Attendees at the recent GTEC conference in Ottawa got an inside look at the federal government’s aggressive timelines for government-wide move to shared services and overhaul of its technology platforms, from e-mail to security and networking.
In a presentation called “IT Service Transformation – a View from inside the Government of Canada” by Benoît Long, senior assistant deputy minister for transformation, service strategy and design at Shared Services Canada, attendees got an update on the shared service transformation that began in the 2011 budget when the government issued a mandate to deliver e-mail, data centre and network/telecom services to 40 government institutions representing 95 per cent of federal IT infrastructure spending.
Budgets, people, assets and contracts were transferred to Shared Services Canada in November of 2011, the organization tool full accountability for the infrastructure in April of 2012, and the Shared Services Canada Act received royal assent in June of 2012.
Long updated progress over the past year on four fronts. With e-mail, the procurement process was reformed and went to tender, and a contract was awarded in June to Bell and CGI Systems. With telecommunications, cabinet support for the transportation plan was gained in June, an industry engagement day was held in July, and to date the Government Enterprise System has been implemented in 130 of 3850 buildings. With data centres, following cabinet support for the transformation plan in June and an industry engagement day in July, a consensus was developed with industry in fundamental directions on technology and service orientation. And with cyber and IT security, a two-step procurement process to strengthen supply chain integrity was launched in January.
More interesting though was the roadmaps Long reviewed for transformation in e-mail, data centre, networks, cyber & IT security and workplace technology devices, through Fiscal 2020.
The timlines reveal the email transformation will happen in three waves, compete by the first quarter of Fiscal 2015/2016. A BlackBerry 10 pilot is also underway at Treasury Board, Foreign Affairs and Shares Services, with a government-wide rollout to follow, taking just over one year.
Channel partners will also want to watch the timeline for workplace technology devices. A software sourcing strategy is due in Q1 of fiscal 2014/15, and a hardware sourcing strategy is due one year later. A managed security services contract will also be issued in Q3 of fiscal 2013/14.
