South Hams District Council

Outcome of Expression of Interest: Not shortlisted

South Hams and West Devon have worked with Software Solved to undertake DISCOVERY Research with over thirty councils into the need for Real-Time Data. 92% of Councils believe that access to real-time data is either very important or important, whereas only 22% of Councils are either very good or good at accessing data today.  The key obstacles highlighted in the research include: Data in multiple systems (92%), Department silos (65%), Complex data structures (38%), Skills (38%) and tools (32%).

This alpha project will look at rolling out data visualization tools, architecture and training to better manage the council’s data and to enable members, executives, staff, citizens and the 3rd sector to access real-time data.

South Hams and West Devon Councils plan to work with our partner Software Solved to build an alpha data warehouse infrastructure to integrate and process our data in real-time and deliver an alpha library of common data visualizations, including: dashboards for member’s tablets, executive KPI reports, service dashboards and citizen/third sector open data reports.  We aim to also develop a set of alpha training materials and standards that could be shared with other councils and public bodies.

Discovery evidence

The DISCOVERY Research highlighted a wide need for improved data visualization tools, standards and training across local government in that 21% of councils are currently using it today in some form, a further 28% have tried using it but not getting good results and a further 46% are planning to investigate data visualisation over the next 6-18 months. Overall 97% of councils surveyed felt that improved data visualization would be of value in addressing service failure demand, internal resource allocation, and keeping members informed of local demands.

Together with our partner Software Solved, South Hams and West Devon have also recently undertaken discovery workshops, mapped our high level data sources, identified example user personas and created some demonstration service dashboards and presented these to key stakeholders.

Software Solved have undertaken architecture research and data visualisation dashboard development for other large and complex organisations in for example, the insurance industry.

This discovery activity has demonstrated the interest and early benefits of greater access to real-time data that the alpha is intended to deliver.

Our discovery report is available here.

https://www.southhams.gov.uk/article/4853

  • Digital leadership training (for council leaders, service managers or senior executives)
  • Introduction to service design
  • Introduction to digital business analysis