U.S. Department of Transportation · Government · Washington, DC · 22 weeks
Data governance framework deployed across 6 regional offices
A federal transportation agency struggled with a 34-day average response time for FOIA requests because data was scattered across six regional offices without a central catalog. We created a governance framework and centralized data catalog, cutting response times to 8 days and preventing $1.2 million in yearly penalties for late replies.
Challenge
The agency handled 2,400 FOIA requests a year but took 34 days on average to respond, far beyond the 20-day legal limit. The main issue was data scattered across six regional offices without a central catalog. Staff had to manually contact each office and compile records by hand. This inefficient process cost the agency $1.2 million in penalties last year.
Outcome
FOIA response times fell from 34 days to 8 days in three months after deployment. This stopped $1.2 million in yearly penalties. By centralizing the data catalog, we cut storage costs by $340,000 annually by uncovering and removing 18TB of duplicate data.
Results
- 34 days to 8 days FOIA response time
- $1.2M Annual penalties eliminated
- 2,400 Annual FOIA requests handled
- $340K Annual storage savings
We were spending $1.2 million a year on FOIA penalties because we couldn’t find our data fast enough. Thinklytics set up a catalog that maps out where all our data lives. Now, we’re getting responses back in about 8 days on average.