- September 3, 2019
- Civic Data
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Government stands to gain $1 trillion globally from using data analytics. Few government data teams have the resources to document their value, but those that do can show as much as eight-to-one return on their cost. There is significant non-financial benefit as well, as public faith in government may improve when saving time and money is paired with increased transparency and accountability.
Many leading governments are already innovating with data and improving results, but these exemplars remain in the minority. While there are over 30,000[2] units of local government, only two dozen local governments have a data leader who participates in the Civic Analytics Network, a peer network of data leaders hosted by Harvard Kennedy School. Similarly small numbers of state and federal data leaders are in place. And fewer still have been able to document the concrete value of their results.
How can other state and local governments tap into this potential for public value? And how can they measure their impact and demonstrate value? This paper documents successful data analytics efforts in government and describes approaches to calculating returns. The purpose of this paper is to enable jurisdictions to make the case for investment in data analytics with a goal of advancing the state of data-driven government.
While there are many possible ways to describe the value to government of using data, this paper addresses three types of value created:
- Financial return attributable to analytics efforts;
- Operational process improvements achieved due to data and analytic approaches; and
- Increased faith in government attributable to data and transparency efforts.
With increasing availability of low-cost tools and large volumes of data for analytics, now is an excellent time for further investment in government analytics capabilities. Low cost and user-friendly analytics tools such as visualization and dashboarding allow for pattern analysis. Advanced analytic models can identify and predict negative outcomes that would have been overlooked by human judgment alone. Internet of Things (IoT) sensors, drones, and modern mapping tools have rapidly increased the availability and speed of location-based data analysis. In this environment, government leaders should carefully examine the successful examples here of providing financial benefit, operational efficiency, and improved faith in government.
