Liberata, the business process innovation company, has today announced a strategic partnership with GBG, the specialist Identity Data Intelligence provider, to drive improved service outcomes for public sector organisations. As part of this exclusive UK public sector partnership, Liberata has already embedded the rich data analytics engine of GBG, which mines nearly 300 diverse data sources globally, into the managed services provided by CapacityGrid, the service technology business it created in 2011, to help councils accelerate their digital transformation with less effort. These capabilities have also been developed into a set of technology solutions and automated services offered through the CapacityGrid ServiceCloud platform for councils to use directly.
To date, CapacityGrid teams have been using the smart data analytics constructed with GBG to generate impressive results in a DCLG-funded Fraud and Error project for a consortium of 12 local authorities.
“We’ve already seen and proven the value of working with GBG through the innovative Fraud and Error solution we are providing to a consortium of 12 councils. As a result of using our managed service they have identified a significant level of over-payments in council tax reduction claims. Our deep process expertise and knowledge combined with GBG’s powerful identity data intelligence has enabled us to create a new operating platform for fraud and error reviews that can dramatically reduce caseloads and improve results. Now all efforts are focused on reviewing only those cases where there is evidence of potential fraud and error, which typically starts at 15% of the caseload or less. And it is this evidence-based approach that has led to such high financial returns for local authorities,” said Vijay Chandiramani, COO Liberata Local Government & CapacityGrid. “It’s no longer about just doing more for less in the public sector but instead about doing more with less. By using data analytics in this way we can better focus scarce public sector resources, and then use machine learning so that efforts become even more focused over time.”
CapacityGrid’s Fraud and Error Reviews (FER) service has been developed to incorporate intelligent learning in order to help local authorities continuously improve the efficiency of their reviews. Innovation that has been designed by practitioners and operational specialists to provide councils with a better way to detect fraud and error in council tax reduction and housing benefit caseloads with less effort. Key to this is taking an evidence-based selection approach that accurately identifies the subset of a caseload requiring attention and improves each time it is used. Constant adaptation is possible by making direct comparisons between claims data and a continuously optimised range of internal and external data sources live at the point of review. So instead of a theoretical prediction, cases continue to be identified where there is a mis-match between the claim and real-world data which needs to be further checked – such as claimants holding multiple addresses or lifestyle expenditure being inconsistent with declared income. This is proving to lead to a far higher rate of identification from a far lower but more focused workload.
Crucially, the evidence-based selection approach detects any mis-match and can be automated to pick up regular changes, so it identifies claimants being under-paid as well as those being over-paid. The service can therefore recommend that claims be adjusted upwards as well as downwards or removed entirely because they are no longer eligible. This can provide a vital and socially valuable enhancement to every council’s service as it ensures support is directed to those who need it most, and those who are entitled to greater benefit are not being missed or left out because they haven’t updated their own claims.
“We are very excited about the opportunities this partnership will create. CapacityGrid has an unprecedented track record and is already delivering significant cost savings for local authorities,” said Paul Daley, Government Sales Director, GBG. “The evidence-based selection approach that we have constructed with the CapacityGrid team which its customers are now benefitting from is a great example of how innovative techniques combining data and process knowledge can be used to help government operate more efficiently.”
