BI and the Government

Hi everybody,

What's up?

Today I thought I'd tackle a subject even more complicated that SSAS Best Practices (yes, it's possible!), so today's topic is BI in the government (though you were probably quick enough to get that from the title..)

As you may have read in my first post, I work for the Tel Aviv Jaffa municipality. Panorama hosted an event not too long ago with a panel. It so happens that Avi Ketko, head of the whole computing service in the Tel Aviv municipality (which would translate into my boss's boss's boss J) said something in that panel which didn't go down all that well. What was it? Well, he said something along the line (and this is by no means a direct quote!) of a municipality, as a non profit organization, does not strive to better it's "bottom line" as other businesses out there do. And after that everybody seemed to have given him a sort of stare..

So I thought I would talk about how that was somewhat misunderstood. Because you see, I think first and fore most, that our customers in the TA municipality do gain an advantage from us (else I would probably be out of a job, but that's another discussion ;) ). We have developed cubes, and reports on those cubes, which have helped our customers in the municipality understand where they might have gone wrong and where they may cut back. For instance, one of our projects in the subject of property tax has helped find more easily those who don't pay their money on time and alert us on them (yes, we know who you are!!). Working on the HR cube, on of my customers' needs was to locate those jobs which have been open for quite a while and re – consider them (as if they have been open for more than a year, they might be irrelevant). Both of these topics help make a better "bottom line" for the municipality.

One of our other next main goals is to start publishing materials outside of the municipality – to our everyday inhabitants. The CEO of the municipality wants to further the concept of openness and clarity to all our real customers – you, the residents of TA, and just every other person who was looking through the municipality internet site. In that, I believe, lies the real genius! As our customers are not just the people who work in the municipality itself, but also people who might just be curious as to what's going on in their city!

So basically, I would say that though we don't have a financial report we hand to the stock exchange, we are still dedicated to bettering ourselves and making our customers – you – better informed!