There is a wealth of data in society, in the public service sector, and in the private sector. The use of these data sources on the basis of security and privacy protection will help simplify the provision of public services, reduce fraud and human error, and bring great potential to promote socio-economic development.
The Benefits of Data Management
- Improve public services, increase the people’s experience. Data management allows the system to save the data of each individual through just one application, thus saving more paperwork time. In addition, when useful information is available, authorities can be proactive in providing new public services to enhance the people’s experience throughout, with new data automatically updated on the system. Estonia has taken advantage of the database in connecting the data of child benefit services that allow the system to automatically provide future benefits based on information from birth, such as a system that determines which bank account the money should be transferred to with only data from the tax registry.
- Improve public services, increase the people’s experience. Data management allows the system to save each individual’s data through a single data fill-in, thus saving time. An effective data management system allows authorities to be proactive in providing new public services to enhance the user experience, with new data automatically updated on the system. Estonia has taken advantage of data management in connecting the data of child benefit services that allow the system to automatically provide future benefits based on information from birth, such as a system that determines which bank account the subsidy will be transferred to, based on data from the tax registry.
- Improve efficiency in administrative work, reduce costs. Centralized and connected data will allow government units to cut down on time and effort to collect information over and over again, such as census activities. German authorities have reduced the processing time of public services by 60% thanks to a data-connection and management strategy. Dutch authorities have reduced the cost of obtaining data available in the system by 99 percent instead of repeating traditional survey methods when carrying out census projects.
- Policy-wise development is more appropriate thanks to useful information from the data system. The Danish government, for example, uses geographic data to simulate flood scenarios, thus having better disaster management and improving long-term investment decisions.
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Digital Strategy 21/11/2024
- Creating open data systems brings various value to government organizations and communities, encouraging businesses and individuals to create valuable applications that serve users based on datasets. In addition, open data will bring new opportunities for startups to develop their creative ideas. However, datasets are often scattered in different places and lack connectivity. Data management can help store data in a certain standard format to be exchanged between machine systems, operated, and provided information effectively to users. For example, geographical data, administrative units, and address details (e.g. details to coordinates, streets) will support a lot of areas such as transportation, delivery of goods in e-commerce and post offices, planning development, tourism.
- Enhanced data security thanks to a database system that allows data to be exchanged under a pre-designed data structure. Digital governments can know what data is saved, where the data is stored, and the history of transactions on the system, thereby increasing transparency and reducing the risk of data leakage or misuse. In Estonia, people can access their personal information and know what it is being used for.
- Minimize incidents related to errors or fraud. A substantial loss in government payments is due to confusion or fraud — money goes to the wrong recipient, the amount is transferred incorrectly, or the government payment is used improperly. In the U.S., government agencies estimated about $175 billion in improper payments in 2019. The Estonia government has aggregated the data from the agricultural register with satellite imagery to analyze whether government-subsidized land is being used for farming (1).
How can we develop an effective data management strategy?
- Identify important data elements and treat data as a strategic resource. Not all data is of equal importance to the organization; thus efficient data management is capable of determining which aspects of data infrastructure are most important. Authorities need to understand how critical information is to success. This can help create a strong culture of supporting data management, including at the highest levels of the organization.
- Establish policies and procedures for the entire data lifecycle. Good management of data across different stages requires policies and processes for each stage.
- Engage users with data analytics tools to participate in the administration process. Users who use the data will have the best understanding of their data. They can point out problems that are hard to see from which the organization can solve them.
The development and implementation of data management strategies is an inevitable trend and an indispensable activity in the process of building and transitioning from e-Government to Digital Government. To make the most of the potential of data is to bring government and society to development. Therefore, effective data management is also effective public administration.
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(1) McKinsey. 2021 Government data management for the digital age
