There's a plethora of Government-produced papers and media-hype about the importance of information management within the public sector and how data needs to be used and seen as a strategic asset.
Many of these reports risk subverting public sector organisations away from the operational efficiency programme. A rush to cut costs could make these organisations lose sight of their need to be forward-thinking.
Private sector businesses already use business analytics to gain useful customer insight, develop new revenue streams and scrutinise their business models. As these businesses become more agile and innovative, they become more successful.
The same business analytics tools will also enable public sector organisations to implement a proactive approach by using information management as a strategic asset, which will help enable operational efficiency and effectiveness across government – from preventative health and welfare services through to public safety and security.
Most public sector information management strategies are still in the early stages of the 'information evolution' cycle. Organisations that focus only on compliance with legal and regulatory requirements are condemned to a continual cycle of reactive "fail-and-fix". Cultures should change to use existing data for insight and enable the sector to "predict-and-prevent."
Public sector bodies require a step-change in their information management strategies if they are to continue their overall transformational agenda.
There is a mounting pressure for the public sector as a whole to reduce its costs. However, any cost-cutting efforts cannot be made at the expense of public service delivery. These organisations need to work smarter – both more efficiently and effectively.
Identifying good costs and bad costs
The Government's Operational Efficiency report on public spending and reporting in May suggests that too many public sector organisations cannot differentiate between essential 'good costs' and the expendable 'bad costs'.
Good costs can be investments in technologies that address underlying problems, for example, and are the building blocks of a true information management strategy and the foundation of citizen-centric services.
The gap between increased demands and reduced budgets in the public sector is growing, and the only way for organisations to bridge it is to transform the way they manage their most under-utilised asset: information.
Visibility in information management: go beyond efficiency
Visibility of data and processes is essential for any government organisation to successfully transform and is a theme running through the many government reports this year, including:
* Audit Commission - In the Know
* Knowledge Council - Information Matters
* Transformational Government Review – Central Government
* The Cabinet Office - The Power of Information
* National Audit Office - Strategic Procurement / Procurement Capability Review
* Operational Efficiency Report – Central Government
Lessons from best practice
Increasingly, private sector organisations are taking their core data, integrating it across existing silos of information and then analysing it to gain insight into their business and customers. This insight helps them understand past performance and customer behaviour amongst many other trends and will help them communicate the right messages to the right audience. These practices are positive steps towards helping elevate organisations to positions of excellence and leadership.
One example is Vodafone. The company needed a central reporting system, which brings together measurement data from a wide range of sources. Business Analytics makes the necessary information available to the relevant people, on which they can base sound business decisions. Government departments use business analytics to make evidence-based decisions.
Business analytics – the public sector possibilities
There are beginning to be a number of visionary uses of business analytics solutions in the public sector – one of which is the NHS Information Centre (NHS IC), England's authoritative, independent source of health and social care information. Business Analytics is enabling the NHS IC to clean, manage and analyse information held on disparate systems more efficiently.
It also automates information management and sharing across the different trusts around the country, which informs better local decision-making.
London Fire Brigade (LFB) uses business analytics to decrease the number of fire incidents and save the lives of London's residents. Predictive analytics helps the LFB to prioritise the allocation of fire prevention resources because it can predict and pin-point specific households most at risk of fire to prevent fires before they occur.
Business Analytics has allowed the London Fire Brigade to move away from allocating resources based purely on historical data.
Predict-and-prevent is a sustainable method for on-going improvement benefits, but business analytics can also improve best practices for internal compliance in the short-term. It can help report against benchmarks and targets; detect and stop fraud; and comply with a range of regulations that govern public sector operations.
Business analytics provides a quick return on investment – it can provide analysis and insight in a short time frame. In addition, there is no requirement to rip-and-replace, because business analytics works across any application, hardware or operating system.
The need for a cultural shift
A culture that values information as highly as people, property and pounds could have a significant difference: Data Connects estimates that poor customer data quality costs each Local Authority on average more than £1m every year – so fixing this data quality imbalance could have a significant financial benefit, for example more effective debt management, debt collection, and reducing avoidable contact (NI14).
In addition to financial benefits, better information management could help to prevent future social costs, such as Baby P, Victoria Climbie, Soham and Shipman.
A positive cultural transformation will stop information being locked away and not used. Once data is viewed as a strategic asset, not a toxic liability, organisations can finally navigate with 20:20 vision and foresight. The more sustainable approach of valuing information must be embedded into an organisation's strategy and DNA – from the top-down.
To achieve this, the excellent approaches developed by organisations such as the Knowledge Council and the Audit Commission must be widely and rapidly deployed throughout the public sector.
Richard Broad is head of public sector at SAS UK
