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Records as a Resource

It's all about results. Government agencies are learning that by uniting data from many sources they can get a better understanding of how well their missions are being carried out.

It's all about results. Government agencies are learning that by uniting data from many sources they can get a better understanding of how well their missions are being carried out.

  • The San Francisco Department of Children, Youth and Their Families uses a system that gathers data to track and evaluate more than 200 community-based organizations that the agency funds. The agency can look at the effectiveness of individual programs as well as pull together information about how programs compare with each other. "We have data at our fingertips, so we're able to understand what we fund and what we do with our money pretty specifically," says Tajel Shah, assistant director of Technology and Communications Strategy.
  • When the Massachusetts Executive Office of Health and Human Services got hit with a budget crisis and had to start closing offices, officials were able to use a Web-based system to figure out which ones it made sense to shut down. The data-collecting system showed them, for instance, which offices were serving the most people and which programs were getting results. In addition, the system gives officials data about its client base, such as how many people are being served and how many are served by more than one agency. So far, eight of HHS's 16 agencies have access to the aggregated data, which they can use on an on-going basis for planning purposes.
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