Data analytics technology is beginning to pay dividends for the local and state governments. Analytics market vendors even can sell their goods to certain government decision-makers, even though budgets may be small.
Big data and analytics applications are being used globally and are experiencing rapid growth. IDC estimates that the annual compound growth rate will reach 13 per cent by 2022. Around the world, more than $190 billion was invested in big data and analytics in calendar 2019 alone. State and local government bodies are now starting to see the same boom.
The growth in data analytics investment has generated a corresponding increase in the number in companies creating big data and analytics solutions. State and local governments can choose from a wealth of solutions to help them understand their data environments.
This means rivalry is high for vendors and is likely to get much greater. It’ll be important to clearly distinguish the approach and its advantages. The benefits that you present must go beyond the technical aspects of organizing or cataloguing, and focus on the return on investment that can be expected from state and local government entities.
Making sense of data
The abundance of data generated by the state and local governments comes with a need to make sense of that data. Nevertheless, states are starting to understand that making sense of the data is a full-time task. They recruit chief data officers or chief analytics officers whose sole duty is to consider what data they can access, and then start to collect, organize, and use it. A Chief Data Officer position has been developed by over half the states, with another seven states considering one. This growth in the chief data officers will lead to further increased use of data and analytics technologies.
Data analytics technologies can affect many aspects of state and local governments. Data analytics, for example, can help increase policy accountability in the form of open data platforms or enhance decision-making by better allocating resources. Many organizations are seeing improvements in efficiency from software-based manipulation of data, which needs less time for hands-on staff. Using data analytics technologies can help improve efficiency in the workforce and ultimately, help drive ROI.
Where SLED data analytics is focusing
States may use data analytics in areas such as agriculture, transport, health, and human services, or education. Each state has departments and agencies that represent and administer these analytical functions and all of them collect data – usually large quantities of it. Cybersecurity and fraud detection are some areas of particular interest.
