Transforming Data Operations with Google Looker:

The Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics Modernization Success Story

Executive Summary

In the digital age, government agencies are under increasing pressure to modernize their data systems to enhance efficiency, transparency, and service delivery. Data modernization is crucial for government organizations as it enables them to leverage advanced technologies and platforms to improve decision-making and better serve the public.

This article covers the data modernization journey of the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics (ICBS) and how they completely transformed the way data is disseminated to users while successfully upgrading their data platforms and infrastructure, powered by Google Cloud and Google Looker Embedded. As a key partner to the process Jutomate worked alongside the ICBS to successfully execute the project. This case study provides valuable insights into the challenges overcome, strategies employed, and outcomes achieved.

Background

The Israel Central Bureau of Statistics (ICBS) is the government body responsible for collecting, processing, and publishing statistical information about the state of Israel. Founded in 1949, the primary mission of the ICBS is to provide accurate, up-to-date statistical data to aid in decision-making processes for government, businesses, and the public. The ICBS conducts a wide range of surveys covering various aspects of life in Israel, including population, health, employment, education, housing, agriculture, and more. This collected data is then analyzed to produce meaningful insights and reports. The ICBS is also responsible for conducting the national censuses to gather detailed demographic information which is then analyzed and published to the public.

The Project Goals

The ICBS embarked on a comprehensive transformation of its population census data management and dissemination processes, with the purpose of delivering a modern, intuitive experience to users. Google Looker was selected as the enterprise platform for BI, data applications, and embedded analytics to enable users to explore insights in real time.

The ICBS had traditionally used static tools to present data via their website (e.g. pdfs, jpgs, etc.) and were limited in their abilities to make data accessible to users as well as offer tools for data search, analysis & comparison. The primary goal was to deliver a modern, user-friendly interface that would enable any user to quickly find and display relevant census data in the selected geographic area.

The project also required upgrading and modernizing the data IT infrastructure to allow for improved quality and speed of data processing. It was decided to migrate the census data to a cloud-based data lake storage on Google Cloud Platform (GCP) leveraging services such as BigQuery and Cloud Storage.

In addition, all of the development had to comply with robust cyber security and data privacy measures to protect sensitive census data, adhering to industry standards like GDPR and ISO 27001.

Jutomate was selected as the main service partner to manage the entire data modernization project, working with multiple business stakeholders and technological vendors. More specifically, Jutomate was responsible for implementing the Google Looker embedded solution to deliver a new user experience within the existing ICBS census website- English / Hebrew.

The Challenges

Working with a very large, traditional government organization presented several business and technical challenges:

Timelines: The timelines for the project were very aggressive, requiring the new website experience to be completed in just five months.
Bridging the digital divide: The ICBS, like many large government organizations, used traditional data management practices and presentation methods. Translating decades-old data handling methods into a modern, technology-driven framework required a profound organizational shift. Since not all stakeholders were familiar with the technologies (e.g. Google Looker, GCP) it was important to explain these technologies clearly and their implications for the organization. In this way a coherent plan could be drawn up and implemented.
Managing multiple stakeholders from business, information technology and cyber security: The data modernization project included teams from multiple areas including system architects, cyber security (penetration tests, etc.), network infrastructure, DevOps (on Google Cloud Platform), UX / UI designers, and front-end application development (in a secured development mode)
UX/UI design: Upgrading the data platform would deliver much-improved accessibility and rich data insight, but there was a major challenge in designing how this data should be presented to end users. The user experience had to be simple and intuitive without compromising the richness or complexity of the data. In addition, it was necessary to analyze what additional types of data sources could be integrated with the census data to deliver a valuable experience, for example geographic or map data.
Data models and KPIs: The challenge with the project was not the amount of data per se, but the complexity of creating complex data models across multiple sources. In addition, it was important to decide what data was really important to visualize without overwhelming the user or compromising on the richness of the data available.
Data complexity & quality: Ensuring data accuracy, consistency, and integration across various legacy platforms was a major challenge necessitating the implementation of rigorous data governance frameworks. Legacy systems were not always up to date, which meant issues with data quality, organization and integrity.
Cyber security and data privacy: As a government agency operating in a highly regulated environment, and given the sensitive nature of census data, implementing robust cybersecurity protocols was essential while providing users with access to dashboards displaying aggregated data. A particular challenge was ensuring that anonymous users could access this data while maintaining stringent safeguards against potential breaches, which required careful and detailed planning.
Data migration: The project required migrating data to the government cloud platform (Nimbus) which was a highly complex and technical process.

The Result: A world-class user experience using Google Looker Embedded.

Jutomate was selected to lead the overall process of implementing Google Looker. Looker is an enterprise platform for BI, data applications, and embedded analytics that helps customers explore and share insights in real time.

In order to successfully implement Looker embedded in such a challenging timeline Jutomate worked simultaneously with multiple business and technology stakeholders within the ICBS, including:

Business intelligence and data teams to select the relevant data sources, analyze and clean the data, and design the data models to be used. The number of data KPIs had to be refined and agreed on, deciding exactly which census data would be presented to users. The initial collection of 200 KPIs was finally reduced to 64, which is still a very large number for a project of this type.
UX/UI teams to design a simple, intuitive experience and interface that would allow users to easily navigate the site and find the data needed. When dealing with such a wide variety of census information, it is crucial that users can quickly find what they are looking for, thereby reinforcing a positive experience. It was also important to understand how different types of data would be presented and correlated, for example, combining census data with geographic maps so that users could compare different cities or areas using visual maps rather than tables or graphs.
Front-end development teams to develop and implement a dynamic, responsive application regardless of the platform or user device. In addition, they had to work in a highly secure government environment, enabling access to anonymous users via the website without compromising data security.

After an intensive five-month period, a totally redesigned ICBS Census website was launched. The newly designed website allows users to quickly search for, compare and retrieve data on the 2022 population census. Google Looker delivered several important benefits to the project including:

A simple, consistent experience for users across any platform or device. The solution utilized responsive display which meant dashboards only had to be developed once and they would then adapt themselves to the display resolution of the device, whether mobile, tablet or web.
Tailor-made dashboards designed to present relevant data quickly and intuitively. These dashboards were embedded in existing census website, thereby reducing integration efforts
Advanced visualization capabilities that combined census data with geographic map data, utilizing consistent colors on the maps to enhance visual clarity and ensure a direct connection between the maps and the graph data, so that applying any filter to the map automatically updates the graph, and vice versa
Near real-time data retrievable for improved accessibility and user experience
Support for anonymous users
Integration with multiple data sources for reduced data management costs e.g. map data
Robust security measures to protect sensitive government data
Advanced billing mechanisms for cloud consumption

Samples of Dashboards implemented for ICBS website

Hebrew/English

In addition to the greatly improved user experience, several major improvements were also made to the data infrastructure and management platforms.

Data accessibility and speed: A key success factor for the ICBS was data retrieval speed so that users would have access quickly. To ensure a practical result, we had to balance the cost of data infrastructure with the speed of retrieval and still managed to achieve a result of under 4 seconds. Considering the amount and complexity of the data this was a fantastic achievement.

Optimized cloud spending: Given the substantial investment in cloud infrastructure and data analytics tools, FinOps was essential for the project’s success. By implementing robust financial management practices, the ICBS could optimize cloud spending, ensure cost efficiency, and maximize the return on investment. Integrating FinOps principles from the outset allowed for better resource allocation, capacity planning, and overall financial control throughout the data modernization journey.

With over 25 years of combined experience in highly complex technology projects and deep data expertise, Jutomate successfully delivered a turnkey solution, managing the end-to-end project under very aggressive timelines. Jutomate embraced this challenge and achieved the impossible, investing 4,000 hours of effort within the five-month period to ensure that the project would launch on time.
Jutomate is unique in terms of its deep data knowledge, technological expertise and hands-on experience with large enterprise modernization projects. For the ICBS project, however, it was crucial to have not just deep technological expertise, but also the ability to establish trust and confidence that such a complex project could be carried out successfully.

The project required a mix of technical proficiency and change management acumen. The ability to communicate complex technical concepts in understandable terms and alleviate the client’s concerns was crucial to the project’s success.

Jutomate is passionate about data and our in-depth experience with data and data modeling was instrumental in guiding the ICBS towards selecting and effectively presenting the most impactful data for the user dashboard.

Jutomate also has specific expertise in implementing Google data solutions including Google BigQuery and Looker and worked hand-in-hand with the Google GCP team to successfully implement Google Looker embedded within a highly-regulated government environment.

The Jutomate team has a unique mix of skills including experienced data professionals, GCP cloud architects, and FinOps specialists. In the ICBS project, we collaborated to not only deliver the right technological solution but to ensure that the data was transformed seamlessly, competitively, and most importantly, cost-effectively.

Summary: From Data Legacy to Data Excellence

This project has set a new ‘gold standard’ in how government organizations can successfully transform their data operations and deliver a cutting-edge experience to users. We expect this project to become the model for government organizations worldwide who are facing the same urgent need to modernize their data operations and user experience.