5 min read
Masterminding your strategy for ethical AI with a conscience
In an era where AI is reshaping the very fabric of our digital world, as a Digital Leader you’re not only a pioneer of technology advancement but a...
Data is a major driving force in today’s modern economy and fuels innovation in businesses. We are seeing a fundamental shift in the use of data as organisations strive to utilise the power of cloud for data management while remaining compliant with legislative and sectoral rules. The use of data plays an increasing role in designing, delivering and transforming public services to improve outcomes and drive efficiencies within current financial constraints but there are still many organisations, particularly in the public sector, who have substantial amounts of data that is not being utilised to its full potential.
It cannot be denied that data is everywhere and that volume is increasing exponentially. The “IDC & Seagate Data Age 2025” report predicts that the global data sphere will reach 175 Zettabytes by 2025 where 49% of data will be in the public cloud and 30% will need to be processed in real-time. Many organisations are not yet equipped to deal with the ever-increasing data volumes and still attempt to utilise outdated approaches to data quality and the management of data in the cloud. The UK government has stated that it believes “organisations spend between 10-30% of revenue on handling data quality issues”. This clearly shows a massive opportunity for cost saving on data quality alone.
This increase in data volume is happening at a time when increased compliance requirements are being enforced at nation state and industry governance levels. At the end of last year, Ticketmaster and Marriott were fined £1.25M and £18.4M respectively failing to protect customer data. The rough amount of all GDPR fines issued to date is currently over €1,28 billion. And this is not just a private sector problem, with public sector organisations responsible for over 54% of all data breach fines according to research by SMS works. In 2018, The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea was fined £120,000 after it unlawfully identified 943 people who owned vacant properties in the borough. Just this year, the ICO fined the Conservative Party £10,000 for sending marketing emails to people who did not want to receive them.
In the organisations we interact with, we often see many hidden costs associated with data mismanagement that can have a massive impact on businesses:
While we often hear more about data management gone wrong, there are many public sector organisations managing to effectively utilise their data to improve services. A senior UK government official used open data to identify and eliminate significant duplicate spending, generating a massive saving of about £4 million. OpenSAFELY, a data analytics platform developed between the DataLab at the University of Oxford and a number of electronic health record providers working on behalf of NHS England, identified patients most at risk of dying from COVID-19 with significantly higher accuracy than other approaches. The Sussex Partnership Foundation Trust developed a data visualisation tool that helped clinicians to provide more effective treatments for their patients suffering from mental health issues.
The organisations we see who are utilising data effectively are those who see data as an organisational asset to be used when needed and securely disposed of when not. This will commonly culminate if key behaviours such as:
If you are a senior manager responsible for overseeing multiple digital transformation programmes or services in the public sector then ask the hard questions of those delivering for you:
If you are a manager responsible for the delivery of programmes or services then ask yourself:
Your journey does not end here and much more must be done before you can truly say you are gaining maximum value from your data. However, by understanding what questions need to be asked and then encouraging those responsible for programme delivery to think about data as a fundamental part of the project is a good start. The phrase “Well begun is half done”, often attributed to Aristotle, remains a cornerstone for effective transformation with many changes derailed or stalled by decisions made in the early stages.
Back to all insights5 min read
In an era where AI is reshaping the very fabric of our digital world, as a Digital Leader you’re not only a pioneer of technology advancement but a...
4 min read
Generative AI is beyond a fun toy to illuminate your children's bedtime stories (try that if you haven’t!), but now a formidable asset for CIOs to...
4 min read
If ever there was a strong case to accelerate cloud and climate sustainability, look no further than the power of AI. It could offer significant...
The ambition for government and the wider public sector to become “Digital First” is clear but the journey can be a long and cumbersome one. While...
I was invited to chair the Holyrood Connect Cloud Services in the Public Sector conference which took place online earlier this month. It gave me the...
Legacy Modernisation can be a complex and costly endeavour. By moving your data to the cloud and utilising data integration services to connect to...