Big Data and Analytics Applications in Government : Current Practices and Future Opportunities

Within this context, big data analytics (BDA) can be an important tool given that many analytic techniques within the big data world have been created specifically to deal with complexity and rapidly changing conditions. The important task for public sector organizations is to liberate analytics from narrow scientific silos and expand it across internally to reap maximum benefit across their portfolios of programs.

This book highlights contextual factors important to better situating the use of BDA within government organizations and demonstrates the wide range of applications of different BDA techniques. It emphasizes the importance of leadership and organizational practices that can improve performance. It explains that BDA initiatives should not be bolted on but should be integrated into the organization’s performance management processes. Equally important, the book includes chapters that demonstrate the diversity of factors that need to be managed to launch and sustain BDA initiatives in public sector organizations.

Gregory Richards holds an MBA and a PhD in business management with an emphasis on knowledge management in organizations. He worked within the Canadian federal government for a period of 5 years before moving onto Cognos Incorporated, Ottawa, Canada, as Director of Market Development. His work at the University of Ottawa was stimulated by his work at Cognos: to explore the ways in which organizations use data to improve performance. He is currently a director of the Centre for Business Analytics and Performance as well as the Public-Sector Performance Management research cluster and the MBA program at the University of Ottawa. He works closely with several public-sector organizations that are particularly related to the applications of analytic techniques.