Predictive analysis for the government

                The themes for most of my blogs have been focused on improving the government’s internal operations and efficiency. As GCN explains, predictive analysis for the government can pay off big, if you look at it correct. The government has grown and incorporated analytics software within the past few years. Using this software will require a brand new way of thinking about how to measure the data that is available to make the correct decisions. The government agencies can use insight gained from citizens and individual transactions to determine whether programs are effective. 

                During the 90’s and early 2000’s organizations invested in horizontal software applications such as customer relationship management and enterprise resource management. However if an agency invests in analytic software to seek out fraud, waste and abuse they will have a better return on investment. The Health and Human Services Department and the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services have been finding hundreds of millions of dollars for their organizations during the span of several years. Some agencies are focusing on predicting the fraud, waste and abuse, and not just the data after the fact when the improper payment has already been made. The analytics software is looking at if payments to doctors, landlords, and others are justified. With the horizontal applications in the past, dashboards were created to aid upper managers to better understand how the agency was running. With these dashboards managers were always trying to over-correct problems either midstream or at the end of the year evaluations. 

                The U.S. Postal Service is using predictive analysis software to increase visibility into its transactions with banks, said Elizabeth Schafer, USPS’ treasurer of bank relations. Before this analysis was being performed 85 different districts paid bills separately in a standalone paper-intensive process. There was no transparency across the banking aspects of the Postal Service, when determining the overall costs for this service. Now all transactions from the banks are digitally sent to the analyzer, to determine if the Postal Service is being overcharged. This information is then used to look at past trends and help predict future needs of banking actions for the next fiscal year or even further into the future. They also gather other parameters from competitive banks to determine if they are losing money based on which banks they use.

                Dan Mintz, the former CIO of the Transportation Department says that new analytics tools will require a different way of thinking to accurately use this tool. Organizations and agencies need to examine the parameters and factors that caused the fraud and waste to occur instead of just measuring when and how much fraud occurred.