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City Observatory – Birmingham City Council

In 2023, Birmingham City Council collaborated with Impera Analytics to establish an Insight, Policy & Strategy (IPS) Team and launch the “City Observatory” open data platform, improving strategic insight and data transparency.

Challenges

Birmingham City Council, Europe’s largest local authority, struggled with strategic insights and lacked a strategy and policy team. Additionally, the lack of useful data publication and non-compliance with open data standards impeded progress.

Approach

Impera executed a comprehensive strategy to address the challenges. This included the following:

IPS team design:

  • Designed the IPS team structure, defining roles and job descriptions.
  • Developed and delivered an IPS business plan outlining strategic objectives.

Team recruitment:

  • Successfully recruited a brand-new team of nine analysts with varying levels of seniority and experience.

Open Data Platform implementation:

Outcomes and benefits

Impera enhanced organisational capacity through the IPS team, sharing knowledge and skills to foster collaboration and upskilling. The City Observatory platform reached 100,000 views in its first year, with about 1,300 new visitors monthly, showing strong engagement.

Impera’s work tackled Birmingham’s immediate challenges and transformed insights generation and sharing. The success of the IPS team and City Observatory highlights Impera’s strength in driving change via strategic data initiatives. This case study demonstrates the positive impact of open data and transparency in municipal governance.

Lessons learnt

The project demonstrated the importance of dedicated teams for strategy and policy development, the value of open data platforms in improving transparency and citizen engagement, the need for diverse skill sets in data analysis and strategy teams and the potential for open data initiatives to drive positive change in municipal governance.

View original case study article at impera-analytics.com