Salford City Council has announced a new project with digital and cloud service provider, ANS Group, which will see the local authority harnessing and integrating key data sources to boost business growth and inform early intervention for service users across the city.

In its initial phase, the council will work with ANS to build and deploy a single, integrated smart data and analytics platform for processing and displaying data. With the help of the platform, the council will be able to make informed decisions around how to facilitate business growth in Salford.

This includes identifying which organisations are falling behind in paying their business rates as early as possible, which is estimated to generate a valuable revenue stream for the council of £1 million through a 0.5% improvement in collection rates.

As well as helping to retrieve business rates, the council plans to utilise the platform to facilitate growth across the city by integrating data from planning, property and environmental inspection systems.

The city council’s long-term aim is to utilise the platform to help identify and support vulnerable individuals, such as those who are at risk of poverty or debt issues with early intervention using predictive analysis and AI to spot trends.

Jon Burt, enterprise architect at Salford City Council commented: “The council is fully committed to becoming a data-led authority and this project is an exciting next step for both the council and the people that will benefit from our streamlined services.

“Our relationship with ANS has been collaborative from the beginning – as we’ve grown and adapted our strategy to become a digital enabled local authority, ANS has worked with us to source the best technologies that will help us deliver on our strategic vision.

“With support from ANS, we’ve been able to unlock and analyse data in a way that will revolutionise the way the city operates, creating a tool which can be adapted to an array of services to improve the lives of our citizens.”

Andy Barrow, CTO at ANS Group added: “Salford City Council is a truly ambitious local authority, especially when it comes to finding the right technology to improve the local services available to its citizens.

“It’s been a pleasure working with the council and we’re looking forward to seeing it excel on its digital transformation journey and cement Salford’s position as a leading digital hub.”