Trained as an engineer, Mary Ogilvie has 29 years of experience working in the public sector. These days she turns her attention to Service New Brunswick’s (SNB) delivery models, to provide government access that spans all media.
SNB acts as the citizen’s primary contact for government offerings like motor vehicle registrations, marriage licences and birth certificates. It also runs the province’s real property information service and the personal property registration service.
The group focuses on service via the Web, telephone and face-to-face transactions at its 36 offices. Ogilvie oversees electronic projects currently in the works, such as improving access for businesses and integrating SNB’s Internet, over-the-counter and telephone delivery platforms. As well, the group is updating its real property and assessment systems.
These digital endeavours require a certain amount of flexibility on Ogilvie’s part. She oversees all SNB efforts, helps design the information systems to support Web-based service and manages business development.
“Most of the creative work has been completed,” she says. “The job now is to make sure it runs as efficiently as possible.”
As with many government firms, SNB must walk a fine line between citizen-focused service and fiscal responsibility. The challenge is “balancing the need to do things with the budget available to get them done,” Ogilvie says.
E-government undertakings require a new mindset for the civil service, a thought process that Ogilvie seems to take to heart. It comes down to “being able to take the risks involved to completely revamp the way they do business” in the public sector, she says.