Cornwall Council:
Architecture for a Digital Organisation

Published in September 2020, the UK’s National Data Strategy published the mission to “transform the government’s use of data to enhance efficiency and uplift public services.” This mission, coupled with nationwide digital transformation of Council operations and services, underscored the urgency for Local Government to develop a strong data strategy and management approach.

As noted by the National Audit Office in March 2023, Councils often find themselves at crossroads, uncertain about how to craft a sustainable data framework in line with best practices to support this mission. Visceral Business was asked to conceive and deliver a Master Data Management Strategy for Cornwall Council.

Challenges included grappling with legacy systems and platform-specific solutions, navigating through lack of data interoperability, addressing varied levels of data literacy and devising future-proof data architecture. These are common challenges and familiar terrain for many organizations today.

What We Did

Adopting LG Inform’s ESD Standards as an over-arching guideline, we conducted a series of four, iterative, 12-week sprints, tailoring the architecture to the Council’s operations and undertaking detailed data and enterprise architecture mapping. This work culminated in the development of Master Data Management Strategy that encompassed principles of operation, strategic direction and an agreed-upon service-led architecture for the whole council.

Sprints comprised of:

• Development of core services

• Data mapping and auditing

• Data framework design

• Plan for roll-out and migration

• Governance, accessibility, and access protocols

• Analytics

• Training
  

The Result

The Council has a data architecture framework in line with the defined local government data architecture of LG Inform.

This foundational work looking at Master Data Managemnet Strategy has led to the launch of a singular digital asset known as the Council’s Corporate File Plan (CFP), devised used SharePoint to streamline management information and support intelligent resourcing.

Cornwall Council’s data architecture today is a model of emerging national data infrastructure.

Through its Digital Futures programme, the Council is dedicated to accelerating the ongoing progression of its data maturity, its quality of data management and the continuous improvement of Council data as a major digital asset for the region.

Julie Matraves, Cornwall Council’s Data Management:
‘Visceral Business knowledge of master data management, usage of data, linking data sets and the publication of data for the development of the region helped guide the direction of travel for the Council.

Anne was approachable, knowledgeable and able to relate to our customers at all levels, interpreting customer needs into technical requirements, converting technical elements into understandable customer-focused outcomes, and ensuring buy-in and acceptance of our plans. Her knowledge of other industries helped to bring clarity to service data within the Council, introduce national and industry-specific data standards to how we should organise our data and transform us into a data-centric, evidence-based and outcome-focused organisation.