Barley Laing, the UK Managing Director at Melissa, says its time for local government to take the lead in driving efficiencies and change.

We have a new government with new objectives and expectations. They will want to bring positive change and efficiencies throughout the public sector, particularly at a time when public expenditure is under pressure like never before.

Therefore, it’s important for local authorities to take the lead in driving efficiency savings and change - the focus of Labour’s manifesto - which are interlinked. However, both can only take place when there’s access to clean data on citizens and the appropriate technology to deliver it is embraced.

Having clean data on citizens is the answer

Obtaining and maintaining accurate data on citizens is vital when the cumulative cost of inaccurate data is between 15% to 25% of revenue for most organisations, according to MIT Sloan. This is not surprising because poor quality data wastes resources, undermines everyday operations and communications – particularly personalised communications to citizens.

Inaccurate data will lead to the delivery of communications that often aren’t relevant or might not even reach the intended user, leading to reputation damage because citizens won’t be pleased to see public money wasted in this way.

Additionally, bad decision making is caused by inaccurate user data. For instance, using poor quality data to inform the future of a service, or the creation of a new one, will have negative implications for effective resource allocation. This isn’t the type of change the government is looking for.

How to deliver clean data

Simple modifications to the data quality process at the onboarding stage and for held data is all that’s required. This means sourcing technology such as an Address Autocomplete or Lookup service that delivers a properly formatted, correct address when the user starts to input theirs.

It necessitates deduplicating data using an advanced fuzzy matching tool to merge and purge the most challenging records, which will avoid the sending of multiple communications to the same user.

Undertaking data cleansing or suppression to highlight those who have moved, are no longer at the address on file or are deceased is also essential.

It’s best to source a data cleaning platform that can deliver all this - a scalable data cleaning software-as-a-service (SaaS) tool - that can be accessed in a matter of hours and doesn’t require coding, integration or training. This way you will have accurate data on citizens to improve communications, and make learnings for effective decision making, which will help to deliver positive change and improve efficiencies.

Embrace technology to prevent fraud

Preventing fraud is also a vital part of the journey to improve efficiencies, with the Cabinet Office estimating that fraud and error costs the public purse up to £51.8bn every year.

Using an electronic identity verification (eIDV) platform is the way forward to undertake ID verification, with the plethora of identity documents to review from around the world, and levels of fraud remaining stubbornly high. These automated tools can be accessed via delivery mechanisms, including an ‘out-of-the-box’ user interface with no integration required; or a cloud API (application programming interface); and scaled up or down according to the users’ needs.

Due to these platforms being ‘always on’ they can, in real-time, cross-check the names, addresses, email addresses and phone numbers provided by applicants during remote onboarding. This provides a good experience, while preventing fraud. For the best outcome it’s recommended to source an eIDV tool with access to billions of consumer and business records from reputable sources around the world, such as government, utility and credit agencies.

When compared to manual checks, using such a platform is significantly quicker, more accurate and cost effective for undertaking ID verification and preventing fraud. This technology requires no additional staffing or training costs, and there’s no risk of human error.

With the new government getting their feet under the table now is the time drive efficiencies and positive change by sourcing the appropriate technology to clean data on citizens, implement ID checks to prevent fraud, and access suitable connector technology to integrate it. And with resources set to be allocated in the autumn budget it’s vital to get ahead in demonstrating efficiencies and positive change.