Business analytics software maker SAS and Capgemini, an IT consultancy, are working together to offer governments a solution that spots tax-related fraud by crunching data and detecting suspicious patterns. At the same time, the two companies are promising to reduce the error margins that can eventually lead to the same bottom line result as well.

The whole thing is based on the SAS Fraud Framework for Government, which is implemented in collaboration with Capgemini’s Business Information Management (BIM) unit. The pitch covers not only theoretical technical advantages, but also the fact that the two firms have a track record of collaborating in this area.  HM Revenue & Customs is a joint client of the pair, and Capgmenini installed a similar solution from SAP for the parallel department in India’s largest state.

“There is a need for cutting-edge business analytics in the public sector,” said Stu Bradley of SAS, who holds the drawn-out title  of Senior Business Director of the Fraud and Financial Crimes Practice. “These products apply intelligent business rules and advanced predictive analytics to help governments identify subtle clues to uncover fraud in large amounts of data. Also important is end-to-end capability from data integration through detection, which can be done by investigation management that can be deployed across the enterprise to address many fraud and improper payments issues on a single platform.”

SAS Fraud Framework itself mixes together several different approaches to achieve what its developer promises. The software identifies the anomalies scattered throughout the records by applying predictive analytics and even going after individuals’ social networking profiles.

Data is gradually becoming more valuable to public sector organizations, but the adoption rate is still sluggish, according to NetApp. The storage vendor commissioned a report that discovered the potential has indeed been noted, but actual implementation is still way behind.