Agenda item

Cabinet:

Noted and approved the contents of the Business Intelligence Strategy and appendices to the report (which included an Action Plan).

Councillor Clarence Barrett, Cabinet member for Financial Management, introduced the report

Cabinet was informed that with a growing and changing population, including an increasing older population and rising numbers of vulnerable children living in Havering coupled with rising expectations, improving the Council’s collation and use of business intelligence was vital to inform future business planning, opportunities for further savings and corporate strategies such as the Customer Access Strategy and Demand Management Strategy.  In turn, this would improve customer service across the organisation making services considerably more targeted and meaningful for those who received them.

The Business Intelligence Strategy (BIS) set out how the Council would improve how it gathered and made use of business intelligence in the short, medium and long term to get the best outcomes for both customers and the organisation.  It highlighted how improved business intelligence was crucial to providing a better understanding of the needs of Havering’s communities, including those who used - or would use - services and the key outcomes that needed to be achieved in order to improve the lives and experiences of the borough’s residents.

The Strategy outlined areas that were integral to improving business intelligence, including transparency and open data, customer insight, operational intelligence and data quality and how the Service planned to take these forward within the Council over the next three years.

Reasons for the decision:

The implementation of the Business Intelligence Strategy was key to understanding current and future demand, opportunities for savings; how services could be improved and resident/customer outcomes best achieved.  This intelligence would inform business planning and strategies. 

Other options considered:

The other option considered was to not implement the Business Intelligence Strategy.  This would limit the development of skills within the organisation and the required change in culture necessary to make the most of improved intelligence, processes and systems.  It would also limit the ability to develop the various systems and tools so that they worked together to meet business needs.

The subsequent impact of the above would be a limited ability to make accurate projections, scenario planning and data modelling that could otherwise be used to improve services (and therefore outcomes for residents), address increasing demand and realise savings. 

Cabinet:

Noted and approved the contents of the Business Intelligence Strategy and appendices to the report (which included an Action Plan).