With an increasing proportion of government services being provided electronically, the role of data within the public sector has never been more important, writes Emma Hartigan.

This is even more the case since the Australian Government launched the Australian Data Strategy to help support its vision of becoming a modern data-driven society by 2030 .

Where once interactions with citizens tended to be conducted in a face-to-face setting, they are now more likely to take place online.

The internet has become a primary channel for both communication and service delivery as part of the Digital Government Strategy (DGS).

As a result, there is an increasing need for a well-formulated data culture to be developed within the public sector to achieve organisation-wide data health. This culture should be built on the collective behaviours and beliefs of staff who share a common understanding about data and its use in ways that are compliant with both internal policies and external regulations.

Such a data culture requires data literacy including skills to understand, share, and use data in effective and secure ways. It should also ensure a balance exists between control, compliance, and access.

Why a sound data culture is needed

With the volume of data being generated and managed within Australia’s public-sector organisations constantly growing, having a culture that guides its use is vital. There needs to be a shared understanding and enforcement of organisation-wide policies that balance access with end-to-end control and compliance.

Unfortunately, in many cases, an increasingly complex data landscape and lack of data literacy has thrown data access and control out of balance. This is characterised by either data gatekeeping with too many restrictions hampering use of data, or a data free-for-all with too much access threatening data quality and compliance.

Too often, executives overestimate the level of data literacy that exists within their organisation. In a recent survey, 70 per cent of C-Suite execs believed that their employees had the requisite data proficiency when, in fact, just 21 per cent of employees were confident in their data literacy skills.

Having a strong data culture can overcome these challenges. It provides the framework for organisations to balance the need for data control and the necessity of removing gatekeepers to enable data democratisation and expedite the broad use of data.

Creating an environment for effective data sharing

Establishing a strong data culture can also assist in removing barriers to efficient data sharing. These can have a negative impact on service delivery and result in less efficient internal processes.

From a technology perspective, APIs are the foundation upon which every successful data sharing strategy will be built. Effective API development is therefore the first task when implementing a data-sharing strategy. Developing APIs requires both developers and time, as creating an API can take between three and five days.

However, technologies are appearing that can simplify this process. API consumers, such as data analysts, can use solutions that provide standard API libraries. In a matter of just an hour, a data analyst can publish an API and have access to the information they require. Access to the data is then managed automatically from the tool that provides the APIs.

Clearly data sharing offers considerable benefits, yet there remains work to be done to make it a widespread reality.

Implementing a data culture

When it comes to creating a solid data culture within a public-sector organisation, there is no single answer or magic solution. Rather, a successful strategy is needed that takes into account all stakeholders and their particular requirements.

When it comes to the data itself, cultural change needs to begin with the data team and the chief data officer (CDO). They need to establish the organisation-wide data strategy necessary to balance appropriate control of the data with data access that will support the business.

Next, the data culture initiative needs sponsorship and buy-in from the C-suite executives. Exclusively top-down initiatives are rarely successful, but when senior leadership is seen to support the practical strategies and guidelines established by the data team, that carries weight for end users.

With a common set of expectations, a common language for data across the organisation, and a shared emphasis on the importance of data for business decisions, it’s easy for everyone to follow the same path.

Benefits

While it can take significant effort to establish and nurture a strong data culture, the benefits of doing so are significant. It can result in greatly improved service delivery, lower operational costs, and more productive staff. Other benefits than can be expected include:

• Better insights: Raw data, by itself, does nothing for an organisation, however those with an established data infrastructure can transform that data into valuable intelligence. This, in turn, can support everything from strategic planning to service delivery.

• Faster time to action: By making use of artificial intelligence and machine-learning tools, data can be turned into actions in real time.

• Staff empowerment: A strong data culture gives every single staff member the power to make data-driven decisions. When an organisation puts data first, employees have access to the right data to do their jobs.

Taking the steps needed to establish a strong data culture can deliver significant benefits for public-sector organisations and the citizens they serve. The citizen expectation has increased post-pandemic, and they expect faster and more personalised public sector services.

The aspiration of Australians is high, and data is a fantastic enabler. With the proportion of government services being delivered digitally continuing to climb, the importance of having a data culture in place will continue to grow.

The opportunity for state, local governments and all public sector organisations has never been so great to demonstrate value, transparency, and inclusiveness to the citizen. Spending time to embed a data culture today will have a widespread and positive impact in the future.

Emma Hartigan is ANZ Public Sector Lead at Talend

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