To expand the use of the Microsoft Power BI tools for reporting and data analysis purposes. Training of staff is required to ensure the return on investment is maximised. The revenue sum of £25,000 has been allocated for this work.

The use of Microsoft Power BI will enable:

·       The ability to harness more data from more sources in less time and empower users to collaborate and analyse data in different ways leading to better and faster decision making.

·       The combination of customer data from a CRM platform with social media analytics and incident tickets will empower the Council to understand its customers better.

·       Assistance to  teams in testing their hypotheses, refining assumptions, and assessing results – such as choosing the right process improvements, resulting in higher customer satisfaction, doing research into more efficient approaches to reducing the cost of services or understanding the response of customers to different services.

·       Simplifying the process of storing and running analytics that can help discover ways to reduce operational costs and increase quality.

The option of doing nothing would result in the Council foregoing the potential benefits.

Approval by: Interim Executive Director, Communities & Customers; Head of Law & Governance; and Head of Financial Services