New research unveiled today by Quantexa reveals only four per cent of Australian government agencies have a complete single view of citizen data, while 36 per cent rely on outdated data management processes that hinder governments from automating decision making.
The independent Data in Context research report, featuring findings from in-depth interviews with government decision-makers, highlights many agencies face a data decision gap – the inability to combine internal and external data to drive trusted operational decisions.
According to the report, only eight per cent of Australian government agencies have established a data-centric culture to drive strategic decisions, although 48 per cent have sufficient data analytics capabilities to provide a comprehensive and trustworthy context for most decisions.
When it comes to operational decision making, a mere four per cent have a rich, single view over internal and third-party data to support complex processes, while the majority (64 per cent) are struggling with unreliable data that is often inaccurate and incomplete.
Despite the hurdles they currently face, respondents identified the potential benefits of improved data management and analytics in the context of COVID-19 recovery as: a better understanding of a changing citizen landscape (52 per cent); mitigation of increased fraud and criminality (48 per cent); and situational awareness (44 per cent).
“Australian government agencies have unquestionably expedited their digitisation efforts over the last five years, creating vast volumes of data in the process. However, there’s a gap between the data they have, and their ability to harness it to make decisions that truly benefit those agencies and their stakeholders, including Australian citizens,” said Shaun Mathieson, Regional Vice President Asia-Pacific (APAC), at Quantexa.
“As a result, Federal, State and Local government departments are facing huge challenges in their ability to automate decision-making, to manage regulatory change to assess fraud risk holistically, and to provide the seamless digital experience their citizens expect.”
Quantexa’s research found several major side-effects to existing approaches to data management. These include: hesitation to automate decision-making (felt by 68 per cent), regulatory scrutiny and compliance issues (56 per cent), incomplete view of risk in areas like credit and supply chain (44 per cent), and a lack of citizen insight (40 per cent).
Government decision-makers indicated the main challenges their agencies need to overcome to establish a strong data management foundation include the inflexibility of data models (experienced by 48 per cent of respondents), reliance on resource-intensive manual processes (44 per cent) and long lead times to onboard data into their digital environments (44 per cent).
When asked what improvements in data management would enhance decision-making within their agency, 64 per cent stated creating a shared data platform, while 60 per cent noted a need to improve master data quality.
In the next two years, agencies will turn to data and analytics strategies to: improve data quality (48 per cent); improve operational team efficiency (48 per cent); and build an improved, 360-degree view of data (44 per cent).
Mathieson added, “Data has fast become an invaluable asset as Australia continues to digitalise and government agencies at all levels invest in digital services, but overcoming the existing data decision gap is a crucial step in optimising investments. Grasping the challenges associated with mounting data volumes has paved the way for Contextual Decision Intelligence (CDI), which evolves traditional approaches to data by connecting every datapoint within an organisation, as well as external data sources.
“With connected information, governments are almost immediately able to create a complete and accurate view of their operations and stakeholders within concise, centralised oversight. This means they have real-world intelligence for informed decision-making.”
