Westminster governs BI

In a bid to live up to its vision of a city of ‘strong communities and excellent services,’ Westminster City Council has turned to business intelligence to unify its disparate data and to improve budgeting and reporting processes.

In March 2007, the City of Westminster launched eighteen initiatives to improve life in the heart of London to help form the ‘One City’ programme that aims to make Westminster the best governed city in the world by creating strong communities, supported by excellent council services. The ‘One City’ programme focuses on 'Excellent Services - Strong Communities' with the four strands of Order, Opportunity, Enterprise and Renewal.

In June 2007, Westminster City Council purchased the Applix TM1 tool for business intelligence to handle the large and disparate quantities of data involved in the council’s operations.

There are currently 20 concurrent licences of TM1 software and around 50 users in total. The Excel-compatible system is used principally for the production of financial reports from a case ledger system and also the co-ordination of monitoring/budget setting. The aim is to achieve an improved reporting capability and effectiveness from a reduction in duplication of efforts.

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