{"id":2583,"date":"2017-06-27T09:54:42","date_gmt":"2017-06-27T16:54:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/industry\/blog\/uncategorized\/empowering-peak-performance-in-denver\/"},"modified":"2023-07-03T11:44:02","modified_gmt":"2023-07-03T18:44:02","slug":"empowering-peak-performance-in-denver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/industry\/blog\/government\/2017\/06\/27\/empowering-peak-performance-in-denver\/","title":{"rendered":"Empowering peak performance in Denver"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a>Denver may be known for the Rocky Mountains but there is one peak that operates on the ground floor. The Denver Peak Academy<\/a>, started in 2012 by Mayor Michael B. Hancock, is charged with training and coaching employees to improve the way government works. \u201c(The Academy) is the innovation and process improvement program for the City and County of Denver<\/a>,\u201d explained Brian Elms, director, noting the organization helps \u201cdeliver services or products faster or with higher quality to our customers\u2014residents and visitors\u201d and enables city and county employees to improve their performance.<\/p>\n Microsoft Power BI<\/a> is playing a key role in empowering employees to achieve more through the Peak Academy\u2019s Denver Data Lab, which trains local government analysts in data visualization techniques. Kate May, the Lab\u2019s data scientist, said they\u2019ve trained a little over half of the city\u2019s 300 analysts. By democratizing data through visually rich Power BI dashboards, the City and County of Denver are gaining insights, realizing performance improvements and making better, data-informed decisions, for example:<\/p>\n \u201cThe real point of what we\u2019re trying to do is put data in the hands of the people doing the work as opposed to just \u2026 executives,\u201d Elms said. The Peak Academy is monitoring its own progress to \u201cinnovate, elevate and repeat\u201d through a multipurpose Power BI report<\/a> that tracks number of people trained, cost savings, individual team member indicators and database errors that need to be corrected.<\/p>\n With 63 percent of Denver\u2019s budget dedicated to employee costs, the Peak Academy is proving its worth, having saved $22 million by building the capacity and capabilities of city and county employees. \u201cThe number one asset of any government is employees,\u201d Elms said. \u201cOur challenge is to make employees the best people they can possibly be and deliver the highest quality service.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/a>May explained that the Data Lab has trained 160 analysts through eight data visualization classes, which began last November. \u201c(Power BI) is something that we can teach people how to use in a very short amount of time,\u201d she said. \u201cWe do monthly classes \u2026 and people really see the value.\u201d That\u2019s especially true since prior to implementing Power BI, their previous analytics tool required IT to build all dashboards, some of which took six months to a year, by which time many business needs had changed.<\/p>\n The reaction from Denver\u2019s analysts has been positive: \u201cThey really like (Power BI). They recognize it can save them a lot of time. They like that it is easier and more straightforward to use than a lot of the other alternatives and that they don\u2019t need to go through some sort of complex purchasing process to get access to it; they can just download the desktop application and work with it.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s empowered a lot of analysts to be less afraid of data,\u201d she added. \u201cWith Power BI, they can do a lot of things really quickly and get a lot of insights. They see data as a tool \u2026 and they can help their departments use it as a resource.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/a>Elms acknowledged that the Denver Peak Academy\u2019s approach to training employees has evolved over time. \u201cThe concept of democratizing techniques and \u2026 skills and \u2026 the ability to do things on your own, without having to call in an expert \u2026 has changed the way that we work,\u201d Elms said, noting that the visualization capabilities in Power BI means that data analysts can \u201cconnect multiple different data sources because they have more time \u2026 allowing the analysts to work on things at a higher level.\u201d<\/p>\n You can learn more about the Denver Peak Academy by ordering its book, Peak Performance<\/a>. To join the Academy\u2019s new network of cities using dashboarding for better decision-making, please send an email to Elms<\/a>. And for another example of how Power BI is empowering cities, please read Part 1 of our series, highlighting how San Jose is changing its data conversation<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Denver Peak Academy is using Microsoft Power BI to enable employees to gain insights that improve performance or lead to better decisions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":843,"featured_media":10467,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"_classifai_error":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1515],"post_tag":[],"content-type":[1490],"coauthors":[4308],"class_list":["post-2583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","content-type-customer-stories"],"yoast_head":"\nDemocratizing data<\/h3>\n
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Training pays off<\/h3>\n