Telfer School of Management is collaborating with the Public Services and Procurement Canada to better understand how their financial data could be used to drive innovation and provide value. 

The research objective is to explore how the sharing of data, available from the Receiver General, could generate benefits for the department and for the Canadian public in general.

 

 

Using analytic tools to measure spending verses effectiveness

“As part of the modern technological age, there has been an ongoing proliferation of data as both private and public-sector organizations amass a wealth of information regarding almost all aspects of their day to day operations. While there has been substantial research and development devoted to solving problems associated with data extraction, storage, analysis and consumption in the private sector, corresponding interest and uptake in the public domain has somewhat lagged behind.

This research project particularly emphasized on how Business Intelligence & Analytics (BI&A) technologies can be utilized in the Canadian government context; by analyzing a data-set provided by the Receiver General of Canada.

The goal of this research is to show how we can gain insights into departmental spending versus effectiveness by investigating the scope and suitability of BI&A tools. This project is a small component of what we envision can be done; proper analysis can help turn all this data into actionable information that can hopefully lead to better service delivery and efficiencies.

The key here is to provide decision makers with tools (i.e. reports, dashboards, portals etc.) that can facilitate better governance and capacity building by putting in place a support system that combines the power of data analytics and competitive intelligence. Our research aims to identify the issues with current tools and to propose alternative solutions and suggestions for better data visualization. This project also reflects on the challenges encountered and alludes to future work that needs to be done to fulfill this vision of better and more effective governance.” Farhana Ahmed
Gregory Richards, Director, MBA Program
Farhana Ahmed, Masters student in Electronic Business Technologies (MEBT)