Remodeling Municipal Insights with Cloud-Powered Data
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Remodeling Municipal Insights with Cloud-Powered Data

Boise In Brief-8

In Brief

Empowering city managers with easy access to data

Like many legacy reporting solutions, the City of Boise’s were a mix of multiple systems implemented by different people over time. This made obtaining accurate and reliable data reports difficult, heavily burdening the City’s Data Engineering Team.

Leveraging Azure Synapse Analytics and PowerBI, Resource Data redesigned the City’s data model, constructed a robust data pipeline, and built visually intuitive dashboards and reports. The single, centralized data source and cloud-based system enables easier self-service, improves data consistency, and drives data-driven decision-making.

Key Takeaways

New data platform creates comprehensive view

  1. Centralized data model and source for a holistic view

    Joining disparate datasets into a single, documented repository streamlined operations. This integration not only reduced silos but also facilitated informed decision-making. Unifying ranged-based and transactional data, created a holistic view for strategic planning and budget allocation.

  2. Cloud powered, reporting solution for the future

    The cloud-based solution laid the foundation for enhanced scalability, security, and performance. It is ready to migrate to a distributed compute environment with demand increases; easy to deploy to other departments; and minimizes the impact of other city-wide technology projects.

  3. Data granularity for deeper, actionable insights

    The project marked a paradigm shift from summary-based to transactional-level insights. By redesigning finance reports with drill-down capabilities across accounts, departments, spending, and budgeting, the city unlocked previously unattainable levels of data granularity.

  4. Self-Service capabilities for reduced support burden

    Cloud access and interactive tools enabled better self-service. Custom reports and dashboards with drill down capabilities empowered department. And the redesigned and enhanced data model ensured consistent and accurate data, for confident, data-driven decision making.

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The Challenges

Technical debt burdens IT teams and decision-makers

The City’s legacy data platform was a mix of multiple, minimally documented systems, increasing the IT administration and user support burden on the City’s data engineering team.

The complex web of data pipelines from legacy systems also delivered non-uniform results to existing reports, sowing distrust in the data. With city-wide initiatives to make more data-driven decisions and migrate technologies to the cloud, their data platform and data model needed a complete overhaul.

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The Solution

A new, robust data model and single, integrated data platform for greater insights

Our strategic collaboration with the City of Boise’s Data Engineering team resulted in a complete overhaul of the existing data model and fragmented data platforms. We assessed existing systems, defined stakeholder needs, restructured the data warehouse, and built resilient data pipelines for efficient data extraction from varied sources, including the City’s on-premise ERP and third party, cloud-based budget transparency tools.

Then we built a centralized data platform, integrating data with Azure Synapse Analytics (formerly Azure SQL Data Warehouse) for a modern, scalable solution. We migrated to Azure Synapse Analytics with minimal disruption to ongoing operations. The project culminated in deploying custom, intuitive PowerBI dashboards to empower managers to access—and act on—accurate data.

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Resource Data’s Data Engineer, together with technical city staff, outlined an approach that eliminated the risks we had in the older reporting solutions while also providing new capabilities that many of our employees didn’t think possible.

Greg Hanmer, Sr. Manager, City of Boise Data Services

Features

Powerful insights from integrated, protected, and accurate data

  1. Azure Synapse Analytics for a simplified hybrid data integration

    Robust data pipelines allow for a sophisticated and efficient Extract, Transform, Load (ETL) process from diverse and disparate data sources, on premise and in the cloud.

  2. PowerBI for for powerful, visually enabled insights

    Visually intuitive dashboards enable detailed insights across various crucial data points for decision makers.

  3. Precision-focused security to safeguard data

    Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) and column-level security meticulously specify access privileges, roles, and permissions, ensuring only authorized personnel access designated data segments.

  4. Intuitive dashboards and interactive tools for deeper analysis

    Visually intuitive dashboards and reports and interactive tools with drill-down capabilities provide comprehensive insights across accounts, departments, spending metrics, and other vital data points.

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“This solution allows us to access data anywhere—on or off the city’s network—and provides decision makers with unfettered access to the data they need to inform daily decision making as it pertains to our finance and people data.”

- Greg Hanmer, Sr. Manager, City of Boise Data Services
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Results

Integrated datasets and tailored insights

The integrated data platform transformed the city’s data-driven decision making by shifting from canned, summary-based reports to customizable, in-depth insights. Initially adopted by the Departments of Finance and Administration, it quickly expanded to HR and the CIO due to its clear benefits.

The new self-service model and system delivered accurate, trustworthy reports in hours instead of months, easing the burden on the data engineering team. It streamlined operations, reduced siloed information, and minimized the need for multiple reports by providing precise, detailed insights.

Whats Next Boise-8

What's Next

Creating a citywide data-driven culture

This project marks the beginning of a city-wide transition to a data-driven culture. By implementing a new data model and platform, the city has gained previously unattainable levels of data granularity, equipping decision-makers with deeper, more actionable insights.

The project’s success has led to plans to improve performance and increase bandwidth through a distributed computing environment. It has also sparked interest across various city departments. Thanks to its scalable design, the new data model and platform are ready for citywide deployment.