How Valuable is Data to Government?

“Delivering a clearer assessment of financial risks … requires both climate data and financial data — information that is often siloed — and the ability to integrate this data.”-Nellie Liang, Undersecretary for Domestic Finance, US Treasury Department   

For a federal agency that’s all about measuring value, the US Treasury Department truly recognizes the financial value of compiling and interpreting government data. For example, the agency is launching a new data analytics program to identify the impact of climate change on financial markets.  

Read the Treasury Department’s recent press release:
https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy0895

According to the Treasury Dept., “the climate data and analytics hub will allow participants to integrate data from across the federal government, including wildfire, crop condition, precipitation, and other climate-related data … for a more precise view of the relationship between climate change and financial stability risk.” 

From Data Siloes to Collaboration as a Necessity  

From a longtime data-siloed federal government model to now a system where sharing data with other agencies becomes almost a necessary tool — data analytics could be called the most important public sector technology today.

The potential positive outcomes for the use of data analytics in government are obvious:

  • Improved public service efficiency 

  • Increased public trust in government through transparency 

  • Improved fraud detection 

  • Better data-driven decisions  

  • Faster and more efficient decision-making 

  • Decreased financial waste by identifying uncollected revenue  

  • Reduced operational costs 

How Valuable is Government Data? 

The value of compiled “big data” in the hands of the federal government is incalculable. Jim Brantley at the USPTO addresses the question of just how valuable is federal government data? His answer: “how is the value of information measured?”  

A recent Heavy.ai industry report explains “the federal government is the largest generator of data on the planet. Every day, thousands of federal workers collect, create, analyze, and distribute massive amounts of data, from weather forecasts to health statistics. Devices, IoT sensors, satellites, machinery, and supply chains generate billions upon billions of data points.”

Data Automation Saves the Day 

It’s only been in the last decade with the advent of data automation tools that public sector organizations have been able to look closely at what all their accumulated and unstructured data can offer. 

Data automation has freed many data scientists from the tedious and time-consuming job of repetitively cleaning and organizing data; some claim as much as 80% of their time. With stronger algorithms and machine learning tools, scientists and analysts can now spend their valuable efforts interpretating and reaching important conclusions to take advantage of the wealth of data within the public sector. 

Data automation addresses the serious talent gap among federal agencies; not enough technical personnel with the skills and training to run the information technology the government needs.  

Read this interesting article about the value of government data: 

https://digital.gov/2018/03/14/data-briefing-value-federal-government-data/ 

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