29 October 2020
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Digital transformation may sound like old news, but for many public sector organisations, the need to upgrade legacy IT systems and workflows is a big concern. Considering that a lot of organisations are still behind, this problem has taken on a new sense of urgency under the pandemic.
The good news is that there is progress. However, the challenges are stacking up, from the global health crisis to squeezed budgets to pressing environmental issues. The need for closing the gaps in public sector data analytics is now at critical status.
But back to the good news – there’s never been a better time to invest in data analytics solutions. Especially those that simplify analytics and close the technology gap. So, let’s take a look at three key steps public sector organisations should take to seize and synergise their data strategies.
1. Embrace cloud solutions
One of the biggest challenges with public sector records and data stores is that they are often kept in silos across different departments and divisions, making it nearly impossible for data to be compared or analysed on an enterprise scale. Added to that, many public sector institutions deal with highly sensitive data, from health records to defence inventories.
While data silos and managing data confidentiality may sound like complex issues, there is a simple solution. By migrating or streamlining your data onto a cloud platform, you can still control permissions and enable the right people within your organisation to access and work with any data without limits on scale or performance.
Keeping data in silos not only creates access issues but also under-utilisation of critical information that could lead to missed opportunities or even poorly informed decisions. For example, identifying if the workforce is over or under-stretched. That’s why having a centralised data market is now recognised as one of the five must-have elements of a data-driven culture.
Data security and secure data sharing are imperative when you’re dealing with sensitive public or government information, such as patient records or national security intelligence. Public sector organisations utilising Vizlib Collaboration, a value-added product for Qlik Sense, set up secure communication between their team members. And, they keep the data conversation flowing even in an environment where exports and emails are not allowed.
Secure, streamlined collaboration is possible with Vizlib Collaboration, a fully TED-accredited solution for Qlik Sense
2. Choose the right BI system
The next step, after establishing a holistic, centralised source of data, is making sense of it all. With the right BI system, extracting insights from that data pool is simplified and becomes accessible to everyone.
And everyone needs to be on board. Public records on citizens or scores and enrollment figures in the education sector represent millions of data points. Unlocking the immense value from such a data expanse hinges on user-friendly tools such as data visualisation.
Visualising data speeds up the time to insights, breaking down complex data into bite-sized chunks all can understand and act upon. For example, a dashboard for managing defence inventories showing when equipment was logged in or out of the system in real-time, or tracking soldier reserves against target numbers.
Managing public sector projects also becomes easier when all the moving parts are visualised. Organisations employing Vizlib Gantt are able to get a bird’s eye of their processes for better planning, organising and visualising in Qlik Sense.
By combining Vizlib Gantt with our writeback capabilities, you can shift your projects from visualisation to action
3. Build data fluency
Not everyone is on the same data literacy level. Yet, with support and nurturing, individuals can move beyond their fear of new technology and become more confident to explore data on their own. And with the right resources, teams can even transition from data literate to data fluent.
Anyone using data in the public sector needs to know how to find answers to their questions and make sense of those answers. For users, the shift from literacy to fluency is all about getting comfortable with the features, customisations and best practices, on their own.
Because we can’t all be data scientists, modern data visualisation and analytics platforms are becoming more intuitive so that anyone – from teachers to health workers to citizens, can easily build and gather their own trusted insights.
Whether it’s adding branding to a school’s dashboard or predicting scenarios for better intelligence planning, users shouldn’t require a statistics degree to explore and work with data. With the right solution, your organisation can drive data citizenship and begin to close the analytics gap.
Vizlib’s advanced analytics solutions help organisations predict the worst to plan for the best
The future of public sector analytics
Informed decision-making requires data-driven insights right now, where anything less is not only a disadvantage but a detriment to your mission.
Due to the scale and nature of the public sector, digital transformation has been a slow process. Despite significant progress to digitise and introduce online services, there are still many steps to take towards more efficient data strategies.
While the pandemic may have exposed the gaps in the public sector’s ongoing digital transformation, the important thing is to seize the momentum and focus on improving the industry’s data and technology fluency and efficiency.
Because regardless of data systems or skill levels, it’s about embracing a data-driven future – together.
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