OTTAWA
-- Wednesday was another busy at the Canada's Government Technology Event,
and my last. The event continues through Thursday, but I had to head back to Toronto. However I leave you
with some news, notes and observations from day two at GTEC. (Here's a link to day one's blog.)
Spotlight on Manitoba:
Every year GTEC picks a spotlight province which highlights their
transformative work with information technology, and this year the focus was on
Manitoba. And not (just) for the return of the Winnipeg Jets, but for their impressive
IT transformation that began in the lead-up to Y2K.
In his keynote, John Clarkson,
Manitoba’s deputy minister for the department of innovation, energy and mines
(he says that seemingly odd combination is an asset because it links IT to
economic development) outlined how they made a decision in the mid-1990s many
organizations probably wish they made: if they’re going to have to invest
heavily in IT to prepare for Y2K, why not take the opportunity for a complete
IT rethink and overhaul.
They built a centralized data
network and a comprehensive desktop program with a single image and a common
approach to e-mail and communications across government. On top, they layered
an enterprise resource planning system from SAP. This government-wide shared
infrastructure has provided the platform to provide better service to citizens,
and allowed it to break down silos and provide citizens one window into their
government. No more having to run from department to department, providing the
same information over and over again.
Looking at lessons learned,
Clarkson said standardization shouldn’t mean the lowest common denominator. It
means making it easier to communicate, manage operations and provide services
without having to support different technologies and services.
Manitoba also had some advice on
procurement. They broke transformation projects into gates, which allowed them
to manage costs and decide at each stage if the project should go forward. Some
vendors carried through multiple gates, while others didn’t because they didn’t
deliver results.
Follow the Flemish
example: Clarkson’s Manitoba keynote was followed by a presentation
from Kathy Garcia, global senior vice-president, applications and business
services with Hewlett-Packard Co.’s enterprise services group. It was a
presentation that left attendees buzzing, particularly for the examples she
provided of international government service delivery transformations that HP
has been a part of.
One example that caught the
interest of many, and was even talked about by federal CIO Corinne Charette in
a concurrent session that followed, was an example from Belgium. In a project
called MAGDA, for Maximum Data Sharing between Agencies, the Flemish government
built a single platform based on service-oriented architecture (SOA) to bring
together more than 70 agencies providing government services to citizens. At
the core is the concept of once-only data collection or, as HP dubbed it, “tell
us once government.” The goal wasn’t to just digitize bureaucracy, but put
technology at the heart of the process to drive efficiency.
The example scored with the public
sector attendees at GTEC, so expect to hear more of the Flemish example in the
months to come as Canada embarks on its own IT transformation.
The show floor/education
session disconnect: There are two key components to every GTEC. There’s
the trade show floor where technology vendors and partners, as well as some
government departments, showcase their offerings and their work. And there’s
the keynote addresses and break-out education session panels. I’ve been
shuffling between both, but a channel veteran made a good point that hadn’t occurred
to me: not a lot of partners are attending the education sessions. And that’s a
mistake.
The channel community is
well-represented on the show floor. But many of the partners are spending the
show there, pushing their respective hardware and software offerings to
the public sector attendees. That’s not without value, but it’s also the old
selling model that the government is signalling a move away from as it goes down
the road of shared services, procurement reform and IT service transformation.
It has been rare to see partners
attending the education sessions. But the thing is, that’s where they’re far
more likely to find their potential customers. The federal IT decision makers
are attending panels and break-outs, getting ideas on how to restructure and
reform IT within their departments and across government.
If they’re smart, partners would
be in those sessions hearing and learning what their potential customers are
hearing and learning, so they can restructure their businesses and be ready for
the coming changes as government IT begins to be transformed.
The future of their businesses is
in the break-outs, not the trade show floor.
Follow Jeff Jedras on
Twitter: @JeffJedrasCDN.