Insights

Mitigating Cyber Security Risks in Local Government

"Implementing effective information controls and cyber training for staff should be at the forefront of cyber awareness for councils. This requires councils to establish appropriate systems to manage cyber security risk effectively, and to make better and more informed decisions.” Jacqueline Hiddlestone, IT Innovation Program Manager, Canterbury Bankstown City Council (NSW) “Councils need to establish a system to process, identify, analyse and treat cyber security risks seriously. If unaddressed, cyber risks could prevent councils from effectively achieving their strategic, operational and project objectives, as well as their statutory and community obligations.

Neboneid Hamoo General

11 Jun 2021

INDUSTRY TRENDS

Business Intelligence & Data Warehousing for Government

One of the reasons for the creation of the new function and teams was because “we’ve got a legacy environment that is siloed, manual and a very people-intensive process.” The output of all the new functions will be “an Enterprise Data Hub that will deliver great outcomes” to both the agency and ultimately the Victorian community. All of this can only work because of the new architecture that is built around the hub to enable and empower it to “deliver incremental value.” WorkSafe Victoria has many disparate parts to its business and all of the parts need to work together …

Teresa Anderson Data, Analytics and AI

11 Jun 2021

INDUSTRY TRENDS

Forensics - Canada

The field of fingerprinting is a microcosm of the rest of the discipline and shows how much things have changed and are changing. For many years, the standard fingerprinting identification was the “ACE-V scientific process, which consists of analysis, comparison and evaluation to determine a verification.” However robust, scientific and objective the process might be, much like in medicine, “the expert opinion is based on observation and the conclusion is therefore invariably subjective.” It might still hold up in court and has worked for a long time, but there was always room for improvement. LR is already being used in …

Public Sector Network General

10 Jun 2021

INDUSTRY TRENDS

Data & Analytics in Local Government- Canada

Local governments manage large sources of information and data and are involved in a wide variety of work, much of it underpinned by data. In fact, data often allows various local governments to collaborate and was crucial during the height of the pandemic. Jazz Pablo, the Director of Information Services at the City of Kelowna in southern British Columbia, says that in order “to solve common problems,” particularly the large ones “that we see across the country” like homelessness and other forms of inequality, “we need to come together. It’s all about relationships. COVID has taught us that.” Data is …

Rosie Fea General

9 Jun 2021

INDUSTRY TRENDS

Transforming 0s & 1s into Actionable Insight

Data is just a bunch of ones and zeros. Or at least that’d be the case without the expertise of professionals who turn information into actionable insights, and tools that make gigabytes of data digestible. Today, more and more organisations – in the private and public realms – are opening up their doors to big data and unlocking its power—increasing the value of a data science and scientists who know how to tease action from binary information. We surveyed attendees at the recent Data Science and Machine Learning Virtual Event, which was attended by almost 200 APS data professionals, to …

Paris Armstrong Data, Analytics and AI

8 Jun 2021

INDUSTRY TRENDS

Spatial Data and Analytics

Open spatial data, or geospatial data is increasingly being used in a variety of sectors to assist with planning and delivery of infrastructure, as well as predicting how things will be shaped and assessed. Martin Karm says that they mostly use Microsoft products, but also rely on hybrid digital platforms. However, to match their specific need, they have “essentially developed our own platform from scratch.” Since they deal with schools and students, though platforms are important, “it is the investment in the skills and capabilities of the team that will see us truly deliver.” Many of the team members have …

Rosie Fea General

7 Jun 2021

INDUSTRY TRENDS

Process Excellence- Canada

Lyne Lacroix, the Process Improvement Lead for Major Projects within the Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) at Shared Services Canada, says that though COVID-19 was one of the major spurs, their “process improvement division was created in late 2020.” Putting the pandemic to one side, the division was created because some employees noticed that “there are serious problems with the process” within the organization, thus “our vision is to really enable and empower employees through the improvement of the challenging processes that stop them from doing their work.” Since they are at the start of their journey, this …

Teresa Anderson General

4 Jun 2021

INDUSTRY TRENDS

Big Data in the Public Sector: Three Ways Big Data is Reshaping Government Services

Data is the currency of the technological economy, with data science incorporated into almost every industry in 2020. The public sector, while trailing behind private enterprise, has become increasingly aware of the value that can be extracted from data sets. With advancements in technologies such as machine learning and cloud computing, coupled with global Open Government initiatives, emerging Big Data use cases in healthcare, transport, agriculture, justice and resource management are all shedding light on the opportunities of data as a critical asset. Most public sector data and information management professionals across Australia and New Zealand (A/NZ) understand data for …

Milena Tsitovitch Data, Analytics and AI

4 Jun 2021