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Many of the
examples cited in the Palmisano/Dell statement relate to the use of analytics:
- Consolidating the government’s myriad supply chains is likely to save $500 billion.
- Applying advanced analytics to reduce fraud and error in federal grants, food stamps, Medicare payments, tax refunds and other programs could save $200 billion.
- Using predictive technology, New York State is validating tax refund requests and saving $889 million by catching phony refunds.
- Identifying suspicious Medicare activity using
analytics has shown North Carolina
how to save $25 million in just three months.
In addition to helping to uncover fraud, waste, and abuse, I’d like to suggest 3 other ways analytics can help the government to save money.
- Streamlining Processes: Analytics can help streamline and optimize programs, reducing the costs of implementation while improving service to citizens. For example, IBM worked with Social Security to streamline their processing of disability claims so that the majority of claims can be expedited with little risk of allowing through unacceptable claims.
- Managing Performance: Performance management solutions can help the management and staff of agencies to know their up-to-date performance, and quickly spot and trouble-shoot performance issues before they become major problems. Performance management can also help identify successful approaches that can be replicated throughout and across agencies.
- Better decision-making: Analytics can help agencies decide which programs to fund or the most effective approach to take for a particular program. By using modeling, simulation, and other data-driven approaches, agency staff can make decisions that both save the tax payers’ money and deliver the best results. For example, by modeling and optimizing the US Postal Service transportation network, USPS is able to increase utilization of assets and save hundreds of millions of dollars.
I’d like to hear your ideas for how agencies can save money through employing analytics. Write to me at ascdc@us.ibm.com.
See our website for further information on using analytics in government: www.ibm.com/ASCdc
Frank Stein
Director, Analytics Solution Center
Washington, D.C.
