Case Study: Business Information Model

The NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI) within NSW Department of Industry works to increase the value of primary industries and drive economic growth across NSW.

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The DPI portfolio comprises DPI Agriculture, DPI Fisheries, DPI Biosecurity and Food Safety, DPI Water, DPI Performance and Engagement, and DPI Strategy & Policy. Each of these divisions create or procure large volumes of data to derive information to support the community and economic growth.

An effective Business Information Model will provide the ability to collect the right data and information and to transform it effectively into useful knowledge, to more efficiently deliver services to the NSW community.

Customer Profile

Organisation: NSW Department of Primary Industries

Location: New South Wales

Website: www.dpi.nsw.gov.au

Solution

Benefits

“Spatial Vision were extremely professional, personable and easy to communicate with and kept us well informed throughout the project. They provided quality analysis and insights into the data and information requirements and interactions across the department and presented a clear, concise and practical solution.”

Phil MossManager, Water Resource Accounting, NSW DPI

The Issue

NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI) recognised weaknesses in their current approach to handling aspects of their business pertaining to how data is created, used and stored within the department, and set out to remedy the situation. Given the amount of data and information products that DPI routinely produces as a department, addressing these weaknesses is of crucial importance to the continuing success of the organisation.

To obtain a clear understanding of the information requirements across DPI and the effectiveness with which they are being delivered.
An understanding of the information structure currently in place across DPI. Identification of gaps in the current information structure and the associated business risks.
Identification of opportunities in areas of decision-making, customer experience, new information products, risk reduction, efficiency gains, and improved products and services.

To address these three goals, the process of developing the Business Information Model was divided into three distinct stages with their own methodologies and outputs.

The Solution

The Business Information Model project was undertaken in three stages, commencing with Discovery of the extent of data resources used to generate information resources and the difficulty that many staff have in finding and re-using this data.

The second stage, Data Inventory, highlighted that the primary gaps in the existing practices were primarily in processes, governance and culture, not technological.

The third stage, Business Information Model, recommends a framework to address these deficiencies and an implementation road map.

The BIM itself presented a model that emphasised changing the culture of data management and sharing at DPI, as this was identified as the key area of engagement. The recommendation at the core of this model was to empower the existing Data Governance Committee with a Chief Data Officer, to lead this cultural change by example.

At the culmination of this work, we presented the Business Information Model to the Data Governance Committee and other DPI executives.

The Benefits

The outputs of this work provide:

Recognition of the true value of DPI data resources and more efficient services for the community and customers
Better facilitation of data sharing across NSW Government
Unnecessary duplication of effort eliminated through a “build/collect once, re-use many times” approach
Confidence in DPI data through a reduction in discrepancies between similar datasets and raised awareness and use of authoritative data sources
Stronger business case development and better use of information assets
Better use of data and information management skills and capabilities across government