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Special Report2012 | Issue 1

in conjunction with

t h e c e n t e r f o r d i g i ta l g o v e r n m e n t ’ s

DashboardTheGovernment

a supplement to publIc cIo maGazine

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3 data: cio friend or foe?

4 the dashboard tells its own story

6 the Birth of dashboards

8 what can a dashboard do for my agency?

10 Potential roadblocks

12 Behind the dashboard: Big data and Key Performance indicators

14 information at your fingerprints

17 customizing the dashboard view

18 data systems and infrastructure

20 future trends in data analytics and dashboards

22 Best Practices for dashboard implementations

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contents

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2 PUBLIC CIO SPECIAL REPORT

3 data: cio friend or foe?

4 the dashboard tells its own story

6 the Birth of dashboards

8 what can a dashboard do for my agency?

10 Potential roadblocks

12 Behind the dashboard: Big data and Key Performance indicators

14 information at your fingerprints

17 customizing the dashboard view

18 data systems and infrastructure

20 future trends in data analytics and dashboards

22 Best Practices for dashboard implementations

DaTa: CIO FrIenD Or FOe?

introduction

data is the common currency of the global economy, but it can also be a beast that needs to be tamed. according to a recent report by idc, the world has moved into exabytes (bypassing gigabytes and petabytes — which, appropriately, come from the words “giant” and “monster” in greek), and it was expected that there would be 1,200 exabytes of digital data in 2010. to put that in perspective, the Economist notes that 1 exabyte of data would equal roughly 10 billion copies of its publication.1

we no longer need data. we need data about our data. maybe data about our data’s data? it’s headspinningly too much to comprehend, but somehow still fun to think about — unless you are a government executive, armed with microsoft excel sheets built for a bygone era and tasked with an edict to cut costs and increase efficiency through data-driven decision-making. if data is indeed the common currency of the global

economy, government is rich. consider some of the data sources used by maryland’s department of Public safety and correctional services (more on the successful actions of this department later): 8.7 million fingerprints and, until 2008, 92 different databases — each with its own sign-on requirement and search criteria for information retrieval. this special report details a response

to this data deluge — the government dashboard. dashboards — as well as business intelligence and performance metric calculations — help government cut through the complex clutter of rows and columns, to provide a simple visual representation of actionable metrics, key performance indicators of agency performance and meaningful analysis. in short, dashboards give us data about

our data — and tap its true potential to transform government in ways we had not imagined.

If data is the common

currency of the global economy,

government is rich.

3PUBLIC CIO SPECIAL REPORT

maryland dePartment of PuBlic safety and correctional servicesWhy it’s important: CraCkDOwn On CrImemaryland’s violent crime rate is at its lowest level since 1975 — in large part thanks to a

focus by the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services (DPSCS) to track data and improve department performance. DPSCS provides local maryland law enforcement agencies with a dashboard that serves as a single location for all information on a criminal subject, which enhances communication, data sharing and cooperation among law enforcement agencies.2,3

city of seattleWhy it’s important: 400 PerCenT InCreaSe In CITIzen engagemenTSeattle provides more than 120 open datasets with information about city infrastructure

and operations, shared in a standard format that is easy to download and use. It includes maps, forms, calendars, charts, filtered views, files and documents. Constituents can track actual performance to departmental objectives and use a map-based locator to find services and map events in their neighborhood. Seattle’s user-friendly online data exploration, rich visualization and social sharing capabilities have led to a 400 percent increase in user adoption since it was launched in 2009.4,5

federal it dashBoardWhy it’s important: Billion dollar Budget Boost The federal government put back $3 billion into U.S. coffers in a little over a year with its

IT dashboard, launched in June 2009. The dashboard — paired with regular in-person IT project meetings with the U.S. CIO known as TechStat sessions — allows agencies to monitor the effectiveness of federal IT projects by evaluating project costs and to schedule, terminate or suspend under-performing projects.6

DashboardTells Its Own Story

The


santa clara county social services agencyWhy it’s important: SavIng emPlOyee TImeBefore the Santa Clara County Social Services agency (SSa) implemented its

dashboard-based performance management solution, an employee could spend several weeks collecting and reporting data to produce a mandated report. Total time to produce a report post-dashboard? minutes. The system gives executives, administrators, managers and caseworkers self-service access to data and delivers operational reporting; analytics for research, evaluation and compliance reporting; and fraud detection, all accessible through easy-to-use dashboards.7,8

TexaS eDUCaTIOn agenCyWhy it’s important: HOlISTIC vIewS OF STUDenTS = BeTTer OUTCOmeSThe Texas education agency is harnessing an unprecedented amount of fast-

changing data to create a powerful and insight-packed set of dashboards. while most government dashboards provide a few summary-level metrics to a limited audience, Texas has charted a path to put a different, personalized dashboard on the desks of hundreds of thousands of educators. Detailed, research-based performance metrics will identify where a given student is struggling and allow a previously impossible holistic view of the student. The end result: better student outcomes.9

waSHIngTOn STaTe TranSPOrTaTIOn ImPrOvemenT BOarDWhy it’s important: UnIFyIng gOvernmenT wITH a SIngle verSIOn OF THe TrUTHwhen Steven gorcester took over as the head of the washington State

Transportation Improvement Board, he inherited a dump-truck’s worth of problems. among them was the fact that the agency couldn’t balance its books, having awarded nearly twice as many dollars in grants as they had available to spend. The solution: a streamlined, honest and interactive dashboard that is open to the public. gorcester’s dashboard did more than display data — it changed the conversation. By unifying everyone on a single version of the truth, the political debates melted away and real progress began. The dashboard initiative transformed the agency and its relationship with the public in a fundamental way.10

Tells Its Own Story


THe BIrTH OF DaSHBOarDS


Collecting and analyzing data to improve govern-ment performance dates

back to at least 1966, when Congress passed the Highway Safety act. The act ordered the development of a data system to record automobile-related acci-dents, injuries and deaths. with this trove of data, the national Highway Traffic and Safety ad-ministration could (and still can) examine reasons accidents occur, compare state laws and work to reverse the nation’s accident fa-tality rate.11 Thirty years later, the business of computer-based data management systems was boom-ing, but government had moved into “Big Data” — unwieldy infor-mation so massive in scope that it is difficult to collect, archive, ana-lyze and manage using traditional technologies and methods. De-spite its bulk, government organi-zations saw that they could create value from Big Data, but they needed to apply the appropriate combination of tools to produce previously unnoticeable insights.Data-driven decision-making is

based on the principles of busi-ness intelligence and data ana-lytics. Data collection, archiving, sorting, analysis and evaluation all work together to identify pat-terns, verify theories and establish relationships. In this process, raw data transforms into intelligence. However, this cryptic intelli-

gence is largely undecipherable to the layman. It turns out that

the manipulation of large data sets, and the use of statistical analysis methods and algorithm-based predictive models is even more complex in practice than it sounds on paper. These tech-niques result in complicated, multiple-columned and tabbed spreadsheets, largely undecipher-able except to highly trained data and statistical analysts.

Hence the need for dashboards. Dashboards are software-based solutions that transform lumps of data collected by agencies and their various data management systems into simple displays of key performance measures that let statistics shine and can com-municate with multiple audiences.Because dashboards are de-

signed to be intuitive and simple, they expand data access from highly trained data analysts to casual users. Public dashboards provide transparency and ac-countability and spur citizen involvement in governmental deci-sion- and policy-making. an early dashboard is the

nyPD’s CompStat, developed in the 1990s. CompStat allows police leaders to submit weekly crime data of significant activities and

crime patterns to the CompStat Unit, which collates it in a data-base and generates a citywide re-port that tracks and maps all crime activity.Dozens of police departments

nationwide embraced the Comp-Stat model, including the city of Baltimore, whose then-mayor martin O’malley was so impressed that he adopted the system to

track a variety of performance indicators in all municipal depart-ments. Dubbed CitiStat, the map-based performance management application tracks and addresses such issues as response time to public complaints; exces-sive employee absenteeism and overtime; pothole reporting and repair; snow and trash removal; and crime rate.But O’malley didn’t stop there.

CompStat had inspired CityS-tat and, when O’malley became maryland’s governor in 2007, StateStat was born.“StateStat allows us to attack

problems and make decisions very quickly,” says Beth Blauer, executive director of the pro-gram. “It has given government a level of agility that I never thought was possible before.”12

OF DaSHBOarDS Dashboards are designed to be intuitive and simple — expanding data access from highly trained data analysts to the casual user.


improve operational performancegovernments use data man-

agement systems to collect and analyze operational data for en-terprise resource planning (erP), geographic information, financial and accounting, human resources, purchasing and procurement, and many others. Shining a light into administrative processes facilitates better management of organiza-tional information flow, decision-making, productivity and costs. For example, the review process required by the Federal IT Dash-board resulted in the suspension or termination of numerous underper-forming projects.13 Often, the data these enterprise

management systems collect is viewed as simply a by-product of the software — available but not used. Or data experts pull lengthy spreadsheets or statistical analyses from these systems, and report relevant results back to agency managers and executives. Some agencies or departments

may be able to benefit from a standalone dashboard that provides

a view of a single function. Stand-alone dashboard capability may be built into the data management system, or derived from software that is developed or purchased separately. But the highest value comes from combining multiple streams of data with dashboard technology, because it can provide an integrated, complete, accessible and user-friendly view of administra-tive performance.The Texas education agency’s

dashboard project is a good ex-ample. “not only do teachers not have enough data about their kids, they also don’t know what they don’t have,” according to adam Jones, deputy commissioner at the agency. Brian rawson, director of Statewide Data Initiatives at the same agency, agrees that the chal-lenge is getting the right informa-tion to the right people, in the right context. “The fact that this data is all in one place ... you could finally see the correlation between grades, attendance and assessments,” says rawson. It was the combination of different streams of data that made the difference.14

government leaders can use insight from

the dashboard to determine program

viability, identify weaknesses and

make changes, and reallocate resources

if necessary.


what Can a Dashboard Do For my agency?

lower costsBy improving agency performance

and providing insight into under-performing programs and projects, dashboards and performance metrics have tremendous potential to create cost efficiencies. They pro-vide hard evidence to support tax dollar-saving process changes.“The most profound thing that I

think we learned is what causes overtime to go up,” says Secretary maynard of the maryland Depart-ment of Public Safety and Cor-rectional Services (DPSCS). “The StateStat model called attention not just to the data but to the drivers of the data. It turns out there are 8 to 10 factors that affect overtime. Collectively, they’re hard to deal with but if you tackle them individually you can make headway.”DPSCS discovered that over-

time was driven by the number of inmates that were placed in off-site hospitals, which requires the use of 24-hour supervision by correctional officers — 10 officers for every week that an inmate was in the hospital. They also found that many inmates were kept in the hospital far longer than necessary. Through StateStat, DPSCS was able to change its pro-cesses and save $12 million in over-time costs in the last two years.15

Boost service deliveryDashboards and performance

metrics can also be applied to the information systems that are used to collect and manage tactical agency data, such as building permits, park-ing tickets, pothole repairs and crime trends. By integrating this data with dashboards, governments and their constituents can gain great insight into the delivery of citizen services. Dashboards can show the areas

where an agency is meeting or ex-ceeding its mission as well as areas where improvement is needed. gov-ernment leaders can use this insight to determine program viability, identify weaknesses and make changes, and reallocate resources if necessary.“every agency is benefiting from

the StateStat process, in part because it provides an opportunity to have a predictable, scheduled interaction with the governor’s Office, without having a fire to put out,” says maryland’s Blauer. “you measure what you’re doing, you get feedback and you impact the day-to-day performance of the agency.”

promote accountability and transparencyas data analysis techniques and

technologies mature, the pressure for government agencies to mean-ingfully measure and communicate performance outcomes intensifies. Today’s transparency and account-ability efforts are primarily focused on providing citizens, funders and other government agencies with easy-to-access online data. The Federal IT Dashboard is an

example of a successful transpar-ency effort. representing a major leap forward for federal IT accountability, all available public information is dis-played. Only sensitive procurement data is not included. IT investment in-formation made available by the dash-board includes CIO name and email; awarded contracts including amount, vendor, and start and end dates; per-formance measures, such as baseline results, target results, actual results and CIO rating of a program; and cost and schedule information. This high degree of “sunshine” can

be mimicked at the state and local level as well. The citizens of Seattle,

for example, are enthusiastic us-ers of the city’s data portal, Data.Seattle.gov, where they can review annual budget details, real-time 911 data and permitting information. Users can create and share their own “views” of data. For example, they could create a filter on build-ing permits which shows all building permits in a certain census tract or zip code, and share that view on the portal, allowing other users to see the same data.

Federal Dashboardsat a glance• recovery.gov

www.recovery.gov, tracks spending related to the 2009 american recovery and reinvestment act, or arra (see sidebar).

• it dashBoard www.itdashboard.gov, provides details of federal information technology investments.

• usasPending.gov www.usaspending.gov, contains information about federal financial awards and grants.

• Performance.gov www.performance.gov, tracks agency spending and performance.

• reginfo.govwww.reginfo.gov, allows citizens to track proposed agency rules.

• fda-tracKwww.fda.gov/fdatrack, monitors over 100 fda program offices.

• foreign assistancewww.foreignassistance.gov, provides information on foreign assistance spending.

• data.medicare.gov,data.medicare.gov, displays information and comparisons of hospitals, dialysis facilities, home health agencies, nursing homes and medical equipment suppliers.


POTenTIalrOaDBlOCkS


Changing the way deci-sions are made is a major shift for most public sector

organizations. Often, jurisdictions without data analysis capability make decisions and measure outcomes through the use of gut feelings. The use of data analysis and dashboards eliminates instinct and guesswork and promotes fact-based decisions and performance measurement. Data changes a work environment

by eliminating multiple versions of the truth: The only truth is the one backed by solid, properly ana-lyzed data. although this is a major benefit, some employees may resist because they fear that data will be used against them, negatively impact their job or create other undesirable changes. Direction needs to come from the

top down. For example, President Obama’s emphasis on performance management and open government made culture change an imperative for federal agencies. now, the fed-eral government is at the forefront of the use of publicly available, dashboard-driven performance measurement and analysis.when implementing its training

dashboard, the California Commis-sion on Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) handled this challenge by pushing through and letting the results speak for them-selves. “we changed an estab-lished process. By empowering law enforcement officers to manage their own training, we changed the way training managers did their jobs,” says mitch Coppin, POST CIO. “In the end, training managers could see that the dashboard made them more efficient by allowing them to focus on the more strategic parts of their job.”

Data misinterpretationresults of data analysis can be

misinterpreted due to false as-sumptions about cause and effect. Common mistakes include: • Confusing correlation with

causation• The infrequent or inconsistent

use of analytics tools• The application of results from

small groups to larger cohorts• misleading results produced by

inference-based analysis • Unintentional manipulation of

results by the researcherwhen combining multiple data

sources or migrating databases, information may be coded differently or entered inconsistently, resulting in an “apples-to-oranges” comparison. Or, 10 entries for “John Smith” could signify the same person 10 times, or 10 different people. many of these mistakes can be prevented by using the appropriate and consistent data entry, analysis and cleaning tech-niques to ensure data integrity; and by including metadata that provides context, documentation, and details about origin or previous manipulation.

Data ownershipData ownership is a murky area.

Data can easily be copied and re-distributed and it’s not yet apparent who owns; who can access; and who can use raw data, raw per-sonal information, the results of a statistical analysis or even the data that is generated from digitally ana-lyzing large amounts of data. when multiple agencies and datasets are involved the situation gets murkier. Furthermore, who makes these decisions about data? The maryland Department of

Public Safety and Correctional

Services (DPSCS) is making head-way with this issue. The depart-ment is comprised of more than 20 agencies, each with its own data collection tools and techniques. Its dashboard for local law enforce-ment required integrating and using data from all of these sources. To resolve ownership issues, the State-Stat team and DPSCS leadership pulled together all internal stake-holders and, based on discussion and feedback, assigned responsibili-ties and determined access.

security and privacySecurity threats come in the form

of hacking attacks, viruses, mal-ware and other cybercrimes aimed at stealing private data. Privacy is a concern when anonymity is compromised by techniques that reveal information or breach con-fidentiality. In addition to constitu-ent data, tactical and operational data are also valuable assets that must be protected.Security and privacy concerns,

particularly those regarding per-sonal constituent data, have led to a proliferation of federal and state legislation, regulations and standards with which the public sector must comply. Federal and state mandates such as the Family educational rights and Privacy act (FerPa) and the Health Insurance Portability and accountability act (HIPaa) require the responsible and secure use and archiving of data to ensure privacy and protect against security breaches. Compliance is often considered time consuming and resource intensive, but adher-ing to these and other measures is a critical and effective way of main-taining data security and privacy.

rOaDBlOCkS


BeHInD

Big Data: the Foundation of the DashboardIn both the public and private

sectors, mobile phones and other Internet-connected devices, em-bedded networked sensors and meters, enterprise data manage-ment systems, social media net-works, and even security and traffic camera systems generate and collect enormous volumes of data about customers, employees, pur-chases, suppliers and operations. mentioned previously, maryland’s

Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services (DPSCS) con-tains nearly 8.7 million fingerprints; gPS monitoring for certain parol-ees; electronic check-in kiosks for low-risk parolees in its field offices,16 and until 2008, 92 different data-bases — each with its own sign-on requirements and search criteria for information retrieval — for criminal and background information. “we had to cross-reference mul-

tiple databases for different aspects of one person’s record — parole records, handgun registration, sex offenders, etc.,” explains DPSCS Secretary gary maynard. “Checking criminal background was complex and time consuming.”

The DPSCS tamed its criminal and background check data by creating a law enforcement Dashboard that consolidates data from the 92 da-tabases into a single platform. now, law enforcement can find a person’s entire criminal and background record in minutes instead of hours.not only can Big Data be used to

create operational efficiencies, it can also be mined for tremendous value — knowledge that can be uncov-ered using properly applied data analytics and business intelligence tools and techniques, including:• data mining — extracting

patterns from data to reveal new knowledge;

• benchmarking — evaluating and comparing business processes and results to known industry best practices and measures; and

• predictive analytics — determining relationships among data variables and using them to predict future outcomes, trends and behaviors.

Kpis: the aBCs of the Dashboarda key performance indicator (kPI)

is a metric, tied to a predeter-mined benchmark, indicating in

some way whether the target has been achieved. They are measure-ments, or combinations of mea-surements, that help governments evaluate program and agency out-comes and determine the health of an organization’s administrative and operational systems. They can be compared to the benchmark or serve as a simple notification.17 kPIs vary across agencies,

departments and constituents. On the operational side, there is a high demand by constituents to understand how resources are being applied, evaluate program and departmental effectiveness, and determine whether constituent services are delivered well and ef-ficiently. State and local agencies, in particular, are making efforts to provide targets and kPIs that help improve constituent satisfaction.kPIs can be used to measure

output, efficiency or effectiveness. Output kPIs are simple tallies of accomplishments; for example, the number of potholes repaired each month. efficiency kPIs gauge the use of resources; for example: the cost to repair each pothole, or the number of workers needed to repair each pothole. effectiveness

BIg DaTa anD key PerFOrmanCe InDICaTOrSTHe DaSHBOarD:


2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020

BeHInDkPIs measure the quality of service performed; for example, the per-centage of potholes repaired within 24 hours of being reported.18 Seattle CTO Bill Schrier says that

determining kPIs and correspond-ing benchmarks, which Seattle calls “performance expectations,” is one of the most important parts of performance measurement, especially for citizen-facing dash-boards. To determine constituents’ primary concerns, his team talked to those in closest contact with

them — elected officials. “we have thousands of perfor-

mance expectations in city gov-ernment, but we’ve only published about 10 percent of them online,” he says. “my boss cares about how long it takes our depart-ment to respond to an internal PC service request, but the average citizen doesn’t. However, they do care about crime, building permits, potholes, road repairs, broken streetlights, graffiti and abandoned cars, so let’s focus on getting that

information out there.”Once the kPIs have been set, the

next challenge is determining the target benchmark. “For example, we promise that we will fill potholes within two busi-ness days of a citizen report, and we measure ourselves against that,” Schrier says. “everybody had a different opinion about how many days it should be. Should it be really easy to attain, like five days? Or should we challenge ourselves more?”kPIs are typically designed to

communicate information to the end user at a glance. a valuable kPI extracts value from raw data and makes it actionable, enabling staff, activities, budget and priori-ties to be evaluated for alignment with strategic objectives.

exponential Data growththe national oceanic and atmospheric administration’s (noaa) data management system predicts that the agency’s amount of archived data will grow to more than 160,000 terabytes (tB) by 2020, due primarily to huge amounts of data being collected by remote sensing of the atmosphere, oceans, land and space.

exponential data growth isn’t limited to large federal agencies like noaa. for example, the data storage capacity requirements of clackamas county, ore., increased from 4 tB in 2005 to around 60 tB in 2010.19

THe DaSHBOarD:

Source: http://celebrating200years.noaa.gov/visions/data_mgmt/side1_class.html.


Seattle CTO Bill Schrier says that determining kPIs and corresponding benchmarks is one of the most important parts of performance measurement, especially for citizen-facing dashboards.

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health anD human serviCes (hhs) aGenCies are straininG under the pressures of budget cuts, staff reductions and aging it systems. nowhere is this more evident than in the medicaid program. medicaid administration and management is a perfect storm of a number of challenges that can be addressed by data analytics and business intelligence:20 • hiGh Costs. medicaid is consistently one of the fastest-growing line

items in federal and state budgets.• inFormation silos. multiple health and human services agencies

often provide services to the same person. yet the prevalence of siloed it systems results in separate offices, forms, processes and data records for each service, causing confusion, frustration, inefficiency, additional costs and potential errors.

• aGinG inFrastruCture. originally designed to support provider claims, many aging state medicaid management information systems struggle to handle the new functions they are required to manage.

• enrollment inCreases. medicaid enrollment is increasing dramatically as the recession forces more people out of jobs. in addition, the 2010 Patient Protection and affordable care act (aca) will expand medicaid eligibility to between 20 and 30 million new applicants by 2014.

• privaCy anD seCurity ConCerns. Patient identification and healthcare data must remain private and secure in compliance with hiPaa.

• health it manDates. arra requires that most citizens should have access to an electronic health record by 2014, and also asks states to build a health information exchange (hie) infrastructure to support the secure exchange of patient information.

• mita FrameWorK. the centers for medicare and medicaid services (cms) is encouraging states to adopt its medicaid information technology architecture (mita) to enable data sharing and consistency throughout the medicaid program.

• FrauD, Waste anD aBuse. fraud, waste and abuse committed by beneficiaries, pharmacies, providers and sponsor plans increase costs for program recipients, taxpayers, the states and the medicaid program.

these unique challenges can shift the focus of medicaid program

administration from the it system to the beneficiary. for example, multiple hhs agencies may interact with the same individual, providing food stamps, public housing and medicaid. But that person interacts with many agencies, separate processes and siloed it systems that generate multiple sets of uncorrelated, redundant data. By aggregating data from different hhs agencies, and applying business

intelligence and data analytics technology and methods, governments can identify patterns that show where their medicaid programs are effective or not, and implement changes that reduce costs and waste, enhance service and adhere to compliance requirements. hhs organizations can benefit from testing out this type of data-centric it strategy in their medicaid programs and gradually expanding it to other agencies and programs.

medicaid: The Perfect Storm


The design of the dashboard should be based on what data is most relevant and important to its audience. like the Federal IT Dashboard, a government organiza-tion may use a combination of internal dashboards for performance initiatives and external dashboards that meet public transparency and accountability initiatives. California’s Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) has a single audience: California law enforcement officers and dispatchers. a dashboard can be static — giving all users the same

view of the measurements provided — or dynamic — using an interactive interface that lets viewers select various measurements to tailor their view. The term dashboard conjures images of gauges, dials

and odometers — a classic dashboard design. Other graphic tools used in dashboards include stoplights to indicate status; slider bars that the user can move to view how changing one variable affects others; and maps, charts, pie graphs and other graphic represen-tations that can be easily digested, manipulated and understood.For example, The Texas education agency’s student

performance dashboards use a standardized structure to provide a personalized view to each teacher, coun-selor and school administrator in the state. They all see metrics tailored to their role, and the data that makes sense for them. By making the dashboard localized — getting down to the individual student — it enables the dashboard to become a truly effective operational tool.most important to the dashboard design is the role

of the user and the kPIs that are most meaningful and relevant to the user. Dashboard functionality can be customized to provide role-based insight to any level of government, from the chief executive to the private citi-zen and everyone in between. access can be tailored to ensure privacy and data security.

The following chart illustrates how dashboard perspectives might appear to different audiences, based on their roles.

Customizing the Dashboard view

role Potential dashBoard view

elected or appointed official

• Performance of multiple agencies and departments compared to goals

• Performance compared to corresponding departments in other similar agencies, states or municipalities

• Budget and financial overviews for all agencies

agency head

• Performance compared to corresponding departments in other similar agencies, states or municipalities

• Comparison of effectiveness and efficiency for multiple programs

• actual vs. projected departmental spending

program or department manager

• worker productivity measurements• actual vs. projected program spending• Comparison to other similar departmental

programs

individual contributors

• Individual workload management statistics• Comparison between achieved and

expected goals• Training objectives and status

Constituent • year-over-year performance (achieved goals) of programs and departments

• Status and schedule of services (e.g., pothole repair, street cleaning)

• How tax dollars are being spent


enterprise data management systems are widely used throughout the public sector to collect and manage data. Their purpose is to

improve workflow and productivity and reduce pa-perwork in their respective functional areas. In state and local governments, enterprise data manage-ment systems generally fall into two categories:

• Administrative systems that handle operational data, such as enterprise resource planning (erP); enterprise content management (eCm); work order management; customer relationship management (Crm); facilities, resource and real estate management; geographic informa-tion system (gIS); customer billing and taxa-tion; talent management; and IT management systems for managing and tracking security issues, user identities, software and hardware assets, and application, system and network performance.

• Tactical data systems that collect specific agency data related to providing agency services, such as health and human services case management, police incident and accident reports, parking ticket and traffic stop data, ar-rest warrant information, emS patient insurance

data and treatment information, building inspec-tion work orders and citations, public works ticket management, and other systems that create agency-related digital forms, and capture and manage documents.

Organizations can integrate the data gathered by these and other systems with data analytics, busi-ness intelligence and reporting to deliver customized performance management.

Data infrastructure optionsThe California Commission on Peace Officer Stan-

dard and Training’s (POST) dashboard is an example of a dashboard that can be an effective manage-ment tool even if it only tracks one or two measures for a single audience. This basic capability can be implemented by using the ad hoc reporting and dashboarding tools that are often included with most data systems, or by using out-of-the-box or custom-developed software. Single-system dashboards are easy to deploy

and use and don’t overtax personnel or budgetary resources. an application can be developed internally, as California’s POST agency did. “It doesn’t have to be a complex application,” says POST’s Coppin. “It was worth the risk to put the dashboard out there, because if it failed, the cost was negligible.”


Data systems & Infrastructure

an alternative is the software-as-a-service (SaaS) model, in which the application is hosted securely in the cloud by an IT vendor and billed on a subscription or per-use basis. This is probably the easiest solution to deploy: the software is already de-veloped and tested, although it can be customized to meet a specific agency requirement. The time to de-livery is extremely fast: deployment requires simple integration of data feeds to and from to the SaaS ven-dor. end users access the solution via web browser over the Internet.Consolidating and combining

information from both tactical and administrative systems to populate the government dashboard is a more complex and expensive imple-mentation that transforms data into a functional management tool. One way to achieve this is to

extract data from disparate data management systems and their separate databases into a data warehouse capable of relating all the organizational data as a whole, allowing data analysts to produce advanced, institution-wide and long-term analyses, reports and dashboards. For example, the Santa Clara County Social Services agency integrated 11 different databases into a single data ware-house, simplifying data manage-ment and maintenance and reduc-ing data duplication. when the maryland Department

of Public Safety and Correctional Services consolidated 92 data-bases to create its law enforcement Dashboard, its IT specialists used a business intelligence tool to do the heavy lifting of mining and integrat-ing the data. This prevented the delay that would have resulted from

creating individual queries for each database. The department’s main-frame database had to be config-ured with another tool that was in turn integrated with the business intelligence solution, which also provides dashboards and a web-based interface. In these examples, the data warehouse is located on premise, but data can also be consolidated using a cloud-based SaaS offering. Seattle’s data.se-attle.gov is such a hosted solution. Cloud-based solutions are gaining

ground in the government sector in large part because of their cost efficiencies. They allow organiza-tions to leverage top-of-the-line infrastructure and 24/7/365 support and service that may otherwise be out of reach.The vendor-hosted cloud model

eliminates the expenditures associ-ated with buying, maintaining and upgrading infrastructure, software licensing and updating. Services are typically available on a subscription or pay-as-you-go basis.

leveraging the Data warehouseone way to transform data into a functional management tool is to

aggregate it into a data warehouse capable of relating organizational data as a whole. a data warehouse can link and combine information from separate agencies. such a design makes the citizen the focal point, surrounded by the services he or she uses. Business intelligence and analytics can look across data sets and

produce insights on individual citizens to identify where people are falling through society’s social safety nets. for the past two years, the state of michigan has been involved in an initiative to ensure child safety. the state court administrative office and the michigan department of human services have started sharing information compiled from the state’s data warehouse in cases involving abuse, neglect, foster care and adoption. the next step in the program is to integrate medicaid data to allow analysts to monitor the quality of health care and determine courses of care.from late 2008 through august of 2009, the state increased family

reunifications by 34 percent among temporary court wards (tcw). this is a group of children who were identified in a michigan children’s rights lawsuit as having remained in the system for one year or longer. By analyzing the broader data, states may be able to more effectively identify patterns that show where programs work and where they are ineffective, thus improving services and saving money.see “the People-centered universe: fresh thinking on government

it modernization, http://www.govtech.com/library/papers/the-People-centered-universe-fresh-thinking-on-government-it-modernization.html.


technology adoptionCitizens and other data users

want multiple channels for com-munication and information deliv-ery. Constituents want to receive information and provide feedback about services via social media services. Data from social media can provide a wealth of informa-tion about user opinions. Social media analytics, text analytics and sentiment analysis enable orga-nizations to analyze social media data and extract actionable insight about their audiences to improve services. mobility will also impact govern-

ment data. end users will want to access government data via

smartphones and other mobile devices, and agencies will need to invest in mobile application de-velopment. In addition, the growth of mobile devices is one of the primary drivers of the explosion of Big Data. Because the public increasingly wants mobile access to services, mobile devices will become a larger source of access data about citizens. Finally, the future is cloudy. Cloud

computing will continue to increase in importance and be adopted across all government sectors; IT management must evaluate the mer-its and risks of cloud-based analytics platforms and solutions as it consid-ers eventual cloud migration.

Big Data growthBig Data is here to stay. It’s not

going to get smaller, it’s certainly not going away and it needs to be managed. at the same time, eco-nomic challenges are creating a near-crisis situation, which can be addressed by effectively mining Big Data for solutions and operational efficiencies. If they aren’t already, governments must think about how to address the continued growth of data in the enterprise.

transparency imperativeTransparency will become an im-

perative as the government Perfor-mance results act modernization act of 2010 (gPrama), recently signed into law, drives the use of data-driven performance manage-ment and dashboards in the federal sector. The Obama administration championed gPrama to update the 1993 government Performance results act, which mandated the creation of multi-year strategic plans, and annual performance plans and reports. gPrama requires more frequent

(quarterly) reporting and reviews, increases the types of data that must be reported, and emphasizes the im-portance of data in making decisions and evaluating agency performance. as federal agencies are required to report even more types of data, gPrama could lead to more use of independent evaluators and there-fore more objective benchmarks, as practiced by the private sector.

Future Trends in Data analytics & Dashboards


as transparency becomes an imperative at the federal level, states and municipalities will be expected by their constituents to adhere to the same levels of open government that federal agencies have begun to provide.

security and Compliance trackingData management systems,

enterprise technology, e-govern-ment platforms and data collected and generated by these systems compels government agencies to protect their critical information and technology assets. as part of this process, they must comply with numerous federal and state man-dates and security standards such as the Federal Information Security management act (FISma), Pay-ment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), north ameri-can electric reliability Corpora-tion (nerC), Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) and HIPaa.as Big Data and security and

compliance concerns intersect, governments will begin to look to the data generated by its applica-tions, servers, network devices, security devices and other systems to understand the activities and behaviors of its technology, em-ployees, constituents and other users. logs, configuration data, data from application programming interfaces (aPIs) and message queues, change events, the output of diagnostic commands and other data can be analyzed to diagnose problems, detect and predict security threats, enable continuous systems monitoring, monitor inci-dents in real time and demonstrate compliance.

promising applicationsThe use of dashboard-based

performance management holds much promise in the areas of talent management; criminal justice; and fraud, waste and abuse.

talent managementThe government workforce is

graying and government agencies increasingly find themselves on the losing end of a competition with the private sector for new talent. as concerns about succession and employee retention continue to in-crease, talent management systems and dashboards will become vital tools in the public sector.

Criminal justiceThe prospects for performance

management and dashboard ap-plications in the criminal justice field are bright, because so much data exists in isolated data repositories, hindering the capabilities of law enforcement agencies. Integrating crime-related data has the potential to improve law enforcement ef-ficiency and have a positive impact on crime rates, just as it has in maryland.

Fraud, waste and abuseThe labor Department’s recent

award of $191 million to 40 states to upgrade unemployment insur-ance programs to incorporate fraud detection technology is an example of a redoubled effort to prevent fraud, waste and abuse. The public sector is just beginning to use analytics to predict, track and recover costs lost to fraud, waste and abuse in areas such as unemployment insurance, medicaid and taxation.

Collaborationas cloud technology becomes

more prevalent, social collaboration on analytics projects may occur. early adopters will be government and education researchers. The cloud may spur more collaboration in small and mid-sized states that may find it more cost-effective to pool their resources for a subscrip-tion-based analytics service, instead of purchasing their own solution. Other innovations include “social”

data analytics software that allows any stakeholder to work together on the same datasets using the same collaborative platform.

Digitally native staffeven though many government

employees are postponing retire-ment due to the recession, nearly a quarter of CIOs recently surveyed by the national association of State CIOs (naSCIO) anticipate that in the next five years, between 21 and 30 percent of state IT employees will retire or be eligible to retire.21 retiring employees will be replaced

with workers from a generation that has used Internet-connected com-puters, laptops, smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices since they were children. Digital natives as-sume that data is captured from all digital systems and openly available to them as they go about their jobs. The public sector must adapt to their expectations to successfully compete with private industry for this worker.“Data can make the challenge of

turning around a failing school cool again,” says adam Jones, deputy commissioner of the Texas education agency. “millenials are born wired-in, and they also have a much greater interest in community service.”22


1 start with executive sponsorship: as with any major process change, there is no incentive to move forward

without demand for change from the very top levels of the agency or government body. Due to his experience with Baltimore’s CitiStat, performance metrics and dashboards were the foundation of maryland gov. martin O’malley’s agenda even before he was elected. and dur-ing his first year in office, Seattle’s mayor mike mcginn drove the effort to develop, publish, measure and track departmental performance expectations aligned with his administration’s priorities and key initiatives.

2 Consider governance: Implementing data-driven performance management and decision-making can often impact

data, staff and processes of multiple agencies. Determine who develops the project guidelines,

who oversees them and who gets to change them. Create a governance process and guide-lines for data sharing that address potential agency conflicts, privacy and data security. “we meet individually with each agency to determine their goals, but we also include the governor’s perspective,” says maryland’s Blauer. “He had 15 strategic goals that cut across all agencies. we had to sit down with each agency and fig-ure out agency ownership, responsibilities and contribution towards each goal.”

3 Communication and training: agency and departmental staff may have concerns about open data, new ways

of decision-making and performance manage-ment, or new responsibilities related to data reporting. “There may be some grumbling at first, until it becomes integrated into the work-flow,” says Secretary maynard of the maryland

Best practices for Dashboard Implementations


Department of Public Safety and Correctional Servic-es. “Continually communicate the value that data and dashboards can bring to the agency and its constitu-ents, and don’t neglect appropriate training on how to use new tools.”

4 use good program management: Don’t shortcut the program management process to launch a program too quickly. Outsource

where you don’t have the appropriate expertise in house or need additional resources. Develop your goals and a strategy, roadmap and action plan. make the project inclusive by involving stakeholders to provide accountability and ownership. Set delivery expectations, using a quality assurance process that allows them to be met successfully.

5 Don’t be afraid of open data: Publish all of the data that your audience is interested in. Staff will appreciate the opportunity to use data to create

change, and taxpayers will become more engaged in the governing process. “Don’t be afraid to put the data and the results of analysis out there,” says Seattle’s Schrier. “By opening up data to your audiences, you’re inviting them to help you streamline the process.”

6 Data quality and frequency: Identify the various data sources that will contribute data. with many different types and sources of

data, from maps to texts and structured to unstruc-tured, you must have the right people on staff to manage the data analysis and business intelligence processes to ensure that data is clean and accurate. Understand how frequently the data is updated and how often it needs to be published to meet objectives and end user expectations.

7 embrace an incremental approach: Don’t get bogged down by trying to achieve per-fection on the initial launch. relevant kPIs,

achievable yet challenging benchmarks, high-quality data, and a simple, accessible dashboard design will result in a “quick win” that can create momentum and initiate culture. “Don’t make perfect the enemy of good,” says Blauer. “Just get started. The data and your audience’s reaction to it will help shape the conversation, and the dashboard.” adam Jones agrees: “I am never convinced that large government solutions are a good idea, but I sure like an intercon-nected series of small ones.”23

8 Determine the pain points: you can’t just put all your data in a data warehouse and top it off with a slick dashboard interface — you have to

understand the problems that need solving and ques-tions that need answering. where can data be applied to have the biggest impact? From there, you’ll be able to determine key performance indicators and benchmarks.

9 Document the business process before you try to automate and measure it, suggests Schrier. “If you’re trying to create transpar-

ency and improve the efficiency of the construction permitting process, first you have to understand that process,” he says. “you can’t think about how to measure it and squeeze inefficiencies out of it until you understand it.”

10 stay focused: avoid scope creep by staying focused on the problem you’re trying to solve. This helps you keep the

project on schedule, lower costs and avoid “frankend-ashboards” that nobody can use. “Too many bells and whistles can complicate development and confuse the end user,” said Bob lapanja, application developer for the California Commission on Peace Officer Stan-dards and Training (POST). “keep in mind the problem you’re trying to solve and make sure every feature you add helps solve that problem.”

11 ignore security at your peril: If you’re considering a cloud/hosted solution, make sure to do your due diligence in

evaluating vendor capabilities. In most cases, you’ll find that cloud security exceeds your in-house abili-ties. many vendors have achieved compliance with FISma, which is comprehensive in addressing se-curity risks and standards. another security issue to consider is providing selective access for content to individual users based on role.

12 Don’t forget outreach: Once you’ve developed and launched a dashboard, you’ll want people to know about it.

make sure to conduct outreach to your intended audi-ence, whether internal or external, and encourage users to play around with the data and provide feedback based on their experiences. “we notified law enforce-ment agencies using an email database that we have for newsletters and other announcements,” says Coppin of California POST. “we also went to meetings and confer-ences and gave presentations and software demos.”


Stay focused to avoid “frankendashboards” that nobody can use.

1. http://www.economist.com/node/15557421

2. Center for Digital government interview with gary maynard, Secretary, maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional

Services, conducted December 5, 2011

3. maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, “md. crime rate at 35-year lows, governor says,” may 10, 2010,

http://www.dpscs.state.md.us/publicinfo/news_stories/in_the_news/20100510a.shtml

4. Center for Digital government interview with Bill Schrier, CTO, Seattle, conducted november 28, 2011

5. “Socrata Powers award-winning Open Data Programs in Oregon and Seattle,” September 20, 2011, http://www.socrata.com/

newsroom/press-releases/socrata-powers-award-winning-open-data-programs-in-oregon-and-seattle/

6. Office of management and Budget, “Statement of vivek kundra, Federal CIO, administrator for e-government and Information

Technology, OmB, before the House Committee on appropriations, Subcommittee on Financial Services and general

government,” march 17, 2011. http://appropriations.house.gov/_files/031711TestimonyITOversightvkundra.pdf

7. Government Technology webinar, featuring Santa Clara Social Services agency, 2011

8. Ibid

9. Center for Digital government Interview with adam Jones, Deputy Commissioner, and Brian rawson, Director of Statewide Data

Initiatives, Texas education agency, January 13, 2012

10. “Performance matters,” Center for Digital government, 2008

11. Daniel C. esty and reece rushing, “governing by the numbers: The Promise of Data-Driven Policymaking in the Information age,”

The Center for american Progress, april 2007. http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2007/04/data_driven_policy.html

12. Center for Digital government interview with Beth Blauer, executive Director, maryland StateStat, conducted December 12, 2011

13. Office of management and Budget, “Statement of vivek kundra, Federal CIO, administrator for e-government and Information

Technology, OmB, before the House Committee on appropriations, Subcommittee on Financial Services and general

government,” march 17, 2011. http://appropriations.house.gov/_files/031711TestimonyITOversightvkundra.pdf



15. Center for Digital government interview with gary maynard, Secretary, maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional

Services, conducted December 5, 2011

16. maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, http://www.dpscs.state.md.us/initiatives/kcs/index_kCS_tech.shtml

17. “Converge Special report: The education Dashboard,” Center for Digital education, 2011 vol. 2 no. 3. http://www.convergemag.

com/reports/q3-2011/Converge-Special-report-The-education-Dashboard.html

18. David n. ammons, “Performance measurement: a Tool for accountability and Performance Improvement,” UnC-Chapel Hill

School of government. http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CC8QFjaa&url=http%3

a%2F%2Fwww.sog.unc.edu%2Fpubs%2Fcmg%2Fcmg16.pdf&ei=fevsTpmdm4ggtwemoIzwCg&usg=aFQjCnFvHpvgryu_

O313egJs8aQxlHlnqg&sig2=wUwkw2q-Owe3uzahic7ykw

19. Terri mcClure and Brian Babineau, “Optimizing File Services with Deduplication and virtualization,” July 2010. http://www.f5.com/

pdf/analyst-reports/arx-datadomain-esg.pdf

20. “The People-Centered Universe: Fresh Thinking on government IT modernization,” Center for Digital government, http://www.

govtech.com/library/papers/The-People-Centered-Universe-Fresh-Thinking-on-government-IT-modernization.html

21. “State IT workforce: Under Pressure,” naSCIO, January 2011, http://www.nascio.org/publications/documents/naSCIO_

ITworkforce_UnderPressure.pdf



23. Ibid

endnotes


Much has been written about the explosive growth in the amount of data stored by large enterprises — private sector and public sector alike. As a result, a

new position is popping up at large private sector enterprises: Chief Knowledge Offi cer (CKO). A Chief Knowledge Offi cer, not to be confused with a Chief Information Offi cer, is charged with optimizing the value of an organization’s intellectual capital.

Most public organizations don’t have the resources for a CKO, but their mandate to effi ciently manage large volumes of information within their agencies is equally clear. Agencies in healthcare, law enforcement, taxation and unemployment, just to name a few, have specifi c needs for storing and accessing data. This data, both structured and unstructured, must be stored as cost-effectively as possible, while remaining acces-sible to maximize its usefulness to the organization.

On top of that, new transparency initiatives are encouraging public agencies to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse in their own operations. Better tools to manage agency data are a key part of this strategy. Real-time, actionable data moves past traditional business intelligence to inform better decision-making and help agencies detect abnormal patterns more quickly. This helps government reduce loss due to fraudulent transactions and harness the power of big data.

Data management leader EMC is helping governments store, manage, protect and analyze their most valuable asset — information. Fueled by its 2010 acquisition of data analytics innovator Greenplum, EMC is making a major impact in the government marketplace with the recent launch of its unifi ed analytics platform (UAP).

The fi rst of its kind in the industry, the Greenplum UAP offers three critical tools:• The award-winning Greenplum database manages

structured data, like permit and health insurance informa-tion, stored in relational databases and spreadsheets.

• Greenplum HD (enterprise Hadoop offering) analyzes and processes unstructured data, which includes photos, medical images, word processing documents, PDF fi les, email messages, blogs and Web pages.

• Greenplum Chorus, the productivity layer, features social media-style interface and enables collaborative, intelligence-based decisions.

Cloud, x86 Infrastructure, or Appliance

EMC Greenplum Unifi ed Analytics Platform (UAP) features a single interface for all agency data, virtual databases that allow simple exploration and social media-style collaboration for collective analysis and decision-making.

IT Data AnalystITA

Budget AnalystBAA

Program AnalystPPAA

Program ExecutivePEE

GREENPLUMHD

GREENPLUMDATABASE

Greenplum gNet

that allow simple exploration and social media-style collaboration for collective analysis and decision-making.

UNIFY YOUR TEAMIncrease agility and accelerate innovation by enabling easy collaboration across your organization.

DRIVE COLLABORATIONSearch, explore, visualize and derive insight from data across the enterprise with Greenplum Chorus.

KEEP YOUR OPTIONS OPENA powerful technology layer lets you work with third-party tools and services of your choice.

THE POWER OF CO-PROCESSINGGreenplum Database for structured data and Greenplum HD for unstructured data unite to deliver co-processing of all your information.

IT Data Platform Admin

ITPA

GREENPLUM CHORUS - Analytic Productivity Layer

Third-Party/Partner Tools & Services

Data Access & Query Layer

BEYOND BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE: Government Harnesses the Power of Big Data

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EMC is a global leader in enabling state and local governments to transform their operations and deliver Information Technology as a service. Fundamental to this transformation is cloud computing. Through innovative products and services, EMC accelerates the journey to cloud computing, helping State and Local Government IT departments to store, manage, protect and analyze their most valuable asset — information — in a more agile, trusted and cost-effi cient way.

For more information about this and other EMC Solutions for State and Local Government, go to www.emc.com/stateandlocal.

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According to the National Association of State Chief Information Offi cers (NASCIO), the No. 1 priority for state CIOs in 2012 is consolidation and optimiza-tion, followed closely by budget and cost control. The

message is clear: Government agencies need to stretch their dollars by maximizing the benefi ts of their IT investments.

Many IT leaders are apprehensive that major infrastructure consolidation initiatives could be prohibitively expensive. For others, performance problems handicap these ambitious programs before they produce any benefi ts. Some resort to expensive supplemental bandwidth purchases to remedy these challenges.

But adding bandwidth isn’t necessarily the answer. IT perfor-mance company Riverbed is helping public sector agencies like yours make the most of the infrastructure they have, fueling major performance improvements at a fraction of the cost.

Helping to achieve total visibility into your network assets, Riverbed solutions introduce effi ciencies that can eliminate

the need to add bandwidth, storage or servers. In fact, Riverbed can even help eliminate redundant operating costs, consolidate infra-structure, and save on disaster recovery.

The Telework Enhancement Act of 2010 provides specifi c guidance to federal agen-cies to encourage teleworking. In addition to increasing the fl exibility and resiliency of the workforce, an effective teleworking strategy helps ensure continuity of operations during emergencies. Support for remote employees is increasing at all levels of government, helping to reduce negative environmental impacts and promote greater productivity, among other benefi ts.

Many public sector agencies, however, have learned that an effective disaster recovery plan involves more than backing up your data. You must ensure that network perfor-mance will be up to par when you need it. Riverbed wide area network (WAN) optimization capabilities ensure that your organization is truly prepared for uninter-rupted operations in an emergency. It also allows your remote employees to enjoy appli-cation performance over a WAN previously only associated with a LAN. And software-only acceleration technology

delivers functionality to teleworkers that is equal to what’s available in a traditional offi ce environment.

Governments across the country leverage Riverbed solutions to ensure successful IT initiatives in many areas, including data center and server consolidation, data protection and disaster recovery, cloud computing, and telework/remote employee productivity.

Riverbed delivers performance for the globally connected enterprise, enabling organizations to implement strategic initia-

tives including virtualization, consolidation, cloud computing, and disaster recovery without compromising performance.

For more information, go to www.riverbed.com or contact Nima Tavakoli at [email protected].

The comprehensive approach from Riverbed features a three-part plan to speed infrastructure performance, resulting in greatly reduced bandwidth needs and applications that perform from 5 to 50 times faster:1. DATA STREAMLINING removes up to 95% of redundant data

from your wide area network (WAN)2. TRANSPORT STREAMLINING overcomes the data transfer

limits of transmission control protocol (TCP) and accelerates encrypted traffi c

3. APPLICATION STREAMLINING provides additional improve-ment in application performance

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OPTIMIZING IT INFRASTRUCTURE

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Transparency. Accountability. Results. Whether a public agency serves 25,000 local water district customers, more than 310 million citizens of the United States, or somewhere in between, chances are these words will show up in their mission statement.

Visualize Results. Now. To produce results, agencies need to visualize results. They need a way to see and understand the most meaningful information contained within their data, so they can manage objectives and communicate outcomes in the proper context.

Business analytics doesn’t need to be complex and expensive. Let GovDashboard answer today’s questions today — with rapid, affordable and elegant dashboards.

Twenty years of trusted government IT solutions. Visit www.govdashboard.com

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Answer Today’s Questions, Today.

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Tap a powerful decision engine to help rein in ‘runaway’ government programs and projects

CA Technologies Clarity™ PPM software can provide local, state and federal governments with deep insight into their initiatives, with incisive dashboard views to prioritize and optimize all their projects and programs for the greatest good.

To learn more about CA SaaS, hosted and on-premise PPM offerings, visit ca.com/ppm.

A competitive business climate demands that organiza-tions keep projects on time, on budget and relevant as they progress toward completion. But should an agency even be spending funds on a specifi c venture if

the resources could be better applied elsewhere? That’s a pretty salient question for government in a tough economy when conditions on the ground change continually.

The practice of project and portfolio management (PPM) helps organizations view all those initiatives in one place, at the portfolio level — across all projects — then adjust strategies based on current information.

PPM done right — with comprehensive software dashboard views and analysis geared to all user levels — can provide unparalleled transparency. With deep insight into resource use and other details, program managers and government leaders can optimize projects that best suit business goals — and eliminate those that don’t. Think, for example, how often “runaway” programs drain spending and cause manager and user regret. Knowing as soon as possible when a project or program exceeds budget and fails to deliver on key perfor-

mance indicators (KPIs) can inform important decisions. Likewise, agencies can understand where to shift funds to gain the best outcomes.

Corporations have led the way in capitalizing on PPM bene-fi ts. Many public sector agencies are also discovering the time has come for PPM. Government can benefi t from an easy-to-access cloud offering that provides instant analysis when managing projects that affect budgets and user quality. A robust strategy that includes intuitive PPM software can help elected offi cials, government stakeholders and employees make smarter choices with the right tools, such as:

➔ A decision engine that helps agencies understand priori-ties, track resources, requirements and budgets to make accurate “go” or “no go” decisions

➔ The ability to see redundant and underperforming programs within a municipality, or across all state agencies, in a single view

➔ KPI metrics that reveal what actually happened — and help predict future outcomes

➔ A single system of record for every agency program

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ENABLING DATA-DRIVEN MANAGEMENT O F G O V E R N M E N T H E A LT H A N D H U M A N S E R V I C E S P R O G R A M S

Medicaid & WIC

Community Mental Health &

Substance Abuse

Maternal & Infant Health

Services

HIV/AIDS

Pregnancy Risk Assessment/

Newborn Screening

Children’s Health & Special Services

Long-Term Care

Epidemiology & Vital Records

Analysts convert raw data from

numerous sources into actionable knowledge

through advanced analytics.

Optum works to improve the performance of the health system with analytics, business intelligence, technology and consulting services to enable better decisions and results to make the health care system work better for everyone. To learn more, visit Optum at www.optum.com/government.

ADVANCED HEALTH CARE ANALYTICSHealth and human service agencies store and process signifi cant volumes of raw data, often from disparate sources. Transforming this data into actionable information drives better decisions, reduced costs and improved health care.

Optum provides effective business intelligence solutions — a powerful combination of analytics supported by enterprise data warehousing and user-friendly reporting dashboards and tools — to help government health and human services make sense of the data they possess. Our solutions help turn raw data into understandable and usable information to enable fact-based decisions about how program funds are spent, how services are delivered, how well programs perform, and to provide insight into whether individuals are getting the care they deserve.

REAPING BENEFITSTo date, Optum’s business intelligence solutions have provided documented cost savings and fi nancial benefi ts in excess of $3 billion to states across the country. In fact, OptumInsight solutions help effectively manage programs and services that cover one of every four Medicaid recipients—approximately 15 million people.

The state of Michigan’s Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDW) links data across multiple sources to enable the sharing of data. Today nearly 10,000 users in fi ve major departments, 20 agencies, and more than 100 bureaus rely on the EDW to do their job more effectively and better serve Michigan residents with health and human services programs, the courts and treasury. Vital activities such as tracking children across state programs, monitoring long-term health outcomes, and clamping down on fraud and abuse are bringing real results. Michigan recently acknowledged to Forbes Magazine that the EDW helps save approximately $1 million per business day, or more than $250 million per year.

START NOWOptum counsels that instead of ripping and replacing existing IT systems, states should begin by working within the framework of the Medicaid Information Technology Architecture (MITA), a national initiative supporting IT modernization. Optum suggests that states:• Start with a few systems integrated into an enterprise–

wide data warehouse, and add additional phases over time.• Adapt existing systems to a modern, fl exible service-

oriented architecture.• Add business intelligence and analytics, and tools such as

dashboards for consistent reporting and monitoring.• Create a governance process that manages data sharing,

related confl icts between agencies, privacy and data security.• Secure the support of the state legislature.

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Tap a powerful decision engine to help rein in ‘runaway’ government programs and projects

CA Technologies Clarity™ PPM software can provide local, state and federal governments with deep insight into their initiatives, with incisive dashboard views to prioritize and optimize all their projects and programs for the greatest good.

To learn more about CA SaaS, hosted and on-premise PPM offerings, visit ca.com/ppm.

A competitive business climate demands that organiza-tions keep projects on time, on budget and relevant as they progress toward completion. But should an agency even be spending funds on a specifi c venture if

the resources could be better applied elsewhere? That’s a pretty salient question for government in a tough economy when conditions on the ground change continually.

The practice of project and portfolio management (PPM) helps organizations view all those initiatives in one place, at the portfolio level — across all projects — then adjust strategies based on current information.

PPM done right — with comprehensive software dashboard views and analysis geared to all user levels — can provide unparalleled transparency. With deep insight into resource use and other details, program managers and government leaders can optimize projects that best suit business goals — and eliminate those that don’t. Think, for example, how often “runaway” programs drain spending and cause manager and user regret. Knowing as soon as possible when a project or program exceeds budget and fails to deliver on key perfor-

mance indicators (KPIs) can inform important decisions. Likewise, agencies can understand where to shift funds to gain the best outcomes.

Corporations have led the way in capitalizing on PPM bene-fi ts. Many public sector agencies are also discovering the time has come for PPM. Government can benefi t from an easy-to-access cloud offering that provides instant analysis when managing projects that affect budgets and user quality. A robust strategy that includes intuitive PPM software can help elected offi cials, government stakeholders and employees make smarter choices with the right tools, such as:

➔ A decision engine that helps agencies understand priori-ties, track resources, requirements and budgets to make accurate “go” or “no go” decisions

➔ The ability to see redundant and underperforming programs within a municipality, or across all state agencies, in a single view

➔ KPI metrics that reveal what actually happened — and help predict future outcomes

➔ A single system of record for every agency program

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we’ll look at how to build better business processes, the tricks of sharing services and tips for implementing enterprise-wide applications — including content management systems, cloud, identity management and security systems, and many more.

enterprise it services are a win-win-win as they can help boost agency savings, reduce complexity and position government for better relationships with the citizens they serve.

this go-to guide will be a can’t miss issue for every forward-thinking cio.

Don’t miss our next special report on enterprise it services.

Coming soon to public-cio.com/reports

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acknowledgements: John Miri, editor-in-chief, center for Digital Governmentafter a successful career as a private sector software executive, miri was appointed by the Texas governor to the top regulatory board overseeing statewide electronic government. He went on to lead transformational projects for two successive Texas State Chief Technology Officers and has become an advisor and close confidant to leading state and local government CIOs around the nation. as the former

Director of e-government and web Services for the State of Texas, miri led the state to breakthrough results of 829 online services, 83 million citizen financial transactions, and $5 billion in online revenue. He helped found three web-based technology companies that leveraged web 2.0 and cloud computing to achieve dramatic results for clients in the commercial markets. miri has been a passionate advocate of next generation Internet technologies for more than a decade and is a nationally recognized speaker and author on government technology.

caroline brownCaroline Brown is a writer and researcher specializing in communications for technology, government, education and science organizations. She has worked for several years in both corporate and non-profit communications. Her educational background includes an m.a. in Journalism and mass Communication from the University of north Carolina at Chapel Hill. Caroline currently resides in raleigh, n.C.

with special thanks to Jeana Bruce, director of custom media; rebecca Johnson, associate editor of custom media; and erin molina, art director.

The Center for Digital government, a division of e.republic, is a national research and advisory institute on information technology policies and best practices in state and local government. Through its diverse and dynamic programs and services, the Center provides public and private sector leaders with decision support, knowledge and opportunities to help them effectively incorporate new technologies in the 21st century.www.centerdigitalgov.com

Public CIO, a division of e.republic, is an award-winning platform dedicated to technology thought leadership in federal, state and local government. Through print, online and a portfolio of events, Public CIO provides CIOs and key enterprise leaders with career critical insights on leading and navigating the innovative trends creating efficiencies, driving collaboration and impacting government services. www.public-cio.com

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