DATA MANAGEMENT
Alister Humphreys, director of public services at Experian QAS, explains how using data wisely can mitigate some of the impact of the Coalition’s cuts.
W
e have all seen the multiple effects of last year’s government spending
review in the public sector. Throughout the country, councils are making cuts across the board. Cambridgeshire County Council recently announced £2.7m cuts to its bus service, Greater Manchester Police is set to shed 2,950 jobs and more than 350 UK libraries could close.
Many fear this is just the tip of the iceberg. But when it comes to increasing efficien- cies and making savings, there is a real op- portunity for councils to look at improving how they manage their data.
No-one would dispute that data can be a minefield in the public sector. Government organisations must deal with multiple dis- parate databases in a variety of formats, which in turn leaves scope for additional errors to be made. Even minor differenc- es in spelling make it difficult to connect records. But there are many ways govern- ment can use its data as an asset and ben- efit from increased efficiencies, the ability to share services more effectively and im- prove services. Here are some tips on how public sector executives can do just that.
Understand the citizen
Having an in-depth knowledge of who your citizens are and how they want to engage with your local authority is vital in achiev- ing cost efficiencies. Only when you have a single view of your citizens in terms of their profiles and the multiple interactions they have with your local authority can you make accurate decisions about the roll-out of new services and the continuation of existing services. Without this visibility, councils are cutting blindly.
Data quality and transparency
Data transparency allows local and central government to partner more effectively on initiatives such as ‘Tell us once’ and the data transparency agenda fuelling the
52 | public sector executive Mar/Apr 11
Local authorities need to know who their citizens are.
‘Big Society’. It’s all very well making data transparent, but it needs to be of a good standard of quality to be of value. If not, the issues connected to poor data quality will only escalate.
Accurate data supports financial planning
Understanding who lives in your area is es- sential to acquiring the funding you need. For one large city council, undercount in the 2001 census could have led to £100m in under funding over the last ten years, had they not been working towards a sin- gle view of their citizens.
Share services
As councils begin to merge and share serv- ices, it’s essential to understand how to bring together contact data appropriately in order to benefit from operational ef- ficiencies whilst also ascertaining it’s the correct course of action to take in the first instance.
Staff time and customer service
Save your staff time that could be rede- ployed elsewhere. A lot of avoidable contact between staff and citizens can be reduced if front-line staff have the tools to answer queries at the time of initial contact. If they have the right information on that citizen first time, they don’t need to pass the work through different departments.
Councils need to present a ‘joined up’ front in the roll-out of all services to citizens. Council perception can be damaged by not sharing data effectively from the point of capture to the back end where data needs to be cleaned to remove those who have moved or deceased. Citizens want to be
The public sector is bracing itself for the long haul and, as we face up to the reality of a multi-billion pound deficit, the hunt is on to find those elusive no-extra-cost rem- edies for efficiency and cash. Government must look to good data management in a time when hard decisions need to be made. All signals are pointing to this and the development of the National Address Gazetteer, providing one complete source of reference data to all government organi- sations, is a key milestone in this mission to drive efficiency through data in govern- ment organisations.
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sure that if they share information once with a local authority, they don’t have to repeat it several times.
Reduce duplicate invoicing
Issues existing around paying suppliers on multiple occasions are estimated to cost local government £150m a year. This could be rectified by having accurate and up to date contact data about the many suppliers that serve local government.
Deal with suppliers
Drive efficient business processes with suppliers; it is vital for government to be able to communicate with suppliers ef- fectively and switch to alternatives where necessary. The move towards e-procure- ment platforms has highlighted the chal- lenges that can be incurred with one lo- cal authority having to communicate to 57,000 suppliers in the transition process. Data can assist in the drive for improving government buying power at a time where they need it the most.
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