Public-sector organisations should begin to analyse the large volumes of data they have at their disposal to service delivery and citizen engagement, says analytics specialist firm SAS Public Sector & Utilities GM Kroshlen Moodley.
Analysis of data that public-sector organisations have, as well as data from Statistics South Africa, will enable them to improve resource management, develop new revenue streams and clamp down on fraud and corruption in the procurement processes by easily identifying duplicate invoices and suspicious activity.
Advanced data analytics helps public-sector organisations to uncover and discover problems pertaining to service delivery, procurement, revenue collection or any other public-sector vertical.
“Government will be able [to leverage analytics] to fight against illegal imports. Interestingly, the public sector can increase revenue and predict service delivery protests by using advanced analytics,” he highlights.
The public sector can, therefore, improve efficiencies and better deliver on its mandates. However, only a handful of public-sector departments and enterprises have recognised the benefits of advanced data analytics, he says.
The public sector has unique challenges, including long renewal cycles, difficult bureaucratic processes, legislative constraints, complicated tender processes and continuous changes in decision-makers. These factors make it difficult for service providers to demonstrate the value of their solutions.
“Despite these circumstances, there is still a lack of commitment at executive government level to drive the information and communication technology agenda in South Africa’s public sector. Department shuffles and policy uncertainty have delayed important decisions on, and implementations of, digital legislation.
However, government will eventually have to consolidate, analyse and learn from its data, adds Moodley.
Analysing social media data is the ideal starting point to help improve service delivery. By monitoring conversations and understanding citizen sentiment, government can predict service delivery protests before they break out. The data will tell them that there is a problem brewing and what to do about it, allowing government to take action proactively.
Another easy starting point is using readily accessible Statistics South Africa data, gathered from censuses and population surveys. Municipalities can drill down into the data to understand the demographics and statistics of the households that form their communities.
“Every government department has to report on its work. Applying analytics to reporting to consolidate all the information and streamline the reporting process is a rudimentary application of data analytics, but also a valuable one to any government department. By using an advanced analytics and reporting tool, government organisations can improve their reporting and reduce the time it takes to produce reports.”