Fact-Based Decisions in Uddevalla Municipality with TimeXtender
In Uddevalla Municipality, managers and employees can make fact-based decisions and act proactively, quickly, and efficiently with the help of a BI tool based on industry standards. Today, Uddevalla is a forerunner among municipalities in creating value from business data, with the help of BI tools. "There's a time before decision support and a time after, and I can't imagine going back to before. It's a self-learning and almost addictive tool." Roger Granat, IT Manager and former Head of Social Services in Uddevalla Municipality. Having relevant facts from the business readily available facilitates both fruitful discussions and quick decisions. Time that was previously spent on data processing can now be allocated to analysis instead, and the risk of human error is reduced – while mistakes are more easily detected.
"Instead of having a bunch of Excel files, some unreliable reports from our business systems, we collect all the data into one system that is comprehensive and visually very pleasant to look at," - Roger Granat, IT Manager in Uddevalla Municipality
He mentions that virtually every morning, he has his morning coffee while he looks at the graphs. It keeps him updated with the latest information, and it drives him and his colleagues to make wise, decisions-based on facts.
"When I meet with my managers for monthly follow-ups, we start with decision support. This is what reality looks like. No one needs to spend any time retrieving data because it is already presented, and we’re able to discuss why it looks one way or another and what we can do about it."
Facilitating Discussions and Quick Decisions
Implemented actions can now be followed directly on the screen, and trends and tendencies can be easily detected and analyzed. Graphs show real-time flows of cases, the distribution of revenue and costs, and so on.
"The breadth we have built in decision support here in Uddevalla is unique in municipal Sweden. Many municipalities may have HR and financial data in some form of decision support, but we have also extended it with business data," says Roger Granat. Exactly which data is presented is up to the managers to decide. They get quick answers to what is most relevant for them:
- How many are currently enrolled in municipal healthcare?
- How many children in school are currently suspected of criminality, and what does the trend look like?
- How many of our employees are retiring in the near future?
"We shouldn't just believe things to be the case. Instead, we should know how things stand." - Roger Granat, IT Manager in Uddevalla Municipality
Don't wait!
Advice: Start This Job Immediately. The BI platform collects, structures, and links data from a multitude of business systems. Susanne Waenerlund, head of Uddevalla Municipality's decision support, explains how it works:
"We have a central data warehouse located here in the municipality, we have then connected PowerBI, where we visualize and create reports that managers and users can go in and look at. To speed up the process of building data warehouses, TimeXtender is used. TimeXtender simplifies the process of gradually adding new data sources and minimizes the need for external expertise." - Susanne Waenerlund, head of Uddevalla Municipality's decision support
To municipalities considering developing similar decision support, Susanne gives the following advice: "I think you should start this job right away. There will never be a perfect time."
IT manager Roger Granat adds: "If you're unsure, make a study visit to Uddevalla. Then, I believe you'll decide that you want to embark on this journey too."
Make Decisions Based on Data with TimeXtender. TimeXtender is a platform for data integration that allows you, with low-code (or even without any coding), to secure your data infrastructure for analysis and AI.
Solution overview
Company Name: Uddevalla Municipality
Industry: Public sector
Challenges:
- Disparate excel files
- Unreliable reporting
- Time wasted on data processing
- Human error
Solution benefits:
- One source of truth for their data
- No need for internal expertise
- Data and reporting is easily presented and up-to-date
Ability to make fact-based decisions
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