Spring 2014 issue of Horizons

PUBLIC SECTOR

Data Analysis: A Resilient Approach to Control Spending by Brandon Loeschner, CPA, CISA & Zebulon Smith, CPA

B oth public and private entities across the globe are finding that data analysis can have a dramatic impact on their bottom lines. Broadly defined, data analysis is a process of inspecting, cleaning, transforming and modeling data with the goal of discovering useful information and conclusions. TechAmerica, revealed that 87% of federal information technology (IT) officials and 75% of state IT officials say analytics can have real and immediate impacts on how governments operate. In its survey of nearly 200 public IT officials, the foundation found that 83% of federal IT officials say analytic A new study released by the TechAmerica Foundation, a non-partisan affiliate of

solutions can help cut the federal budget by at least 10%, or $380 billion.

The public sector’s push to cut costs, capture owed revenue and boost performance is a key focus. Furthermore, public organizations are looking at data analysis as a way to achieve these results. While analytics have broad applications across multiple functions, and suggest large savings, this article focuses on the application of analytics within the area of financial control as well as analysis of spending. The following are examples of common analytics applied within the vendor management, accounts payable and cash disbursements functions.

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