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Lorenzo Mengotti Acronym of the case:

SìGOVe

 Web address of the case:

SiGOVe

Country of the case:City/region:

 Veneto

| |Posting Date: 04 June 2009Last Update: 02 October 20091283 visits AuthorLorenzo Mengotti (Regione Veneto - Direzione Sistema Statistico Regionale)

Italy

 Type of initiative:

Government Information System of Veneto Region

In 2005 the "Direzione Sistema Statistico Regionale" (DSSR in the remaining of the document) - the regional statisticaldepartment of Veneto, according to local regulations (L.R. 8/2002) and the information needs, started the SìGOVe(Sistema Informativo di Governo della Regione Veneto) project to better support the regional governance.SìGOVe is aimed to support politicians, public sector managers and others local institutions in their daily work supplying certified information in a timely and efficient way (see attachment"02_DSSR_SiGOVe_manager_GTZ_NDRC_chinese_delegation_13112008.pdf" page 7).SìGOVe is a statistical information system storing all the information related to regional requirements (economy,demography, agriculture, ...). After identifying the overall contents structures (chapters, areas, sections, ...) DSSR chose a modular approach andstarted to implement the first areas of the system to evaluate the SìGOVe potential. Then, year after year, many othermodules have been deployed; today the system is made up of 32 different areas (for the main SìGOVe topics seeattachment "02_DSSR_SiGOVe_manager_GTZ_NDRC_chinese_delegation_13112008.pdf" page 8).For each module the project team identifies the data sources based on key users' requirements. Once identified thedata sources, the data model is designed and the data collection phase starts in order to transform raw-data intoconsistent and homogenous information. Finally the team implements analysis scenario supported by reports anddashboards (i.e. measures and indicators). The project is in production since march 2006 and allows the users to get, in an easily and timely manner, usefulguidelines and hints to drive their analysis and decision making processes.

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Policy Context and Legal Framework 

 The solution addresses the needs of the "business users" with (see attachment"02_DSSR_SiGOVe_manager_GTZ_NDRC_chinese_delegation_13112008.pdf" page 7)free context and sectors analysisa set of predefined reports in order to produce printed publications (see attachment"05_DSSR_SìGOVe_Reporting_areas_v02.pdf")summary high-level dashboards with value-added data to monitor the main social and economic regionalindicators (see attachment "03_DSSR_SìGOVE_dashboard_social_economic_analisys 5.0.pdf") vertical interactive dashboards, i.e. international trade, focused on analyzing a single phenomenon (seeattachment "04_DSSR_SìGOVE_dynamic_information_international_trade_2.0.pdf")Lesson learntOnce the data gathering process has been automated the time to get the data ready for analysis is drastically reduced (from weeks to hours) and the time spent by the analysts to "prepare" data is greatly reducedBusiness users can spend most of their time on the analysis and decision-making process The "unique" vision of the Veneto situation let actors discover new opportunities and trends, allowing them tocreate new form of collaborationKey Points A unique data warehouse environment with administrative data (internal sources) and public information(external sources) A data gathering process based on multiple heterogeneous sources (i.e. flat file, relational entities) A metadata infrastructure to support technical needs and business users A complete stack of business intelligence functionalities covered by a new BI suite: enterprise reporting, query and analysis, ad hoc reporting, dashboard. At the end of XX century the role of regional government institutions is becoming more and more important andchallenging to support the society. The regional government started to ask information in order to achieve economicgrowth and address the demand of the society (citizens, companies, public institutions). This "new" role required the abilities to have certified information to support the local government initiatives.  The main objectives of the local regulations (L.R. 8/2002), at the basis of SìGOVe, is to manage the activitiesperformed by actors belonging to regional public sector, related to find data sources, organize data, analyze andarchive information and deliver statistical information. The aim is to guarantee consistency and data integrity, torationalize data flows, in order to support the national statistic system (SISTAN).On this basis, DSSR of Veneto accepted the challenge and started, in 2005, the SìGOVe project to reorganize itsinformation system architecture in order to get more power from raw data.DSSR acquired data from ISTAT and other national statistical institutions that contribute to the definition of "Programma Statistico Nazionale" (national statistical program) and then it extended the European data sources suchas Eurostat and other institutes focusing on regional benchmarking. To understand how SìGOVe fits in the regional statistics system see attachment"01_DSSR_manager_GTZ_NDRC_chinese_delegation_13112008.pdf". The new regulation and the changing framework required attention on some key elements:data must be taken once, centrally stored and the data quality must be known: the evaluation process must beable to be repeated without changes in results and the uncertainty must be a known parameter

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Implementation and Management Approach

data coming from different and not integrated data sources, with no common keys, must be put together inorder to have a clear and complete picture of the analyzed subjects (i.e. demographic indicators)data belonging to different topics has to be organized to create an high-level synthetically view of the analyzedphenomena (i.e. tourism, foreign citizens, regional/subregional GDP)a new standard

de-facto

architecture must be adopted towards a technology consolidation and rationalization of the investments done (in order to replace multiple database engine - Oracle 8, Oracle 9, Oracle Express, SAS,MySQL - and multiple presentation tool - SAS, Oracle Express, custom web application)periodic update processes must take place in a short time frame and in a more efficient way presentation layer must be easier and more flexible to useservice levels, both internal and external, must be defined, measured and guaranteed We add some information about Veneto. Veneto is an Italian region with7 provinces581 municipalities4,8 million of inhabitantsSurface are of 18 399 km

2

 and a density of 259 inhabitants for km

2

2724 staff members in the Veneto regional public sector To guarantee the success of the SìGOVe implementation we choose a technology partner - HP Business IntelligenceSolutions (HP BIS) in order to address the complexity of the architectural and technical layer. The success gained was reached merging HP business intelligence and project management skillsDSSR users deep knowledge on statistical analysis, territory, information topics and data sources contentIT technical and project management skills of the IT department of the Veneto Region. The steering committee is constituted by the partner program manager (HP), the IT manager (Veneto Region) and themanager of the statistical department (DSSR Veneto Region). With such a mix all the necessary actions to drive andkeep on track the project are in place, allowing to manage all the changes to adapt the initial plan to the actual contextand issues. The operational team is constantly aligned (monthly meetings) with the steering committee strategic vision. The operational team is made up of functional and technical users (DSSR)a project manager and technical resources (HP)technical users (IT department).It is important to emphasize the how DSSR approach the information management process. The core activity in the process of data organization lays in the correct application of statistical methodologies in all thesteps of the process. These methodologies are applied inthe analysis and definition of the indicators and in understanding the relations between indicators;the phase of defining standard rules for indicator calculations; chosen indicators are meaningful to represent thedifferent phenomena;data validation and data quality check processes, starting from initial data loading till the validation of syntheticindicators;

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