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Using data in everyday decisions in Albany can involve buying a reporting service, analysis project or access to a tool. Before signing a contract, the business needs to understand how the proposed information will support a real decision.
This checklist focuses on the questions behind a data service rather than the appearance of a report. Mark important items as confirmed, unclear or needing advice, and keep unresolved requirements visible beside the proposed commitment.
Check the decision and the intended user
Define what someone will decide differently after receiving the information. A report about enquiries, for example, should be connected with a practical question about the enquiry process rather than a broad wish to become more data-driven.
- Who will use the information?
- Which decision does it support?
- When is the information needed?
- What action remains subject to human approval?
Clarify what the service is not intended to establish. A report summarising activity should not silently become a promise to diagnose every cause of a change or predict future sales.
Check the information sources and their limits
Ask which sources the provider needs and whether the business can appropriately make them available. Access to a system does not by itself establish permission to use every record for a new purpose.
- Which records are required?
- Who provides and maintains them?
- What gaps or delays are expected?
- What information should be excluded?
Keep the difference between missing data and a measured zero understandable. A blank report field may mean the information was not collected, not that no relevant activity occurred.
Consider the scope of access proposed for the provider and relevant staff. The contract discussion should not require distributing unrestricted customer records simply to explain the intended analysis.
Check the definitions before comparing results
Ask how important measures are calculated and what they include. A submitted enquiry, a qualified request and a completed sale describe different events even if a report places them near one another.
- What does each important measure mean?
- Which dates or periods does it use?
- How are repeated or corrected records treated?
- How will a definition change be identified?
Ask for an understandable example using appropriate sample information. A formula may be technically correct while answering a different question from the one the business intended.
The government’s digital performance guidance provides context for connecting measures with goals. The actual service should still explain the meaning and limitations of its outputs.
Check what the provider will deliver and explain
Specify the relevant report, analysis or other output and how the business will receive it. Clarify whether the arrangement includes interpretation, a discussion of findings or only the prepared information.
- What deliverables are included?
- How can the business query an unexpected result?
- What evidence supports an interpretation?
- How are uncertainty and limitations shown?
Distinguish a pattern from a proven cause. More enquiries after a change can be worth investigating without establishing that one particular advertisement or software feature caused them.
For commissioned work, the government’s contract preparation guidance offers relevant context for defining work and responsibilities. Its contracting examples do not determine the meaning of every data service agreement.
Check the complete cost and change process
Separate initial preparation, ongoing reporting and additional analysis. Clarify what happens if the business adds a source, changes a definition or asks a new question after the scope has been agreed.
- What is included in the quoted price?
- Which conditions create another charge?
- Who approves a scope change?
- What work must staff do each period?
A report that is inexpensive to generate may still require staff time to prepare information or resolve discrepancies. Include that responsibility when comparing proposals.
Do not assume every measure can be reconstructed from the information already available. A useful proposal identifies a limitation before the business commits to an output that cannot be supported.
Check information handling and continuing access
Ask how relevant information is protected, corrected, retained and returned or removed when appropriate. Check the obligations applicable to the business and arrangement instead of relying on a universal retention rule.
- Who can access source and output records?
- How are errors and corrections handled?
- What usable material can the business retain?
- What happens when the service ends?
The government’s supplier guidance provides a starting point for the commercial discussion. Obtain relevant advice about unclear privacy, confidentiality or rights provisions.
Agree how the business will review whether the service remains useful. Repeated production of the same report is not sufficient evidence that someone can interpret it or that it still supports the original decision.
If a result is intended to trigger action, clarify who checks its context and authority first. A changed figure may call for investigation rather than an automatic change to customer commitments or staff work.
Before an Albany business signs for a data service, it should be able to explain the decision, inputs, definitions and deliverables. Those answers give the contract a practical purpose beyond producing another report.