Audit and Accountability Fund Information Management and Data Analytics Assessment - 2019
In 2019, the City of Windsor was the recipient of a grant that funded a third party review of City services. The grant was provided by the Province of Ontario’s Audit and Accountability Fund. The consultant selected for the review was Information Builders, Inc. The focus of the review was to find efficiencies through the more effective use of the City’s massive amounts of data.
The consulting team conducted their analysis over a three-month period and provided a report of their findings. The report notes that the City has made some progress in information management and data analytics, however, additional work has been constrained by staff knowledge/skills; the state and location of corporate data; and the limited resources for this type of work. The consultant’s report also identifies opportunities for improvement, and it references success stories of other municipalities. The report’s recommendation is for an updated information management strategy and the increased usage of data analytics to improve information sharing, reduce the manual effort of repetitive report-building tasks, and provide time for more complex activities or strategic decision-making. Significant financial investment in technical infrastructure and staff resources would be required to implement and support this recommendation.
To help illustrate the benefits of enhanced information management and data analytics, the consulting team developed Proofs of Concepts (POCs) using City data. The POCs were created to demonstrate that electronic dashboards can be assembled relatively quickly and leveraged using the concepts discussed in the report. Additionally, one of the POCs showed that an e-mail notification function could be offered and consumed as a service by any computer application.
Given the extensive scope and very short timelines of this project, the consultant’s recommendations are at a conceptual level. To continue on the City’s path to improved information management and data analytics, administration will assess the consultant’s recommendations and POCs. Where the recommendations are appropriate and considered viable, they will be brought forward for future budget consideration based on a fully developed business case analysis considering both costs and benefits.
The consultant’s report, "City of Windsor’s Information Management and Data Analytics Assessment" can be accessed via the following link:
Consultant's Report of Information Management and Data Analytics Assessment