Utility and agility: using data, insight to understand citizens

There’s more information flowing around than ever before. But finding ways of recording this data, while critical in its own right, is not enough.

To truly understand its citizens, governments need to think about both internal and external sources of data and consider how this information can be leveraged to best serve citizens.

The changing paradigm

For governments trying to provide better services for citizens, there are several challenges in their path to effective big data analysis, according to Murray Bruce, director of IBM Analytics Industry Solutions, Public Sector.

Historically, Bruce says, governments generally moved to centralise information and create a single source of data that they would base their decisions on. But this is starting to change and departments are looking at other sources for information.