Financial Information Repository (FIR) Audience Definition Research

FIR Public Portal Research Project: Audience Definition Target Sample Telephone Interviews

Questionnaire DRAFT 12/16/13

Goal: Determine which of a number of specific academic, research, nonprofit, and other sectors are the most likely users of government payments, collections, debt and accounting information.

Introduction

My name is ______________ and I’m from a research firm called Artemis Strategy Group. We’re doing an exploratory study on behalf of the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Bureau of the Fiscal Service related to efforts to make financial information from the U.S. government more accessible. We’re trying to identify the types of organizations or professionals most likely to have a need or interest in this kind of data. I’d like to ask you just a couple questions about your interest in and use of this kind of data. It should only take a few minutes.

1. What is your title? ________________________________________

2. How would you briefly describe your main responsibilities?

_________________________________________________________

3. What type of organization are you with?

DO NOT READ LIST

1. Educational

2. Government

3. Corporate – Manufacturing

4. Corporate – Service

5. Corporate – Retail

6. Consulting

7. Other (specify ____________________________________)

Let me give you a little more background on what we’re asking about. The Treasury’s Fiscal Service handles most of the payments, collections and other financial transactions of the U.S. government. Information on those transactions is available in various reports from the government through publications that are often available on the Treasury’s web sites.

4. Is this a kind of information that you or others in your organization use now or may use in the future?

   1. Yes, use it personally

   2. Yes, not personally but others in organization use (ASK FOR CONTACT INFORMATION OF OTHER USERS/REFERRALS EITHER HERE OR AT THE END)

   3. Not sure

   4. No, don’t use

5. If information about government payments, collections and other financial transactions was made more accessible, easier to analyze and customize through a website, do you envision that you would be a frequent user or would it not have much impact on your interest in this kind of information?

(IF NEEDED: I’m generally talking about making this information more available online, on websites that would provide more ways to sort and customize the data.)

1. Would be frequent user

2. Would not impact interest in information

TERMINATE IF NEITHER CURRENT USERS NOR INTERESTED

6. (IF USER) Going back to what you do now, would you say that you or your organization are….

   1. Very frequent users

   2. Moderate users

   3. Light users

   4. Not sure

7. How would you characterize your purposes for using this kind of information? Select all that apply.

   1. Academic analysis

   2. Use for business purposes

   3. Use for advocacy of an issue

   4. Use to show other people something important

   5. Use for personal interest

   6. Something else ______________________

   7. Don’t know

8. Here are some examples of this kind of information. Please indicate which of these either are or would be of interest to you.

   1. Government payments sorted by types of expenditures

   2. Government payments sorted by agencies (such as Social Security, Medicare, etc.)

   3. Government payments sorted by geographic areas (such as by state)

   4. Government collections sorted by source

   5. Overdue debts by type of debt (such as student loans, farm loans, etc.)

   6. Contract awards and payments

   7. Accounting information

   8. Other _____________________

   9. None of these

   10. Don’t know

9. If you were able to customize how you view or analyze this kind of federal data, what would you like to be able to do? Select all that apply.

1. Make comparisons to data from other sources

2. Do historical analyses

3. Isolate information for a specific geographic area, like a state

4. Isolate information related to a specific activity, like student loans

5. Do other kinds of statistical or comparative analyses

6. Other _____________________

7. None of the above

8. Not sure

Demographics

10. What city and state are you located in? ___________________________________

Those are all the questions I had for you today. Thank you very much for your time and input.