October - 20179GOVERNMENT CIO OUTLOOKpoint for local governments--that are usually expected to do more with less. Data Analytics for Combating the Challenges Embracing the new breed of data analytics that helps in mining the data from multiple systems could be a potential game changer for municipalities. The City of Atlanta is moving very aggressively on this front. Our first step in harnessing the power of analytics is through implementing descriptive and predictive analytics. In doing this, data will be pulled from multiple sources into a cloud-based data lake to produce visualizations and predict the future possibilities with some degree of certainty. This provides situational intelligence--a real-time understanding of the current occurrences in the city, besides the ability to look into historical data. Municipalities can particularly leverage this to predict instances of crime or breakdown of critical civic infrastructure such as the streetlights. Prescriptive analytics harnesses artificial intelligence and machine learning to prescribe the necessary course of action and executes it automatically. Cognitive analytics, which uses techniques like natural language processing and machine learning algorithms is also bound to make inroads into the government sector. Key Takeaways from AnalyticsConsolidating the data from different departments, working in the interest of the city to obtain the big picture, is a step towards building a smart city--an urban area where all the data is utilized to improve critical outcomes within the municipal jurisdiction by leveraging analytics. In a smart city, different departments partner with each other to obtain insights into their existing and newer data sets collected through IoT sensors, to improve civic services. Attending to the insights obtained from data enables municipal bodies to serve the public better. The top priority of a CIO in a municipal body should always provide the best-in-class civic services. Once the quality of services garners public satisfaction, municipal CIOs could look towards leveraging their data and improve the outcomes of all critical areas that impact the public to enhance the quality even more. This again underscores the role of data. Essentially, prioritizing `I'-- the information, in the acronym `CIO' is the key to success. Samir Saini
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