Council shortlisted in categories of Best Use of Data in Public Sector and Healthcare and Data Professional of the Year

London 23rd September 2009 - Initiate Systems, Inc., a leader in data management solutions that enable information sharing and improve data quality, announced today that its customer, Brent Council and its CIO, have been named as finalists in two separate categories of the Data Strategy Awards: Best Use of Data in Public Sector and Healthcare and Data Professional of the Year. The winners of the awards, which recognise the achievements of the best data practitioners in the UK, will be announced on 22nd October 2009.

The award for Best Use of Data in Public Sector and Healthcare will be given to the organisation able to demonstrate the most effective data strategy in local authority, local and national Government. Brent Council has been shortlisted thanks to its work with Initiate Systems on implementing a Client Index System to create a ‘golden view' of its 270,000 residents and connect nine disparate sources of data relating to people living in the council's catchment area. This enables the Council to improve the service delivered to citizens and play an integral role in generating new council revenue.

Brent Council's CIO Tony Ellis is also nominated as Data Professional of the Year based on his leadership of the Council's project. This award will be given to the individual who demonstrates best practice in data collection, management, manipulation or analysis, leadership in developing or implementing their company's data strategy, or cutting edge data usage in a business context in any industry sector. In addition, Tony chairs the UK local government Data Connects group which is an acknowledged centre of excellence for customer data integration.

"These nominations are well deserved. Tony has undertaken a pioneering project, which allows councils to save money and become more efficient, while providing a better service to residents by having a 360 degree view of each person living in the council," commented David Macmillan, vice president at Initiate Systems EMEA. "This project creates a blueprint for other local authorities, which Brent Council hopes will lead to improved efficiencies across the country."