How the British Council began to re-assess 85 years of data

The British Council, a cultural relations organisation reaching across borders, had decades of information, but struggled to access and use it

The British Council is the UK's foremost cultural relations organisation: a charity that specialises in building connections, understanding and trust between people in the UK and other countries through arts and culture, education and English language teaching. However, it recently realised that it was struggling to manage and use the data it was collecting, and embarked on a data maturity project to identify challenges and opportunities.

With 85 years of history, and operating in 110 countries around the world, the Council has a significant data store - but its staff found it difficult to access and use relevant information. David Smith, head of corporate reporting, says:

"There were frustrations with being able to access good-quality data to improve our operations, business outcomes and to enhance understanding of our work. This also provides key insight for the UK. Our commercial operations rely on key market insights, furthering the need to invest in data which responds quickly and efficiently, to increasingly competitive markets and customer needs. Additionally, a greater emphasis on cost effectiveness requires us to explore more-for-less options, encouraging internal teams to create a more rigorous, evidence-based organisation."

The initial stage of the project consisted of a data maturity assessment, completed in August 2019. The Council - working with data literacy consultancy Carruthers & Jackson - looked at the state of IT in the organisation as a first step.

"Prior to the maturity assessment, the IT function was in a good state in terms of technology governance. Very little framework existed around data, however - with the exception of risk and compliance, which was managed by a separate team within IT. Attempts had been made to create a data strategy in prior years, but this was theoretical and added no value. Some work to create a data strategy and a technology layer had been started within IT in the run up to the maturity assessment, but this hadn't been fully realised."

As part of the work, the Council involved workers from across the organisation to gather a range of perspectives. Smith says that doing so "sparked constructive debates" and led to "a positive change in the way the organisation perceives the importance of data, which has initiated more focused work on how we improve data management and insight processes."

The project has already proved impactful. When Covid-19 spread across the globe, all of the Council's face-to-face operations had to go on hold, or were at least heavily restricted - but, as at other organisations, that accelerated the move to digital delivery.

"The data maturity work enabled us to think more holistically about how good quality data could support our response to Covid-19. For example, we are able to track our digital engagement more effectively; likewise, the way we analyse our response to potential operational risks," says Smith.

With the first stage of the assessment now complete, the British Council is underway with the next phase: implementation. Among the plans are the appointment of a senior business leader accountable for data, and developing a longer-term data vision for alignment with the charity's five-year strategy.

"We are now in the process of taking forward these recommendations and embedding best practice for data management and insight into our business processes. To centralise this process, we are developing our organisational model for data, alongside our data strategy, which will underpin the delivery of our priorities for the next five years. This includes support commercial objectives, the impact on the countries we work in and the wider value we generate for the UK."