By leveraging the power of a Shared Services Centre, the federal Departments of Education and Employment were able to build a foundational analytics capability and generate the cultural change needed to truly utilise their data.
Susan Monkley, then deputy CEO and CIO, Shared Services Centre, Department of Education and Department of Employment, shared her insights into the analytics journey at last year’s SAUG Summit. (Monkley has since moved into the role of CFO, CIO and group manager for the Department of Education and Training.)
In 2013, following the change of government, a Shared Services Centre was established to serve both departments, building on an effort to consolidate processes over the previous decade. The Shared Services Centre brought together the full range of IT functions under one roof, along with financial and payroll processing, fraud investigation, graphic design and web development.
One of the new functions that the Shared Services Centre began to offer was analytics – both for customers and the centre management itself.
Monkley said the aim of creating a more advanced analytics capability was to support the in-policy program work of the departments through greater transparency, planning, and more informed decision-making.
“But it was more than that – it was actually keeping a connection with the departments and understanding that there is no way that we could continue to do the work that we do without better utilising the information that we have to hand, without better understanding the information that we actually collect and how we collect it, and then how to use that in making decisions about policy,” she said.
There was also an opportunity to place powerful analytics tools in the hands of users across the business, not just a few specialists. Rather than only a small group of people having control of the information, other users were given the chance to explore data, have their own ‘lightbulb’ moments, and then work with data specialists on more complex queries that they might want to pursue as a result.
“Analytics is not just about understanding what data you have and what it tells you about what has happened – it’s what it tells you about what you might be able to do, and what might happen in the future. It’s about hindsight, foresight and insight, and in the policy development space, that is really important,” Monkley said.
Expected outcomes
Among the advantages anticipated from building this capability in the Shared Services Centre and the departments it serves are improved IT investments and prioritisation, as well as the ability to compare business processes and identify opportunities for improvement – considered critical for government.
“There is absolutely no doubt that we will continue to operate in a constrained financial environment for many years to come. In order to deliver our services effectively, we need to transform the way we work. To do that, we need to understand what it is that we currently do and what the opportunities are,” Monkley said.
Analytics will provide greater accountability and transparency around performance in all aspects of the operation, an awareness of when and how to innovate programs, and provide greater depth in program evaluation, supporting better quality outcomes and more efficient investment across government.
Gaining insights from feedback, whether that is via the media, social media or other forums, has also become very useful in assessing the performance of third-party service providers such as universities or job networks.
“Being able to analyse feedback about the performance of the providers tells us an incredible amount about what they do, about some of the things that are really successful in what they do and some of the things that don’t work well,” Monkley said.
From the shared services perspective, these insights also provided the ability to better understand the operation of the business, where to improve processes, and how to better manage people and IT expenses.
Keys to success
Along the journey to build BI capability, Monkley has identified several aspects that are key to make these efforts successful.
1. Start small.
Choosing the starting point can be a challenge.
“There were so many things we could have tackled, but in the end, it was just trying to identify a few areas that were going to make an impact, that were going to be visible not just to the executive and to the ministers, but also to people within the organisation around what it meant for them and their jobs, and then giving it a go,” Monkley said.
This means allowing people to explore, and supporting them in asking questions, rather than being too prescriptive.
“Our approach involved taking some risks around trying to get ahead of demand, but also trying to create demand at the same time, so we want to show what was possible, but also start to generate the desire for people to explore themselves,” Monkley said.
2. Support the teams who understand the data and how it can be used.
“In our case, we have education data that comes from universities and schools. The context behind that data is really important, and if you lose that in your journey, you are actually losing a very important piece of information. So there is a lot of history that you don’t want to let go of, but you need to work out how to integrate that into your new world,” Monkley said.
3. Gain executive engagement.
The team selected one of the areas the executive was concerned about and demonstrate how analytics would help to provide greater insight in those areas.
“The minute we did that, it opened up all sorts of possibilities in terms of how this could be utilised within the organisation, but more importantly around the support that came from the executive,” she said.
Strong executive support also can be important in combatting resistance from other areas of the organisation about providing access to data for analysis, by showing how analytics could help to provide transparency and faster access to information.
“Trying to break down the barriers and reduce the fear that existed around that was really important. The more responsive we could be, the better off we were in terms of perceptions with our ministers, which is important in government, but also in terms of being able to deliver for the community as well,” Monkley said.
“Our people started to understand that analytics gave them the opportunity to get onboard to influence and drive the direction, and not just be pulled along behind.”
4. Create strong partnerships.
This is important with vendors and across business areas, particularly in the shared services environment. A range of single targeted pilot projects was undertaken to generate some quick wins solving existing pain points.
“This was about getting our business colleagues to recognise success and get them to talk about it. That has been the most powerful in that they more they use it, the more they are engaged with the new capabilities, the more it is taking on a life of its own,” Monkley said.
Using the business outcomes and drivers, they produced ‘canned reports’ two weeks into the first pilot project to show the potential of what could be done.
“That’s what we used to get buy-in with the executive and to generate interest from the rest of that part of the organisation,” Monkley said.
“Let the power of what comes from [analytics] generate passion within your people and your organisation, give them some mobility to actually take it forward and see where it takes them, and those actions will actually speak for themselves.”
5. Understand how to get the best from the tools at your disposal, and balance diversity against being fit for purpose.
The Shared Services Centre has used a range of analytics tools from SAP, SAS and other vendors, so creating a knowledge base of practical analytics techniques and communicating this across the organisation has been important.
The Centre also has to combine analytics tools to give the right outcomes, rather than simply taking a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach.
This is about combining analytics tools to give the right outcomes. “We don’t want a multitude of analytics tools across the organisation, but the diversity of our corporate and program administration has actually driven that need,” she said.
6. Support and training is key.
Initially a small Centre of Excellence was established with two people, but the Shared Services Centre is now looking at how this can be expanded across the organisation to build virtual Centres of Excellence rather than large central teams.
“That’s important because we need the people connected with information and policies and programs to continue to understand the context around the data,” she said.
7. Consider standards, processes and governance.
Particularly when bringing in data from across a large organisation or government department, issues around privacy and security of data need to be well considered and addressed.
Improvements to date
Monkley said this analytics push has delivered real gains in efficiency, both in the operation of the Shared Services Centre and in the effectiveness of government policy delivery. For example, a quarterly report that previously took 4-6 weeks to produce can now be generated in under a week.
Other improvements have been in producing interactive data – something not previously achievable; significantly reducing the number of data requests by enabling self-service; improving engagement in data across the organisation and raising awareness of what analytics can do; reducing the time to market for large reports; and improving executive and ministerial engagement with program issues through visualisation of data.
“Analytics really has the power to transform the way we operate. If we position ourselves to take advantage of it, it is clearly an integral part of our future, in driving and improving our business,” Monkley said.
This article first appeared in Inside SAP Summer 14/15 – subscribe to receive our next edition.
