The fourth and final post in the series about a state government center of analytics concentrates on the big question – what value does analytics bring to business? (Links to previous entries are at the conclusion of this post.) While this “show me the money” question can be answered in
Cities must work with companies, universities, other cities and organizations to truly realize the Smart Cities vision. This was a consistent message at last week’s Smart Cities Innovation Summit, where leaders from more than 200 cities met with technology and service providers and academics to talk about new innovations that
In my last blog post, I introduced common concerns I’ve heard about predictive analytics in child well-being efforts. In this post, I want to address those concerns and reassure leaders and advocates that predictive analytics can be a tremendous boon to our ability to help kids and ease the burden on
As state and local government leaders and community advocates explore how predictive analytics can improve child well-being outcomes, many questions and potential concerns surface. It is critical to understand that government youth services agencies across the United States have used actuarial Risk & Need Assessment tools for many years. Many
Happy Tax Day, America! Today marks our annual ritual of filing tax returns in the United States. And complaining about taxes. And cursing the IRS (even though it's misguided to shoot the messenger, in my opinion). Think you know a lot about taxes? Let's travel back in time to 1913, when
In this third post about a government center of analytics, the focus is on creating an environment that enables successful implementation, and perhaps even more importantly, successful adoption of new analytic solutions. (Check out "Hey, government of [insert state], where's your center of analytics?" and "4 keys to building a
Monday, April 18th is Tax Day, aka, National Identity Theft Day. OK, that part’s not true, but as millions of taxpayers go online to file taxes, it may as well be. The majority of taxpaying citizens file online, using services such as the popular TurboTax, H & R Block, and
Tax preparation software has encouraged the gamification of tax evasion, making it tantalizingly simple to bump up the value of a tax refund. This is alarming, but it's easy to see how we got here. I love classic video games. When I was a kid, Atari made the best games, but hard
Welcome to the dreaded week when procrastinators embrace their fates as responsible taxpayers. While you and I may be paying our taxes, to no surprise, as much as $2 trillion in the underground economy will go unreported this year in the U.S. While that number may seem shocking, and the percentage is higher than
Tax fraud doesn’t just steal money from taxpayers, it can strip people of their livelihoods and reputations. When a manager in a tax agency’s property tax division stole nearly $50M in property tax refunds, the media and external auditors asked: “How did no one notice this?” The woman started small,
