The Department of Social Services (DSS) wants to bring unstructured data in from the cold, issuing a request for tender for a new analytics solution that includes text heavy content in addition to the millions of transactional records it has stored in Teradata, Oracle and SQL Server databases.

According to tender documents, it wants to enable analytics across both structured and unstructured data from a range of sources both within and outside the department.

The DSS is the Australian Government's main source of advice on social policy and manages about one fifth of the federal budget. It currently employs approximately 5,000 staff

Analytics within the Department is primarily performed utilising the SAS software toolsets.  After conducting a review of its data reporting and analytics functions in late 2014 it concluded there were several gaps.

It now wants to implement a new Analytic Data Platform (ADP) which will introduce a consistent method to acquire data from a range of transactional and data warehouse sources.

It also wants to “enhance the depth of analytic insights by providing new semi-structured and unstructured formats and styles of data” and is open to cloud solutions hosted in Australia.

Current business intelligence apps used inside the DSS include Cognos 10.2.1, SAS, SAP (Business Objects) and Microsoft Reporting and Analysis Services.

It is hoping to roll out a solution from 1 July 2015.