology, the lack of thoroughly tested systems, lack of good management skills of the systems and the unavailability of enough financial resources supporting the information technology locally.

Paper presented at the 57th Session of the International Statistical Institute (ISI), Durban (South Africa), August 2009.