Client: Italy's National Institute of Social Welfare Challenge: The institute needed a better way to quickly verify the quality of data on registered people. Solution: An integrated system developed by CSC to monitor and improve the quality of data. It conforms to any new public regulation and offers overall more efficient services to citizens. Results: Real-time monitoring of data quality, the ability to find the source of incorrect and duplicate data, reduced internal and postal costs, and faster delivery times. Related Information Read about CSC border security and postal service projects in Italy. Visit CSC Italy (Italian). Contact us and let our experience help you produce results.

Italy's National Institute of Social Welfare (INPS) insures the majority of the Italian workforce and most people employed in the public sector. INPS commissioned CSC to create an integrated system for monitoring and improving the quality of the user data in the system.

The main activity of the INPS is the payment of pensions to registered workers — such as unemployment, and illness and maternity benefits — for families. However, increased transborder mobility of workers along with changes in contributions and pensions regulations, have caused structural changes in the Italian and European labor markets, forcing the INPS to confront new issues.

The institute needed a better way to verify the quality of the data in its Anagrafica Unica, a database containing information on people registered with the INPS, such as their addresses. Citizens and other mobile registered workers are becoming more demanding at seeking benefits status and contributions information in real time. As a result, the institution was not keeping up with the increasing number of requests.

“We turned to CSC for their specific competencies in the field of technology and processes, for their ability to manage innovative projects, and for the reliability they have shown us over the last three years of profitable collaboration,” says Dionigi Spadaccia, IT and telecommunications director for INPS.

Better data, better public service
INPS adopted an integrated system developed by CSC to monitor and improve the quality of the data. This allows INPS to make the most of the institute's knowledge base and simplifies the process of conforming to any new public regulation. It also offers more efficient services to citizens.

“The project has been particularly complex, not only because of the large amount of data managed by the registry office of INPS, which is undoubtedly the largest among the public institutions, but also because of the complexity of the provisioning and updating data flows. Furthermore, for the first time within the Italian public administration market, a dashboard for the constant monitoring of data quality has been introduced,” adds Stefania Pompili, CSC’s public administration business executive in Italy.

The CSC designed and implemented dashboard allows real-time monitoring of any decrease in data quality or flow from external and internal sources, as well as its cause. The multiphased project was developed through an innovative plan. It provides for the mass processing of the databases to improve the quality of current data, the constant monitoring of information and the verification of new data so that services can be validated immediately.

Getting checks in the mail
CSC’s solution ties into an updated territorial database that meets new requirements set by the Italian Postal Service. It includes a national street guide containing nearly 1.3 million roads integrated with a specialized algorithm software that automatically eliminates any duplicate data. This solution works on all platforms and technical environments and from any front end — even if it is Web-based — to ensure benefit documents are quickly mailed to the right person.

The technology and tools used to improve and monitor data quality enable record matching and integration and reconciliation of data. The system also allows for source credibility evaluation, localization and easier correction of errors. The institute can now validate and format any new information as soon as it is received, thus avoiding the insertion of data, such as addresses, that don’t meet the Postal Service’s format regulations.

“We are extremely satisfied with the work that was carried out because we believe that we have provided a clear contribution to the continuous improvement of the services offered by a strategic institution for all Italian citizens,” says Pompili.

The benefits for INPS also include more accurate information, guaranteed postal delivery, and reduced internal costs, postal costs and delivery times.

“Now, INPS is able to immediately intervene when there is a risk of a decrease in the quality of data instead of having to do this afterwards, as was often the case in the past. Furthermore, we have the possibility to fulfill any requirements due to radical change with the utmost certainty of safe and timely updates,” adds Spadaccia.