Transcript The Future of Budget Technology = Data Analytics

The Future of Budget
Technology = Data
Analytics
The Next Great Leap
S. Keith Lane – Senior Budget
Analyst, Durham County
Government
Mattie Sue Stevens – ICMA Fellow
Old Budget Technology
• Collect numbers
• Collect short reasoning
for numbers
• Make it balance
• Sprinkle in some
measures
• Produce a document
• Rinse and repeat
The Next Great Leap
• Has already happened in business
• Credit Card companies
• Loyalty Card tracking
• Internet
• Everywhere else
• Not usually happening in local government
• Systems not in place to “naturally” collect
data
• Lack of resources (people, time)
• Lack of understanding about benefits of deep
data collection and mining
Why The Leap Must Happen
• Complexity: Local governments know very little about you,
yet spend tremendous resources to fix your complicated,
multifaceted problems – without multi-faceted data!
• Decisions have to become more complex as the data presents
complicated interactions -- you know, like life.
• $$$: Dollars are perpetually scarce, necessitating best use
(based on deeper understanding of environment)
• Opportunity: Infrastructure starting to fall in place to
capture data
New Budget Technology
• Budget Analyst will be a Data Analyst (with all the statistical
and analytical skills implied)
• Deep data collection
• Data mining
• Explore Correlation
• Find causation
• Predictive estimates
• Budget development follows
Where We Start
What do you already have?
• People: analysts, interns, students
• Software: your existing budget system,
Excel
• Data sources: State, NCACC/League of
Municipalities, SOG, your departments…
It’s NOT about a new software system.
It’s about your curiosity.
For Instance…
• NCACC gathers and
reports data from
annual budget
survey
• Can we compare
with...
• Sales tax data?
• Heath outcomes?
• Employment
figures?
For Instance…
Newspaper uses visual techniques
to explain granular budget data
Why can’t we follow
their example?
Taking the Leap
• How can you combine
existing data in new
ways?
• How can you gather new
data simply or
automatically?
• How can you tell stories
with data?
The Future of Budget
Technology = Data
Analytics
The Next Great Leap
S. Keith Lane – Senior Budget
Analyst, Durham County
Government
Mattie Sue Stevens – ICMA Fellow