RIADEF is a computer data management system combining spreadsheet and database technology with specialized features to provide a flexible internal data format and framework for collection, translation, transfer, maintenance, and analysis of governmental accounting and econometric information in developing countries where the collection and storing of data are implemented in different agencies with different methodologies and in proprietary systems. RIADEF combines the native tools of Microsoft Excel with a centralized SQL Client Server Database to enable users to extract and reformat data from existing systems, transfer that data into the RIADEF database, and maintain RIADEF database tables of cross referenced classification tables that will allow departments with different methodological data classification systems to be able to share and exploit information from other departments easily.
RIADEF allows construction of sophisticated data management systems such as Project Management or Budget Preparation systems for individual departments totally within the context of RIADEF which allows data extraction from RIADEF tables posted by any department and selected posting of completed data to RIADEF for sharing with other departments all within a single Excel Workbook. All RIADEF operations share system wide features such as user and data security, ability to post to an Intranet or Internet server, and automated data backups.
RIADEF encompasses the working environment of a number of different disciplines into an overall system with a much wider scope than an individual department. As such RIADEF fulfills different needs from the perspectives of its various users by allowing the individualized working environments to be maintained in the native Excel workbooks. Workbooks are designed by and for each department while simultaneously maintaining a standardized data environment in the RIADEF SQL database thru the use of data entry template sheet forms and the use of special multiple department data classification tables.
Many departments play the roles of both producer and consumer of particular RIADEF data sets. Each department acts as a producer of the output data it provides to RIADEF and as a consumer of the data it uses from RIADEF.
The centralized SQL database maintains standardized data from each participating agency. Each participating agency maintains a RIADEF interface relating to their particular data set and maintains control of the approval and posting of their data set to the central system. All departments are allowed access to all data in the central system for use by their agency in preparation of their own work. The entire cross-referenced RIADEF database is available to authorized agencies for analysis and econometric modeling to help determine departmental and eventually overall government policy.
The RIADEF data management system is implemented in a contemporary Windows based PC environment using Microsoft Excel and a SQL based Client-Server database management system.
The RIADEF SQL database contains data that has been posted by the participating departments that are responsible for the data's creation or collection. The structure of the central database accommodates all the data originating from every department in a common table structure that allows for any data elements from any department to be retrieved and compared as components of a single integrated Excel spreadsheet.
The structure of the central database allows a data coding mechanism that will accommodate the coding methodology of each individual department and provide links to the master classifications so that the data from all departments can be directly compared.
The strength of RIADEF is in accommodating data formats and methodologies from a variety of users using different classification methods, file types, and methodologies. The resulting system provides consistent access to all the data in one common format using tools that are accessible and understandable by non-technical users.
Under the guidance of a skilled system administrator RIADEF can be structured to allow easy access to all of a government's data within the universally understood spreadsheet environment. Statisticians, Economists, and Managers have in RIADEF a sophisticated interrelated spreadsheet and database environment within which they can create easily maintainable real-time data analyzing systems.