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Blogs

Analytics

Find out how analytics, from data mining to cognitive computing, is changing the way we do business

Analytics

Bill ColemanDecember 12, 2012 0

Analytics key to law enforcement gold standard

Police Departments across the country are under constant scrutiny by elected officials, the media and the public to reduce crime, control costs, engage the public, always be accessible and, most important, always be courteous and professional. Police departments that demonstrate excellence in these areas can achieve accreditation by The Commission

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Analytics

Chuck EllstromDecember 7, 2012 0

Hold the flip phone! Outdated data solutions in disaster recovery, planning

Several years ago my mom, bless her heart, bought a cell phone. Now, my mom is not what one would call “tech-savvy”. She has had the same car forever, same furniture for 25 years (well, she did get it reupholstered), even the same pots and pans that came as wedding

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Analytics

Chuck EllstromDecember 3, 2012 0

Deer in the the headlights? Not with analytics.

I live in the South, but was raised by Midwestern Catholics from rural Minnesota. Think Jeff Foxworthy meets Fargo. A few of the great things that I have learned about folks in the South is their incredible politeness even when they are really saying, "Wow, what in the world are

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Analytics | Fraud & Security Intelligence

Carl HammersburgDecember 3, 2012 0

Employee misclassification: Will the last employee please turn off the lights?

Independent contractor. Two very simple words that have a dramatic impact on businesses, workers, and government programs. While most people have a basic understanding of the term, they often have very little understanding of the laws governing it, which vary significantly program by program and state by state. This has

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Analytics

Krisa TailorNovember 28, 2012 0

All-Payer Claims Databases set stage for data-driven healthcare and big analytics

If you haven’t heard of an APCD, it’s one of those acronyms you need to know. All-Payer Claims Databases are simply databases that consist of claims data from all health care payers in a given state. This includes private payers such as Blue Cross Blue Shield, and public payers such

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Analytics | Fraud & Security Intelligence

Greg HendersonNovember 26, 2012 0

"Financial fraud is the dominant crime of this millennium"

Several weeks ago, South Carolina was the victim of what some experts believe to be the largest cyber-attack against a state tax department in history. Approximately 3.6 million personal South Carolina income tax returns were exposed, and nearly 657,000 businesses compromised, in an international hacking attack. Coincidentally, SAS and the SC

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Analytics | Fraud & Security Intelligence

Chuck EllstromNovember 6, 2012 0

Disaster recovery fraud, and back-office romance

Disasters like Hurricane Sandy, by and large, shine a positive light on humanity, with the heroic actions of first responders and volunteers, and the massive outpouring of support from across the nation. They also present fraud opportunities for the shady operators and criminals among us. Hurricanes leave behind a lot

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Analytics | Students & Educators

Nadja YoungOctober 31, 2012 0

Education reform in Houston: Together we can. Whatever it takes. No excuses.

K-12 education reform and policy has seen a recent surge in the cinema with "Waiting for Superman," "The Lottery," and this fall’s "Won't Back Down.” However, if you can’t bring yourself to spend $9.00+ at the box office, or (like me) have a hard time finding babysitters to even get

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Education | Government

Analytics

Chuck EllstromOctober 25, 2012 0

Baseball, disaster planning and unintended consequences

What do disaster planning and baseball have in common? (Cue Cubs fans, "We plan on every season being a disaster!") Bear with me... Watching game 1 of the World Series reminded me of the time I took my son to AT&T Park to see the Giants play. It was the day

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Analytics

Chuck EllstromOctober 23, 2012 0

Analytics and disaster recovery

While 2012 has been a very active hurricane season in terms of total storms, the effects on life and property have been relatively small and the need for disaster recovery less than many years. Let's all be thankful for that. Right now, Tropical Storm Sandy is threatening Jamaica and the

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Analytics | Fraud & Security Intelligence

Carl HammersburgOctober 19, 2012 0

Is real-time fraud detection possible in government programs?

The first step is to answer the question of what “real-time” actually means. Depending on the program and industry speed of response, I’ve heard answers that varied from milliseconds for the biggest banks in processing credit card charges to 24 hours for some government programs. A better description of what

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Analytics

Melissa SavageOctober 15, 2012 0

Take me out to the ball game, with transportation analytics

Living in the Washington, D.C. area I expect the morning news shows to spend a lot of time reporting on traffic. Crashes on the beltway, downed power lines delaying train service…that’s a normal day. D.C. is the most congested city, according to the Texas Transportation Institute’s annual report.). Commuting to

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Analytics

Chuck EllstromOctober 11, 2012 0

Big Bird's salvation? Apply analytics to Medicaid

Sunny days, keeping the clouds away, can you tell me how to get, how to get to Sesame Street?? Oops, sorry, was just day dreaming about younger days and the magic of an eight foot talking yellow bird. How great was Sesame Street? I learned counting, my abc’s, sharing, diversity,

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Analytics

Krisa TailorOctober 8, 2012 0

Analytics: The game changer in health reform

As SLG’s health policy specialist, I’m chartered with developing novel ways to apply data analytics to our state government health systems. If you ask me, it’s the perfect blend of technology and policy - two of my favorite things. However, I sometimes find it challenging to identify the areas within

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Analytics

Bill ColemanOctober 4, 2012 0

How can local governments add clarity and confidence to budgeting?

As much as I enjoy dramatic reinterpretations, for this blog post I’m just going to talk to you about the complex challenges municipal organizations face in setting spending priorities. The complexity stems from competing aspects of the various projects vying for funding. Some of these factors are related to the

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Analytics | Fraud & Security Intelligence

Carl HammersburgSeptember 20, 2012 0

Social Network Analysis and the government fraudster

Detecting and preventing fraud isn't easy. Many tools and techniques are required, and while the digital age and advanced technologies have made fraud much easier in many ways, those same technologies have opened up new ways to combat it. One of those comes in the form of social network analysis,

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Analytics

Chuck EllstromSeptember 13, 2012 0

Are attacks on government pensions overblown?

Government pensions at the state and local government level have come under attack in recent years over their viability. Much of this attack has been political and is being used to go after unions and pensioners who tend to support one party or another. State and local governments work hard to maintain viable

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Analytics

Bill ColemanSeptember 10, 2012 0

Hard hitting interview with city CIO reveals value of analytics, coercion

This is a dramatic interpretation of an actual conversation I recently had with the CIO of one of North Carolina’s leading cities. We discussed his experience using data quality, data integration, business intelligence and analytics in the daily operation of the city. I may have taken some...well, a lot of

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Analytics

Chuck EllstromAugust 14, 2012 0

Bending the health care cost curve, Affordable Care Act or not

Recently, there has been lot of uproar and confusion about the Supreme Court ruling on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act. Many were surprised by the ruling, and others, while happy it was upheld, are concerned about the constitutional questions that arose due to the way the ruling was

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Analytics

Vincent TalucciJuly 31, 2012 0

Entrepreneurship at its worst in wake of Aurora tragedy

My sleep patterns are erratic (and somewhat torturous) – they range from sleeping solidly for eight hours a clip to me wandering aimlessly about the house at 3am. Unfortunately, the latter was the reality during the wee hours of Friday, July 20; I was up watching ESPN (my typical late

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Analytics

Bill ColemanJuly 27, 2012 0

Managing fire department operations using analytics

Fire department operations are very complex, with multi-faceted missions that include not only fire prevention and suppression, but emergency response and fire inspections. These must be coordinated with area growth and development decisions, and water system management decisions. When a fire or an emergency occurs, the right equipment, with the right people,

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Analytics

Melissa SavageJuly 18, 2012 0

Four E's of crash analytics, part 4: Emergency response

We've introduced the topic of the Four E's and discussed the role of analytics in Enforcement and Engineering. Now let's delve into Emergency Response. A quick emergency response can make all the difference in saving the lives of crash victims. Many vehicles can now communicate directly with emergency responders immediately after

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Analytics

Bill ColemanJuly 11, 2012 0

Building a culture of government accountability through data and leadership

Most management literature and studies posit that organizations with a clear mission and work objectives, understood by all levels of the organization, are the most productive. The key to that success is effectively communicating the mission, agreeing on key performance indicators and giving employees at all levels access to relevant

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Analytics | Fraud & Security Intelligence

Carl HammersburgJune 28, 2012 0

Government fraud and the Goldilocks Complex

We've all heard of her. A little blond girl with a penchant for trespassing, and very finicky preferences in mattresses and breakfast food. Unfortunately, Goldilocks isn't just part of a fairy tale, she is alive, well, and causing havoc throughout government. If you haven't made the connection yet, "bear" with

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Analytics

Melissa SavageJune 14, 2012 0

Analytics keep Bay Area Rapid Transit on time

When I was growing up, summertime always meant a road trip to see my grandparents and great-grandparents in Concord, California, just outside San Francisco. Most of our time in Concord was spent shuffling between relatives but my parents always made time for a day trip into San Francisco. On these

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Analytics

Melissa SavageMay 29, 2012 0

Four E's of crash analytics, part 3: Engineering

We're at stop #3 on the crash analytics highway. We've introduced the topic of the Four E's and have discussed the role of analytics in Enforcement. Now let's talk about Engineering. Safety, reliability and accessibility are all key components in road design. Traffic engineers work to make the driving environment

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Analytics

Melissa SavageApril 30, 2012 0

Four E's of crash analytics, part 2: Enforcement

Last week I introduced this series. Today I begin to dive deeper into each of the four E's. First up? Enforcement. In 2009, there were 5.5 million police-reported traffic crashes. Law enforcement officers work diligently to prevent crashes by enforcing traffic safety laws pertaining to, among other things, seat belt

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Analytics

April 25, 2012 0

The value of high-performance analytics

Like Vince said a few days ago, you don’t have to be Goliath to see how the intersection of big data and high performance analytics creates competitive advantage. Let’s also be realistic though: compared to someone like Walmart, pretty much everyone’s David! While Telstra and the Commonwealth Bank may not be the largest companies by global measures, they’re still

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Analytics

April 24, 2012 0

New analytics book from Bill Franks

Bill Franks’s new book, Taming the Big Data Tidal Wave: Finding Opportunities in Huge Data Streams with Advanced Analytics, has just released. This book shows how big data is changing the world of analytics; what people, processes, technologies, and mindsets are necessary to succeed in analytics in this new era;

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