Information audit

"Knowing what information exists in the Council’s records and systems, where it is, who’s using it, and for what"

The move to the council of the future is supported by a move from paper-based records to electronic records - enabling all relevant information to be available to everyone who needs it – particularly focusing on customer facing staff. The first step towards achieving this is to understand what information already exists, where it is held, ad what it is being used for. Most councils find to their surprise that there is much more information around than they thought – not so much that they have more information overall, but that they have multiple copies of the same details, held in different locations, and managed independently – so often, the different copies of the same information differ in points of detail. Tales of councils having 20, 30 or 50 copies of the names and addresses of their customers are not uncommon – but when one of the objectives for councils is to have each piece of information held just once, it poses quite a challenge.