Learn the latest trends in government performance and innovation for state and local government

The COVID-19 crisis underscores the growing importance of data analytics to state and local governments as they tackle complex challenges. It also shows how technological improvements are making data-driven insights easier to achieve and share. One lesson learned during the early days of the virus response is that cloud services and user-friendly data tools enable governments to roll out new data and analytic services fast and scale them quickly.

Although the COVID-19 response kicked public sector data analytics efforts into high gear, states and localities have been steadily working to become more data-driven over the past several years. Twenty-eight states now have a chief data officer (CDO), and similar positions are found throughout local government. The rise of the CDO is just one indication of the push among states and localities to use data to improve internal operations, strengthen citizen services, improve safety, and boost transparency and engagement.