The Canadian Armed Forces proved invincible at this year’s Canadian Information Productivity Awards, capturing the Gold Award in the Efficiency & Operational Improvements category, as well as the jewel in CIPA’s crown, the Diamond Award of Excellence, given to the IT project deemed “best in show”.
The winning Armed Forces project was the building of a quick response ‘Lessons Learned Knowledge Warehouse’. The LLKW enables military personnel to quickly tap into lessons learned from prior experiences, enabling troops to respond faster to dangerous situations. In recognition of his leadership of that project, Lieutenant Colonel Jacques Hamel, Director of Land Command & Information, took CIO Canada’s “CIO of the Year” Award.
Also honoured at the CIPA gala, held last month in Toronto, were B.C.’s Interior Health Authority (Gold Award, Mobile Solutions), Emploi-Quebec (Gold Award, Customer Care), and Ontario Ministry of Finance (Gold Award, Organizational Transformation).
Although the Excellence for Innovation Award is not given every year, a worthy recipient was found this year in the City of Frederiction, N.B. Teaming with business and university partners, the city built a 22 kilometer fibre-optic community network, creating a city-wide ‘hot-zone’ that provides citizens free mobile broadband access. The ‘Fred-eZone’ is making Fredericton a magnet for knowledge industries.
The 2004 CIPA Hall of Fame inductee was John Kelly of Ottawa, a founder of SHL Systemhouse, Computer Innovations Distribution and Nabu Network Corp. He is currently Chairman of NexInnovations and Co-Chair of the Canadian Advanced Technology Alliance. Mr. Kelly is also a leading fund-raiser for many charities.