{"id":2565,"date":"2017-06-20T05:55:09","date_gmt":"2017-06-20T12:55:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/industry\/blog\/uncategorized\/changing-the-data-conversation-in-san-jose\/"},"modified":"2023-07-03T11:44:15","modified_gmt":"2023-07-03T18:44:15","slug":"changing-the-data-conversation-in-san-jose","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/industry\/blog\/government\/2017\/06\/20\/changing-the-data-conversation-in-san-jose\/","title":{"rendered":"Changing the data conversation in San Jose"},"content":{"rendered":"

Power BI empowering cities \u2013 Part 1<\/h2>\n

While the City of San Jose<\/a> may be the capital of Silicon Valley, it is achieving success with a data analytics solution born in Redmond, Wash.<\/p>\n

According to Erica Garaffo, data analytics lead, San Jose\u2019s Power BI<\/a> journey began in August 2016. \u201cI really kind of fell in love with (Power BI),\u201d she said. \u201cI liked the possibilities of what it could do \u2026 the ability to mesh different data sets, that you could connect to online sources. I was using some of those features in Excel, but Power BI just took it to the next level.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bringing data to life<\/h3>\n

\"People<\/a>As part of the Office of Civic Innovation & Digital Strategy, Garaffo is spearheading the move to Power BI among the California city\u2019s data analysts. She vividly recalls how Power BI shifted the conversation of a September 2016 city council committee meeting on Development Services, which includes building, planning, public works and fire departments. Mayor Sam Liccardo had requested the department display its permitting activity in a visual dashboard instead of the tabular format previously used. Garaffo worked with Microsoft\u2019s Michael Cruz to develop the Power BI dashboard: \u201cIt took a little bit of effort because the underlying data was sort of duct-taped together \u2026 but it was a good first step,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was the first chance to really show \u2026 the power of Power BI in bringing data to life\u201d and demonstrate how the city was expediting its development process.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat was really powerful to me \u2026 was seeing the director of (Development Services) and the mayor pointing up at the screen, talking about the data,\u201d she added. \u201cIt changed the conversation to be data informed. That was really inspirational.\u201d<\/p>\n

Streamlining financial reporting<\/h3>\n

\"Woman<\/a>After Cruz conducted a Power BI \u201cData Champions\u201d lunchtime talk followed by a half-day \u201cDashboard in a Day\u201d workshop, a Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services (PRNS) supervisor chartered an analyst to learn Power BI to streamline the department\u2019s monthly financial reporting. Garaffo explained that PRNS is \u201ca very distributed, decentralized department,\u201d with hundreds of parks, community centers and programs. \u201cThey\u2019re very good at managing their budget to a very detailed level,\u201d she said. \u201cBut because of the way that our financial management system spits out data, it required a lot of effort for the financial analysts \u2026 to consolidate the reports, pivot them and do year-over-year comparisons\u201d for each manager. By using Power BI, the PRNS finance reporting now takes just 2 hours per month instead of two analysts spending half their time on the monthly process.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe implication for what (PRNS) has done for the city is pretty groundbreaking,\u201d Garaffo said. \u201cThis is one department doing financial data visualization\u2014but this is data that is used by every single, other department,\u201d providing a template that all departments can use to visualize their own data with Power BI.<\/p>\n

Turning on data liquidity<\/h3>\n

Garaffo recently conducted another Data Champions session highlighting the Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services Power BI work and a deeper dive into the city\u2019s financial data. She\u2019s also planning on having Cruz lead a second Dashboard in a Day session, followed by \u201ca much more targeted training curriculum on Power BI\u201d to enhance the skills and professional development of the city\u2019s analysts.<\/p>\n

Garaffo said it\u2019s been encouraging to hear from employees who want to learn Power BI for \u201cexamples that I couldn\u2019t have even imagined.\u201d She\u2019s also excited about Power BI\u2019s ability to connect directly to the city\u2019s data source, replacing a reliance on static reports. \u201c(Power BI is) turning on that internal data liquidity between city departments and breaking down those silos so that the data can be shared easily,\u201d she said. \u201cNow we\u2019re turning on the faucet so that folks can connect directly to the raw data. We are not just changing the data analytics piece, we\u2019re also changing how we\u2019re consuming data in the city and that\u2019s going to be really transformative. It all starts with the data and patterns, and Power BI makes that easy.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to San Jose\u2019s story, please learn more about how Microsoft CityNext<\/a> is empowering cities with Power BI in these Real Stories of Digital Transformation<\/a>:<\/p>\n