What this public sector data episode is about:

Local authorities manage an incredible breadth of complex services - from housing, education, and waste collection to adult social care and corporate finance. Historically, each department has operated on its own legacy system, creating a disconnected, inefficient ecosystem connected by a web of fragile integrations.

Today, as county and district councils consolidate into unified unitary authorities, these disparate legacy systems must merge. Simply moving data from one system to another using a blind "lift and shift" approach is NOT enough. Every migration program is a golden opportunity to clean your data, simplify your enterprise architecture, standardise information, and build stronger data governance foundations for the future. In this episode, our CEO James Blake and Chief Operating Officer Steve Smales share practical advice on how the leaders can approach local authority data projects with confidence, reduce structural complexity, and ensure long-term cost savings.

What we covered in this episode:

[00:00] Introduction: a sneak-peek into the episode

[00:32] The financial and operational pressures facing local authorities

[02:04] Local authority mergers and the growing systems challenge

[03:09] Why “lift and shift” integrations are a costly mistake

[05:01] Reducing integration complexity and long-term risk

[06:11] Using data migration projects as an opportunity to improve data quality

[08:27] Building stronger data governance during transformation programmes

[09:00] The importance of data standardisation for future success

[10:30] Canonical data models and making integrations easier to manage

[11:36] Key takeaways and advice for local authorities planning change

The danger of "Lift and Shift":

One of the biggest mistakes public sector organisations make during system modernisation is treating data migration as a basic technical lift-and-shift exercise. Replicating a catalog of 100 to 200 legacy integrations into a new ERP environment doesn't solve structural problems, it simply copies them over.

Instead, local authorities should use a migration window strategically to:

• Improve data quality: Clean up decades of duplicated or incomplete record structures.

• Consolidate integration architecture: Move away from point-to-point "spaghetti" setups and transition toward an integration hub model.

• Establish a canonical data model: Standardise data field definitions so different systems can communicate seamlessly without custom translation layers.

• Enforce proactive data governance: Move past outdated GDPR compliance methods (like posters in the office) and assign clear data owners to protect against modern cyber threats and data breaches.

Key takeaway :

How to fix local authority data complexity :

True digital transformation requires looking beyond software implementation costs and focusing on the underlying data standard architecture. By defining strict regional or national data standards through simple, upfront workshop alignment, councils can completely eliminate bureaucratic red tape. When your canonical models and data definitions match across housing, care, and finance departments, your systems organically talk together. This allows your data architects to make swift, impactful organisational decisions that directly benefit citizens.

At binary10, we are the data people. We believe that public sector data should never just be moved, it should be intentionally improved. If you need any support with your local authority transformation, whether your council is planning a unitary authority merger, preparing for a major ERP implementation, or trying to untangle legacy integration middleware, we can help!

We partner with public sector organisations to build trusted, compliant, and highly efficient data frameworks.

Connect with us here: CONTACT

EPISODE TRANSCRIPTION:

Disclaimer: This transcript was generated by an AI tool that did its best, but it's never met different British accents it could fully decode. Expect a few funny mistakes. Enjoy!

[00:00] - James B

2026, episode three.

[00:04] - Steve S

It's a bit of a no-brainer, but it it's it is extra work.

[00:08] - James B

Use this as an opportunity, one to aid getting your your data right and understanding it.

[00:14] - Steve S

well. And it might cost a little bit more now, but you'll you'll reap those savings in those years to come as

[00:21] - James B

Hello again, Steve.

How can we master our data better? How can we reduce the number of integrations that we have?

[00:30] - Steve S

Hi, Jamie. Good to be back.

[00:31] - James B

Yes, indeed, and we've got a new sort of stepping out into a little bit of new territory today. We're going to be talking about local authorities. I think it's really important. And yeah, it might not be

everyone's most exciting cup of tea, but it but it's super important, right? Absolutely, affects all of us. And you know, similar in in a similar way, you know, we've become quite passionate, you know, within the higher education sector over the last few years. You know, really, really. Passionate about

that, and ensuring that you know these these incredible organisations and establishments, you know, continue on in you know in challenging financial times, and I think it's you know let's be honest, it's the same in local authority. Yeah, and I think that you know there's a great opportunity here for us to you know really sort of you know raise the narrative around it to to make people realise that in the coming years, in the next five ten years, you know it's going to be a challenging world, and there's so many things that you know to be fair, local authority is already doing, you know to to become more efficient, you know. To save on costs and all those sorts of things, and I thought it would be important that you know we throw our pennies worth in, especially when it comes to data. You know, simply data integrations, data migrations, and you know a number of local

authorities are going to be undertaking whether it be mergers, you know, coming together or modernising their systems. You know, which which comes with a cost, and we've got to make sure that cost is as low as possible. Because that will really enable you know that sort of saving in in the years to come you know to ensure that you know to ensure that that these organisations can continue to do some of the fabulous work that they do.

[02:04] - Steve S

That's right, because they cover so many different things, don't they? You know, in the sort of local authorities, particularly just all of you know with travel and education and the whole whole. Gamma of of things, but I mean, you mentioned there about sort of the merging, and there's obviously a huge amount of upheaval upheaval going on at the moment around, you know, the sort of merging of of county councils and local councils into unitary authority. And that's going to mean a lot of merging of systems as well, merging of departments, and you know you're going to have a lot of legacy systems. Not just one set of legacy systems going to a new system. You could have multiple different legacy systems from different authorities merging into one. Now it could be that they merge into a system that's already up and running. So then you've got the issue of well we're actually

moving data into a system that is already live, or you could have multiple different sources of legacy data. Move into a completely new system in a sort of big bang, so you've got completely different flavors of of things, and that's obviously data migration. Integrations could be you know very sort of complicated in that scenario. Yeah.

[03:09] - James B

No, you've touched on a couple of key things. It made me chuckle as well, actually. Again, you talking about all the wonderful things that local authorities do, and I remember you know when we were at a recent event and speaking to a few people about you know what what does a local authority mean to you, and you know frustratingly a lot of people said, oh, you know they they get our bins, they pick our bins up. And it's like, well, yes, they do, and that's like a big job in itself. But there's so much more, you know, as you huge amounts they do. And I think you're right. I think you know. I mean, let's start with the integration challenge. Yeah. You know, one of the things that a lot

of local authorities are going to face is the fact that you know, probably over the last ten, twenty years, they have been bringing in lots of systems to do lots of processes against God, you know,

maybe ten departments and a number of things that you've already talked about. Which means that you know there's probably a raft of integrations connecting those systems together, and probably not doing it too efficiently. Now, one of the things that I would say, and it's it's not just a local authority thing. You know, we would apply this, you know, for any sector, but definitely for local authorities. It's so important that you consider as you, you know, you you step forward and you look

to modernise your IT. Don't just think that integrations are lift and shift. You know, if you currently have a catalogue of a hundred, two hundred integrations connecting your systems. Absolutely, it means that you should not be replicating that. Yeah, you know, it's really imperative that you think strategically about your integrations, and that you look at your sort of enterprise architecture and think about, okay, what can a new system bring? How can we master our data better? How can we

reduce the number of integrations that we have? You know, I mean, I know that you know there'll be a lot of consultancies out there sort of shuddering and you know thinking, hang on, why why are we trying to reduce you know the amount of work we need to do for them? You know, the amount of integrations we set up, but But we've got to do it right. You know, it's that's the big cost saving. You know, you will be able to reduce your integrations by you know four or fivefold. You know, if you get

in early and if you do that right architecture, set yourself up for success.

[05:01] - Steve S

Yeah, and you actually, it's not just the cost saving; it's the risk as well, isn't it? I mean, just the fewer integrations you've got, the less. Issues going forward, the less risk, the less maintenance

is the main thing. I mean, you can end up at the moment with, you know, in terms of integration, like a bowl of spaghetti, can't you? All these things connecting to each other all across the board. And if you if you do it in a more sort of, you know, a sort of strategic way, where you have everything going into a hub, it's you know, it makes maintainability so much better going forwards. So yeah, there's huge amounts to consider. When we spoke about Integrations there, but the data migration. Obviously, you're migrating data from maybe numerous legacy systems into a new ERP system. Presumably, if you're going with a new ERP system, but but what if you you're maybe taking a sort

of a local authority data and merging that into an existing live county council system? Say, so obviously we've done a lot of this before, haven't we, Jamie? With mergers and acquisitions, we've

done a hell of a lot of work around that, so we're sort of quite used to. That sort of difference between migrating into an existing live system rather than a new implementation completely, and they are completely different.

[06:11] - James B

Yeah, and I think that you know it's really important to highlight as well that you know, as you said, you know, it's not just about cost. I mean, yes, you know, you look at the support costs that you have of all your legacy systems, you compare that to the new support costs, you know, with the initial you know upfront implementation cost of that new system, and you might be looking you know five years down the line, and you see. You know, you see, you break even, and you start to then see your benefit there. But that isn't just the only benefit, you know. And obviously, you know, we're passionate about data. There's so many benefits to local authority by, you know, using the opportunity of a migration or, you know, to merge onto a new system to get your data right. You know, what a fantastic opportunity to clean that data. You know, you naturally will need to do that anyway. Um, super important. You know, one of the things that local authorities want to do is the same in central government. It's having single views on you know your your key things like people, and property. You know, currently they're dispersed across many systems, and it's hard to trust that data. You spend so much time bringing that data together, merging it, generating reports, just just wasting so much time on things that you could be doing efficiently elsewhere, because your data, because your systems aren't modern and you know well managed, well oiled. So use this as an opportunity, one to aid getting your you know your data right and understanding it, but building the foundations, you know that kind of data strategy, that future way of operating to ensure that the data remains consistent, remains accurate, you know. And and you know we talk about things like governance. It's so important that you can empower your people within local authority to make them

aware of what their role is within data. You know whether they're a data owner, you know a data steward. What does that mean? You know what does that You know what? What do I have to do?

You know, I mean, I think we're coming away from the world of ten, fifteen years ago where GDPR landed and posters were put up here and there in the in the organisation offices, and it's like, oh, you know, look after your data. We've got to be more proactive in this modern age. You know, with all the you know local authorities are always under threat, you know, of data breaches and all these sorts of things. So, you know, one of the things that I really want to talk about is just making sure that those local authorities really take this. You know this opportunity seriously to get your data right. Yes, it's about cost saving. Yes, it's about efficiencies. But you know you've got to get your data right for the modern age.

[08:27] - Steve S

Yeah, it's a it's a really good point, and I totally agree about the opportunity. You're going to have to do if you're having to do a merger, you're going to have to go through this anyway. But if you just do a simple lift and shift and try and make it as simple as possible now, you're just storing up problems for later on. It is the the ideal time is to you know to To do the consolidation now, and the integrations to get the data sorted now, get your governance in place going forward, and you'll save yourself so much hassle in the years to come. And it might cost a little bit more now, but you'll reap those savings in those years to come as well.

[09:00] - James B

Yeah, no, absolutely. And like I said, it's going to be it's going to be a challenging five ten years, right? And you know, we're certainly going to be behind that. You know that change, that push. You know we know that we've got a great opportunity to influence some of these organisations. Really get them thinking about data. And like I said, we're not. You know, it's not like you know you have to invest you know millions in in this activity. You know, it it can be super cost efficient as long as you

approach it right, and as long as you do it right. So yeah, there's definitely lots of opportunity. You know, to make things better. And you know one of the other things that is key is sort of data

standardisation. You know, it's it's an opportunity to you know take a step back and strategically think about you know what your data should look and feel like in each of the systems that you will have going forward. So that you know just simple things like things being spout the same, you know the same terminology that exists in all your systems means that it's extremely easy to share and collaborate and integrate. You know just simple little things like that doesn't take long. You know

you're talking a couple of days workshop to define some of these things, generate those data standards for your local authority. I mean. We could go bigger and say we should have a data standard for the UK, which I know is being talked about in central government. And you know, I've even sort of had some input into that. But you know, even if we, you know, we're probably quite a while away from getting it right on a, you know, on a nationwide scale. But for each local authority, as you do these activities, ensure you standardise your data. You know, it's a key activity upfront that means that your systems will effectively talk together and you get the data that you need first

time.

[10:30] - Steve S

That's right, and and if you're sort of considering integrations, if you have a canonical data model, it's just going to make the maintainability of those integrations going forward, or to add new

integrations, all the more easy. So it's but it's it's that upfront effort. Sort of at this point to to save so much hassle in the long term, isn't it? It's it's you know it's it's it's a bit of a no brainer, but it it's extra work. It is extra work up front, but it will it will pay dividends in the long run.

[10:56] - James B

Yeah, I can almost feel the the data architects of the world out there, or hopefully clapping, or hopefully cheering, because again, and their life must be a nightmare. Imagine their life now if

someone comes and says, "Oh, we're going to introduce a new system, or we're going to introduce some new fields." It's like, well, hang on a minute, right? Do we already have that data? Where is it in our legacy systems, or is it in that system? Is it in that system? Where, you know, like the panic, you know, and the time to figure out if this new introduction is going to cause an impact, you know, and so you're absolutely right. If you have those models, if you if you get these things set up right

now, it just means that you can then make, you know, our good data architects out there can make fantastic decisions quickly, you know, and we can move at pace, you know, and get rid of some of this red tape and bureaucracy.

[11:34] - Steve S

Yeah. No. Absolutely. Absolutely.

[11:36] - James B

No. Fantastic. Well. No. Really looking forward to it, and and I'm sure we're actually going to have a few more topics for local authorities because, you know, we've obviously you know just just made a start there and sort of sort of peeled back the can, but you know there's a lot more to explore here, and you know hopefully if there are these people experiencing this in local authorities or you're about to, you know, we'll have a few more episodes that that hopefully can can give you some good

advice and and something to consider.

[12:00] - Steve S

Yeah, and and feel free to to reach out to us if you want any sort of advice or want to sort of discuss your. Local authority projects.

[12:07] - James B

Absolutely, be super excited, wouldn't we? Yeah, no, look forward to the next one. But but no, that was fantastic. Thanks, Steve, and see you next time.

[12:13] - Steve S

See you next time!