Build Your Government Data Analytics Strategy

How’s your government data analytics strategy going? The McKinsey Global Institute estimates that data and analytics could create approximately $1.2 trillion a year in value across the public and social sectors. And, as artificial intelligence (AI) continues to make waves, it’s an opportune time to make sure your data strategy and processes are in place. 

Why is government data so important now?

Government data and analytics impact the services you provide to your constituents. They enable agencies to see how efficient their operations are and better understand what services their constituents need most. 

Popular consumer brands see the benefits of what data and analytics can deliver. Big names like Spotify, Netflix, and Amazon provide personalized recommendations, offering reminders to re-up a subscription or recurring order and predicting surges in demand — adjusting their operations accordingly. With increasing expectations for government agencies to deliver these same experiences for both their workforces and constituents, it’s important to get the technology in place to deliver them.

Findings from Salesforce’s State of Data and Analytics Report show that government and public sector agencies across the globe are modernizing their technology. Many organizations have built their technology systems piece by piece as a combination of mergers and acquisitions. Legacy systems are often a patchwork of on-premises, mainframe, cloud, and hybrid locations and formats. Now, 98% of respondents say that they are in the process of, or have already migrated their analytics and applications to the cloud.

Here are four signs to reconsider your government data strategy

Data plays a big role in helping governments serve their constituents. Agencies need to efficiently gather data and help users to extract insights quickly and easily. To do that, you must have the right technology in place to support those processes. If you’re not sure how your data and analytics — and the supporting technology — stack up, here are four signs that you should reconsider your government data and analytics strategy:

1. Not everyone has access to data

Your decisions, operations, and experiences rely on data. Many agencies, however, house data on a combination of on-premises or cloud systems that are often siloed. Because they feed into multiple systems and are captured using a variety of methods, it’s difficult for the workforce to access information or trust that the data is accurate. 

Only 49% of government respondents to our State of Data and Analytics survey say that they have full visibility into their data.

A collaborative environment where everyone in your organization can access the right data at the right time is a must-have.

2. You can’t easily draw insights from your government data 

When it comes to government data analytics, legacy systems, point solutions, and other technology your agency uses likely means that analyzing data and drawing insights requires a lot of time-consuming manual effort. Because of this, your agency may be slow to respond to trends, operate on outdated findings, or find tracking progress toward your goals difficult. 

Government leaders note that taking too long to get insights is one of the top three challenges they face, and 92% agree that their organization should be getting more out of their data. A unified platform, however, can streamline that data and present it on easy-to-read dashboards that can be customized for important and relevant data to draw stronger conclusions. 

3. You can’t connect your government data and analytics to mission outcomes

Priorities between leadership teams and different departments within agencies don’t always overlap, making it difficult to connect your data with mission outcomes. Fifty-four percent of public sector business leaders say their data strategy is only partially aligned with business goals. Reconfiguring your operational model to bring tighter alignment across all teams and leaders within the agency can make better use of your organizational data for better mission outcomes.

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With the right AI-powered analytics platform, it gives everyone in the organization the ability to create powerful visual insights in a secure environment. This helps organizations balance the dual goals of governance and self-service access, enabling them to benefit from insights while securing data safely.

4. Your data doesn’t feed into a single source of truth

The truth is that the importance of data analytics for government agencies will continue to grow. Over two-thirds of analytics and IT leaders expect data volumes to increase 22% on average year over year. With government business leaders noting that their top challenge is the overwhelming volume of data, it’s crucial that agencies have a way to bring together disparate sources of data. 

However, the root of these challenges lies in data not being unified into a single source of truth. If you use an array of siloed data systems or have multiple methods for capturing information such as databases or manual spreadsheets, you’ll likely find that data isn’t standardized across the organization. This can lead to duplicates or inaccuracies, creating unnecessary work for your teams. 

Bringing all of your systems together, be they in the cloud, on-premises, or a combination, can significantly improve visibility into your data, make drawing conclusions much faster and simpler, and allow you to achieve better mission outcomes. 

Take your government data analytics strategy to the next level

If one or more of these signs resonated with you, your agency may benefit from technology platforms that can unify your sources, standardize your data analytics in government across the organization, and give you the insights you need to optimize processes.

Use your data to respond to, and cater to your community’s needs more effectively with the right tools. Learn more about how to unify data on a single platform to achieve mission success by checking out the free demo. The data is yours; make it count.