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With the availability and amount of information growing exponentially in the public sector, it is becoming more critical for governments and other public service organisations to optimise their data in order to confront budget constraints.

They are also faced with increased demand for greater efficiency and effectiveness of information used to drive value to taxpayers. However, effectively managing and utilizing information comes with a variety of challenges, which should be approached strategically.

Key Challenges

Pressure continues for governments and other public service organisations to deliver higher levels of citizen service despite increasing amounts of information and a build-up of disparate systems managing different pools of data – all without increased funding. Often, organisations lack a common understanding or framework for measuring performance and the supportive technologies for effective information management. Broadly speaking there are five key challenges facing public sector organisations:
•    Proliferation. Government agencies are storing more information than ever. Unstructured data in e-mails, instant messages, images and audio must now be managed along with traditional structured data in systems.
•    Disorganisation. Information is often scattered throughout different technology platforms and multiple systems dedicated to specific purposes such as enterprise resource planning, supply chain management and citizen service management.
•    Isolation. Government organisational structures may impede the ability of agencies to share information with each other. Yet the need to collaborate is expected to grow dramatically in the coming years.
•    Regulation. Data security is a must for government CIOs. There is also a need to comply with continually evolving regulation.
•    Frustration. Pressure continues to deliver higher levels of citizen service without increased funding. Decision makers are having difficulty finding timely, accurate information in a rapidly expanding sea of data.

Despite the situation, many public-sector CIOs have the opportunity to overcome these challenges by adopting an organisation-wide approach to information management.

A phased approach

Increasingly, leading public service agencies are adopting information management practices commonly seen in top corporations. This well-managed information leads to more efficient performance and higher levels of citizen service despite limited funding. With the wealth of data in their systems, government CIOs are poised to teach their private-sector counterparts a thing or two.

Our work with organisations in the public sector has shown that implementing information management has two phases.

The first phase consists of defining the information management strategy in three steps:
1.    Ensuring common definitions and approach through educational grounding.
2.    Conducting a thorough diagnostic of the current situation.
3.    Forming a holistic strategy to manage information across the organisation.

Educational grounding is the usual starting point. Even government executives with information management experience need to find common ground in their understanding and approach. Executive sponsors have a better chance of managing change over an extended period once they agree on information needs, expected challenges and definitions of key terms and concepts.

Diagnosing an agency's existing information management situation is also vital. The diagnostic then supports public service decision makers as they envision a new end state for information management and develop a business case for specific improvement opportunities. Such an analysis begins with a series of broad questions, such as:
•    How could better information help this organisation perform at a higher level, or carry out its operations with greater speed, effectiveness and efficiency?
•    How could service to citizens improve if government employees had the information they need at their fingertips?
•    How could management decision making supported by more timely data enable the organisation to take advantage of new opportunities more quickly?

Next, a holistic strategy is created. A typical strategy explains how advanced analytics, content management and knowledge management systems will enable integrated and high-quality data to be made available to decision makers and service employees via a comprehensive information portal.

In the second phase, government agencies establish the people, processes and technologies needed to support a strategy that cuts across all departments of the organisation. It encompasses all types of data, from internal and external to structured and unstructured. Key technology must be used for managing information and providing security, governance models, enterprise standards and practices, as well as the roles and responsibilities associated with these activities. The strategy must consider the entire information life cycle, from acquisition to storage to cleansing, integration and analysis to delivering timely and relevant information for decision making.

Measurable Benefits

With a comprehensive approach to information management, including business intelligence, portals & content management and data management and architecture, government and other public service organisations can enhance their services, decrease costs and improve operational performance.

This approach has already produced measurable benefits to a number of public sector organisations, including:
•    Integrated information accessible through a portal. Cost-effective information management solutions provide a clear line of sight into organisation-wide data, enabling integrated and high-quality data to be made easily available to decision makers and service employees.
•    Streamlined and transformed technology environment. An information management programme can also play a vital role in supporting a more sweeping change initiative touching upon technology and global reporting capabilities.
•    Better decision making. Better information delivery is the means to better decision making. Because new information governance practices are a part of an effective information management project, executives have greater assurance that they are steering their organisations based on the best data available.
•    Improved understanding of customers and citizens. The analytics and intelligence capabilities that are developed as part of a comprehensive information management programme help improve the quality of service to citizens and raise satisfaction levels among constituents.
•    Better content management, data consistency and reliability. Integrated management solutions can help government organisations improve the value delivered from their enterprise (ERP) systems, enabling more consistent and reliable organisation-wide date.

Information available to public sector organisations will continue to multiply. As government organisations face increasing pressure to acquire, store, manage and analyse more valuable data, they are turning to an integrated strategy to manage all types of information across the organisation. By spending time up front to define the information strategy in detail, organisations can ultimately restore the public’s trust through reliable data and greater responsiveness.