Councils constantly gather data. They have vast amounts of it – an ever-growing mountain of facts and figures they collate into stacks of reports.

Councils also constantly face budget challenges. These challenges assume varied forms – cuts, restrictions, and ever-growing demands for savings, which have resulted in some drastic statistics, like budgets for adult social services being slashed recently by more than 25% over four years.

At a glance, these two facts seem unconnected; they are anything but, however, because within that mountain of collected data, lies information that if analysed the right way can help local government make better decisions that could lead to improved services and significant financial savings.