BEIS joins forces with data experts Aiimi to boost post-COVID business recovery.

PRESS RELEASE – Milton Keynes & London

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy partners with data and technology firm Aiimi to build a new Data Management System.

Aiimi has signed a one-year partnership with the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) to build a new Data Management System to capture and securely progress grant return data.

The partnership is part of BEIS’ strategy to build a stronger, greener future for the UK by fighting the economic impact of COVID-19, tackling climate change, and unleashing innovation. BEIS aims to support the nation’s road to economic recovery and net zero emission targets by overseeing two key schemes: the COVID-19 business support grant and the Green Homes Grant.

Faced with the considerable task of capturing, cataloguing, and storing a wealth of data, the BEIS team has been working closely with Milton Keynes-based technology company Aiimi to build a near real-time Data Management System.

The new Data Management System will see vast amounts of grant-related data from more than 300 Local Authorities across the UK systematically captured, ingested, prepared, and enriched using a combination of Microsoft Azure and Databricks technologies – creating a fast, efficient, and scalable data provisioning and collaboration platform.

Built to Government Digital Service (GDS) standards, the new Data Management System will quickly and securely progress the task of capturing grant returns data. This information will then be cleansed, managed, and curated within a Data Lake ready to be exploited by data scientists, analysts, and statisticians to generate valuable insights for policy makers and the government.

Gavin Dollin, Product Sponsor and Head of Data Services at BEIS, explains:

“The data management system at BEIS lays the foundations for a great data service. It brings together tech from Microsoft Azure and Databricks to create a platform that not only supports our current needs but will change and grow to match our ever-evolving data journey.”

The COVID-19 business support grants will help UK businesses get back on their feet by supplying loans, tax relief, cash grants, financial support, and trading grants.

The Green Homes Grant encourages homeowners and residential property owners to install energy-efficient improvements to their homes by offering financial contributions towards the cost of insulation, low carbon heating, and draft proofing.

Through working with Aiimi to develop the new Data Management System, BEIS will be able to harness higher quality, more accurate data relating to these two schemes – allowing the department to better assess the impact the schemes are having and inform policies.

Ryan Moore, Head of Data and Analytics at Aiimi, adds: “The blended BEIS and Aiimi project team has set new standards in how we approach data platform design, applying user research techniques to understand and define the solution’s capabilities. Our joint effort has created a solid grounding for an evolving data platform and a powerful tool in measuring the performance of initiatives designed to drive economic change and recovery across the UK.”

Moore continues: “Aiimi is proud to play a part in ensuring these two vital schemes – to help revive businesses as COVID-19 restrictions ease and to make our nation a greener, cleaner place to live – remain data-driven.”

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