Great South launched its new venture this week — Data Insights Southland Hub (Dish), which aims to be a place where businesses, councils and individuals can find consistent and reliable information on the region from a range of sources.
Regional strategy general manager Bobbi Brown said she had been working with data and insights analyst Mike Potter and regional projects and strategy adviser Kelly Spittle on the project since November last year.
The tool was created following the work from Great South’s Beyond 2025 project, which was released last year and set the goals for the region for the next few years, she said.
"There was lots of good data, but it was just really hard to find it," Mrs Brown said.
"So we’re trying to get consistency and this is really important because we’ve got lots of huge opportunities coming up, which is very exciting, but we just need to make sure that we talk the same talk It’s important that we inform decision-making as best we can."
Ms Spittle agreed.
"The main aim was to enable people and all forms of people from central government, local government, people moving to Southland to be able to make decisions around what’s happening with the environment, what’s happening with house prices, rentals and even tourists coming over ... It is just an enabling tool for Southland," she said.
Mrs Brown said it could potentially save some ratepayers money, as it represented a collaborative, regional approach to meet diverse data needs, building a strong foundation to realise possible efficiencies and cost savings.
Mr Potter said the platform provided accurate, timely and trustworthy information from more than 30 sources, such as the Invercargill City Council and Southland and Gore district councils as well as government departments and Kainga Ora.
"Most of it’s automated and we will make sure the information is accurate, so the information would be always reliable."
The team also hoped to produce timely reports which would analyse the data, track progress as well as provide insights which could help sectors across the region to develop strategies and even initiatives.
Mrs Brown said, for example, the hospitality industry could track the numbers of beds in the shoulder season and think about promotions or events to attract more people to the region during those periods.
The platform was the first of its kind in the country and they were blown away by the support it was already receiving, she said.
"We hosted some of the economic development colleagues from other parts of the country a couple weeks ago and the feedback was phenomenal — they already were asking if we could do this for them.
"And to be honest, we’re used to that down here — we’re always first, we’re always innovating and we’re pragmatic bunch of people. It just feels like we’ve just filled a gap."
