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February 2015 VOL. 22, NO. 1

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Municipal interface | The National Professional Journal of MISA/ASIM Canada | February 2015 5

Journal of MISA/ASIM Canada President: Kathryn Bulko • MISA/ASIM Canada Executive: Executive Director: Roy Wiseman, Vice President: Corey Halford, Past President: Maurice Gallant, Treasurer: Garry Bezruki. The views expressed in this journal are those of the individual writers and do not necessarily reflect those of MISA/ASIM Canada.

Published by: 300 – 1630 Ness Avenue, Winnipeg, MB R3J 3X1, www.naylor.com, Group Publisher: Angela Caroyannis, Project Manager: Kim Davies, Editor: Andrea Németh, Marketing: Katie Doerksen, Publication Director: David Evans, Sales Representatives: Amanda Rowluk, Bill Biber, Ralph Herzberg, Stewart Simons, Design: Manish Dutt Sharma ©2015 Naylor (Canada) Inc. All rights reserved. The contents of this publication may not be reproduced by any means, in whole or in part, without the consent of the publisher. Canadian publication mail agreement #40064978

PuBlISHED JANuARY 2015/MIS-F0115/5394

FEBRuARY 2015 Vol . 2 2 , No. 1contents❭❭

In ThIs Issue 8 | MISA/ASIM News Across Canada

28 | Municipal News Across Canada

Columns 6 | Keeping in Touch

30 | Governance Issues

FeaTures 12 | Open Data and Big Data – Unleashing the

Power of Insight for Municipalities

17 | Kicking the Tires on Open Data

21 | City of Airdrie’s Award-Winning Online Census Saves Money, Trees and Frayed Nerves

24 | MISA Atlantic Relaunched

26 | ITAC Public Sector CIO of the Year “Still Having Fun”

33 | National and Member Executives

34 | Advertisers.com

30

28

21

Visit www.misa-asim.ca and check out our digital edition.❭❭ Open Data

NatioNal ProfessioNal JourNal of misa/asim caNadawww.misa-asim.ca

February 2015 VOL. 22, NO. 1

InterfaceMunIcIpal

ALSO: Corinne Charette: PubliC SeCtor Cio of the Year

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CANADA


By Maurice Gallant President, MISA Atlantic

IF ever There was a time to think

atlantic, this is it! on behalf to mIsa

atlantic, I am thrilled to invite you all

to join us for the 2015 mIsa atlantic

annual Chapter Conference, which is being

held in halifax, nova scotia from august 11

to 13, 2015. The theme of the conference will

be “navigating Change.”

Change is sometimes unsettling and some-

times scary. But change is often exciting, as

it is the road to progress and improvement

and innovation. This conference will be our

opportunity to learn how to best embrace and

use change to our collective advantage. The

conference committee is sailing, thanks to

halifax’s dynamic members, assisted by other

mIsa atlantic folks.

ThInk aTlanTIC!

Keeping in Touch❭❭

This event will be held adjacent to the

mIsa/asIm Canada municipal CIos summit,

at which municipal IT leaders from across

Canada will attend the fifth annual event in

beautiful downtown halifax, nova scotia.

This year’s mCIo summit, held at the halifax

marriott harbourfront hotel, will continue to

provide excellent opportunities for heads of IT

departments and their seconds-in-command

to collaborate and continue discussions on

national issues of common interest. We are

also thrilled to welcome mIsa Prairies to

halifax; our Prairies colleagues have decided

to hold the mIsa Prairies semi-annual meet-

ing of the membership in halifax, to encour-

age their members to attend mIsa atlantic,

and show their support for our new Chapter!

how great is that!

and last but not least, I want to say thank

you on behalf of mIsa atlantic to mIsa

Prairies which has provided monetary support

to the Chapter to help create financial sustain-

ability. mIsa Prairies executive said, “The

Prairies couldn’t have got off the ground with-

out initial financial support from mIsa BC,

which we truly appreciate, and we would like

to extend that gratitude to mIsa atlantic.”

other chapters have indicated they are willing

to make similar offers and we will be finalizing

these early in the new year.

That is the strength of mIsa and mIsa/

asIm Canada. Committed and dedicated

folks, coming together to learn from each

other, helping each other and teaming up on

areas of common interest to make sure our

contribution as Is and IT professionals meets

the high bar our respective organizations have

come to expect.

This is why I am so excited to see

mIsa atlantic getting a good wind in our sails.

seas may be a bit rough these next few years

as we all face economic challenges. managing

change to improve and innovate will help our

organizations meet these challenges head on.

That is our role as Is and IT professionals and

that is our role through mIsa. Please consider

joining us in halifax in august 2015. hey,

why not consider staying awhile to enjoy some

vacation time in atlantic Canada? I’m sure you

will be glad you did! ●

mIsa Prairies executive said, “The Prairies couldn’t have got off the ground without initial financial support from mIsa BC, which we truly appreciate, and we would like to extend that gratitude to mIsa atlantic.”❭


mCaFee Canada, ParT

of Intel security, released

findings from its first

“safeguarding the Future of

digital Canada in 2025” study, which exam-

ines the thoughts and attitudes of more than

500 Canadian consumers concerning technol-

ogy trends. The study looks at how technology

relates to people’s homes, workplace, cars,

mobile devices and online security.

Canadian consumers believe that technol-

ogy will significantly change their lifestyle by

2025. For example, 51 per cent of Canadians

believe their houses will be able to speak

to them, 70 per cent anticipate using solar

panels as their main source of energy and

56 per cent predict there will be cars that

navigate completely on autopilot.

While new innovations will make con-

sumers’ lives more connected than ever,

Canadians may feel hesitant in sharing

personal information or adapting to these

technologies in fear of their privacy being

jeopardized. sixty-six per cent of Canadians

expressed concern over the expected state of

cyber security in 2025.

“Canadians know that as technology

advances, more of their everyday devices

will be connected to the Internet,” said

Brenda moretto, Canadian consumer man-

ager at mcafee. “While they believe this will

simplify some aspects of their lives, they’re

mIsa/asIm neWs aCross CanadaCanadians anticipate a more Connected World in 2025, but have Concerns about security and Privacy

Column❭❭

also concerned about how their security and

privacy will be protected. We are hoping this

study will raise awareness of these concerns

and ensure privacy is taken into consideration

in future innovations.”

The report was compiled to provide a view

into technology trends and what society can

expect over the next decade. highlights

from the study give insight on how

Canadians will view cybersecur-

ity, how their homes will be con-

nected and how they’ll work.

Cybersecurity. The

study revealed consumers are

not confident that their cyber-

security will be protected in

the coming years. This is not

surprising given the near-

daily reports about retail and

financial institutions being

hacked. seventy-

seven per cent of

Canadians are

concerned their

families could fall

victim to hackers, while

almost half (46 per cent)

believe their families will be

affected by cyberbullies in 2025.

“People have just started to under-

stand that their personal data is not some

ethereal thing,” said Brian Johnson, Intel

futurist. “They haven’t quite figured out

what’s appropriate for others to know about

that data. For instance, we don’t blurt out

our credit card information when we walk

Continued on page 10


MISA Atlantic Chapter to host the 2015 MISA Annual Conference!

Chapter reinstatement kicks off with success!

The MISA Atlantic Chapter was thrilled to launch its first workshop this past November at Halifax’s Historic Citadel Hill. From the unique location to energetic speakers & engaging topics including disaster recovery planning, social media trends & municipal collaboration, and open data case study, we sold out our first one-day event.

Thank you for all those that attended and supported our Chapter's inaugural event, especially our sponsors, Ernst & Young, Barrington Consulting, Digital Boundary Group, IMP Group, Envoy Insight, Fredericton, Halifax, T4G, Bell, and Adesso.

MISA Atlantic will navigate change this summer in HalifaxLooking for a true taste of Nova Scotia? Look no further than the MISA Annual Conference to be held from August 11-13, 2015 in Halifax, NS. We’ve got it all covered! Among the awesome speakers, panel discussions & tradeshow—you’ll get to experience the food, the entertainment, and most of all the east coast culture. Visit our website to get the latest info www.misa-asim.ca


may result in companies being more suscept-

ible to cyber-related crimes.

Connected Homes. Canadian consum-

ers expect to have technology that makes the

home experience easier. more than 60 per cent

think their refrigerator will automatically add

food to a running grocery list if the product is

running low. more than 50 per cent of people

plan to have been to a house that speaks or

reads to them. The majority of consumers

believe home security will be connected to

their mobile device in 11 years.

other key findings include:

Green Means Go

Thirty-nine per cent of people think

Canadians will get around by a hybrid vehicle

or a self-driving car (20 per cent) in 2025.

Pay by Phone… or Fingerprint

nearly one quarter (24 per cent) of con-

sumers believe they will be able to pay for

items using their fingerprint while 24 per cent

anticipate they will use their mobile device.

Twenty-three per cent of respondents plan to

still pay by credit or debit card.

Your App Will Know Best

sixty-four per cent of consumers believe

a wearable device will send health vitals

directly to their physician, saving a visit

to the doctor’s office. nearly one in three

(29 per cent) people think there will be an

online digital health check with sensors

running over their bodies to relay signs

of illness.

Cover Your Digital Assets

By 2025, 34 per cent of Canadian con-

sumers expect to unlock their mobile device

by a thumbprint, while 32 per cent believe

eye scans will be used. almost all respond-

ents (89 per cent) plan to put more effort into

protecting their digital assets in the future

after taking the survey.

To learn more, please visit:

blogs.mca fee.com /consumer/the-

future-of-tech

Quantitative Methodology. msI con-

ducted a survey among 504 Canadian citizens

ages 21 to 65. The interviews were conducted

from august 1, 2014 thru august 12, 2014. ●

seeing significant changes in their offices

or places of employment. While one in three

(31 per cent) working consumers think

they will be working from a home office,

60 per cent envision artificial intelligence

and robotics assisting with their job tasks.

Fifty-nine per cent believe they will be able

to access work data through facial or voice

recognition. While greater precautions will

be taken to ensure sensitive work information

remains secure, robotics in the workplace

into a room. Why would we want our data to

do that online?”

Wearables. seventy-seven per cent of

consumers think smart watches will be a

common device in 11 years. sixty per cent

anticipate connected kitchen appliances will

be a household item, while only 39 per cent

think a PC desktop will be common in 2025.

Tech at the Workplace. In the next

decade, Canadian consumers anticipate

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Continued from page 8

Why you should advertise in Municipal Interface today!

CANADA

MISA/ASIM members have an approximate collective buying power of over $1.8 BILLION annually.

The majority of members have an active role in the purchasing process within their organizations:• 61% RECOMMEND PRODUCTS/ SERVICES

FOR PURCHASE

• 56.4% IDENTIFY PRODUCTS/ SERVICES FOR PURCHASE

• 39.4% APPROVE THE PURCHASE OF

PRODUCTS/ SERVICES

NEARLY 60% of our members are in a management role within their organizations.

MORE THAN 60% of members took some form of action after seeing an advertisement in Municipal Interface.• THE HIGHEST NUMBER OF PEOPLE VISITED

THE ADVERTISER’S WEBSITE AS A RESULT OF THE AD.

For more information contact:

Kim DaviesPublication Director(800) 665-2456 ext. [email protected]

NEARLY 50% of members would consider purchasing products and services from advertisers in the magazine.

MORE THAN 70% of members pass along their issue of Municipal Interface • THIS MEANS AT LEAST

AN ADDITIONAL 700

READERS!

MORE THAN 70% of members ranked the quality of the magazine as high or very high.

70%


WITh The groWTh in

availability of “big data”

from machine-generated

sources, social media, the

“Internet of Things” and scientific and engin-

eering communities, more and more data is

available for publishing and analyzing through

open data initiatives. however, machine-gen-

erated and social media data can potentially

represent huge volumes of data – how can

this data be managed, analyzed, and utilized

Feature❭❭

oPen daTa and BIg daTa – unleashIng The PoWer oF InsIghT For munICIPalITIesBy Mark Gayler, Microsoft Canada

without breaking the constrained human and

budgetary resources of a typical municipality?

In this article, I am going to discuss ways

that innovation can be gained from combin-

ing open data with big data sources, how the

cloud can enable larger datasets to be utilized

in new applications and services, and how

additional insight can be generated by mak-

ing large-scale data sources more informative

through common analytics tools. rather than

just discuss about how this might be done, I

am going to draw upon some examples where

this is being done in municipalities today.

many municipalities around the world have

adopted open data strategies and this is, of

course, true here in Canada. some munici-

palities are more active with their publishing

of open data than others, and many organ-

izations have already discovered that simply

making more datasets available online does

not generate demand or innovation in and of

itself. most cities have a continual desire to

drive more innovation and economic growth

for their citizens, and open data, and more

recently, big data are seen as “fuel” to drive

that innovation. however, if there are already

hurdles associated with the publishing of open

data, does the scale and volume of big data

sources provide opportunities or more chal-

lenges for municipalities? as we examine this

question, let’s look at some examples.

First, we’ll take a look at how the City

of Barcelona is delivering innovative citizen

services by combining open data with big

data – and using social media to encourage

citizens to help improve city operations. The

City of Barcelona operates a bicycle sharing

system called “Bicing” – www.bicing.cat.

similar to other cities in europe, its primary

purpose is to supplement common travel


routes within the city in a climate-friendly

way, eliminating the pollution, roadway noise,

and traffic congestion associated with motor

vehicles. Bicycles are available at various

transit stations and you can simply pick up a

bicycle from one location and drop it off at the

next. during one of their big festivals when

the resources of the city are at their limit,

Barcelona city officials need to effectively

do inventory management between stations

to make sure the bikes are available when

citizens need them. What the operations team

needed was information from citizens on the

street near the Bicing stations on whether

the bikes were really needed or not. so, they

started collecting data from social media (that

is, all the tweets with #barcelona or #merce13)

and used the scale and processing capabil-

ity of the microsoft azure cloud platform to

combine Bicing operational data published in

the Barcelona open data Catalog - http://big-

ovopendata.bismart.com/opendata/en/catalog.

This exercise represented massive volumes of

reporting data and social media data and so

a simple method was required to analyze and

gain insight from this information to improve

decision making on bike availability across

the city. The data was analyzed using a feature

within excel 2013 called PowerQuery which

enables you to quickly find and combine data

from a variety of sources, web, files, databases

and even open data feeds (for example, odata)

(see Figure 1). PowerQuery is part of the self-

service business intelligence toolset within

excel 2013 (and office365) called PowerBI.

The next step was for the operations team

to visualize this data so that they could make

more informed decisions based on variables

of location and citizen feedback. here, they

used a new capability in excel 2013 called

Powermap. Powermap enables you to quickly

produce immersive geospatial visualizations

and bring out rich insight from the dataset.

Powermap also enables you to layer data

sets on top of one another, so the team com-

bined the Twitter data and open data into

one heatmap view, with red representing

negative tweets, green representing positive

tweets, and the blue bars representing bikes

available (see Figure 2). This method also

allows you to chart the data by time which

means that you can play a sequence through

a time period such as an hour, day, season,

etc. using these simple tools, the Barcelona

team enabled more informed decision-making

to anticipate when bikes would be required

at particular transit stations based on time,

location, and events.

now, let’s move over to the City of regina

in saskatchewan and see how they are using

using these simple tools, the Barcelona team enabled more informed decision-making to anticipate when bikes would be required at particular transit stations based on time, location, and events.❭


the benefits of cloud computing for their open

data initiative and how this approach can take

advantage of big data sources. regina’s open

data catalogue can be found here - http://

openregina.cloudapp.net/. This open data

portal runs on the microsoft azure cloud

platform and there are specific advantages

of this technology approach:

1. Low cost. The cloud computing platform

is ideal for open data initiatives due to the

low cost of setup, operations, mainten-

ance and extensibility. large volumes of

big data can easily be added to the por-

tal at minimal (hundreds of dollars per

year) cost.


gives us the ability to analyze the 60,000 rows

of data much more interactively and some

obvious geo-location hotspots for auto Theft

start to emerge (see Figure 4).

Within Powermap, this data visualization

can even be turned into an interactive video

tour which can be published externally, for

example, on Youtube - www.youtube.com/

watch?v=P453JClir_u.

so, what do these examples tell us about

opportunities for municipalities with open

data and big data? Firstly, we’ve seen the

benefits of importing large amounts of data

into common analysis tools putting self-ser-

vice business intelligence capabilities into

and the PowerPivot Table Import Wizard

(see Figure 3).

lastly, let’s look at an example from

the City of vancouver open datasets avail-

able at http://data.vancouver.ca. one of the

datasets available is crime statistics from

2003 and categorized by type and sever-

ity. looking at this data in a flat file format

such as Csv or Xls, the data is interest-

ing but doesn’t immediately generate much

obvious insight or learning when displayed

in a spreadsheet.

however, if we use the aforementioned

PowerBI capability within excel, we can use

Powermap to display this data visually – this

2. Scalability of cloud platform.

additional datasets can be easily added

into the open data portal at very low

cost. large volumes of big data can

easily be added to the portal without

altering the architecture or infrastructure

configuration.

3. Openness of cloud platform. any data

within this open data portal can easily

be accessed from common productivity

tools such as office, excel, etc. Big data

can be imported into the open data portal

and published using a variety of open data

standards.

Because the regina open data portal uses

an open aPI, data can easily be exported

from an open dataset without detailed know-

ledge of the data structure, for example, using

the odata feed capability of the azure cloud

computing platform. Within the regina open

dataset, I simply copy the open data url base

query and I can paste this directly into excel

using the ‘From odata Feed service’ option

large volumes of big data can easily be added to the portal at minimal (hundreds of dollars per year) cost.❭

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the hands of everyday end-users. next, we’ve

seen how the scale and cost-effectiveness

of the cloud computing platform makes

an ideal architectural solution for open

data and big data projects. lastly, we’ve

seen how municipalities can combine a

wide variety of data sources such as open

data, big data, social media, etc., to gen-

erate new insight, enhance decision mak-

ing, and encourage citizens to help improve

city services. ●

Mark Gayler is a Technology Strategist

with Microsoft Canada, based in Vancouver

BC and is often mistaken as a subject mat-

ter expert on open data and open source

technologies. Mark can usually be found wher-

ever constructive noise is being generated on

Twitter: @magayler, Skype: markgayler or

LinkedIn: Mark Gayler

We’ve seen how the scale and cost-effectiveness of the cloud computing platform makes an ideal architectural solution for open data and big data projects.❭

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Feature❭❭

ThrusT InTo The spotlight

when President obama issued

his open government directive

back in 2006, open data has

become more and more widespread over the

years with many Canadian municipalities

launching open data programs, further con-

tributing to the gaining momentum of the

movement.

The Township of langley has been working

on open data for a number of years and in

september of 2014 completed a major overhaul

of its open data portal which can be found at

https://data.tol.ca. Township staff is pleased

with the progress of its open data program

to date but equally acknowledge that there is

still a lot of work to do.

From time to time, I get an opportunity

to talk to people who are “kicking the tires”

around the idea of establishing an open data

kICkIng The TIres on oPen daTaBy Steve Scheepmaker, Township of Langley

program for their organization. as I reflect

on those many conversations, some com-

mon topics emerge. I would like to share a

few thoughts on these topics, with the intent

of encouraging organizations that might be

thinking about initiating an open data project

to give it a try.

Getting Startedone of the first questions I get asked is how

the Township got started with open data. The

fact is that we started very modestly and were

not even thinking about open data at the time.

during an annual review of our fees and char-

ges bylaw back in 2009, we were surprised to

find that, in some instances, the fees we were

collecting for the sale of geospatial data didn’t

fully cover the effort it took to process the cor-

responding data requests. essentially, it was

costing us money to provide some of the data!

since the revenue we collected from data sales

wasn’t significant from a budgetary perspec-

tive, we decided to just give the data away for

free and refocus those staff resources on data

depending on a host of factors including but not limited to where information is stored, the ownership of information, and the format of that data, there could be notable sustainment costs that also need to be considered as part of the overall project.❭


maintenance and other gIs activities – our

open data program was born!

another common question is around where

to start. If you look at many Canadian open

data portals in particular, geospatial data is a

very common offering. There is a good reason

for this, as countless government entities in

Canada have been leveraging gIs technology

for many decades now and given the portabil-

ity of gIs information using some of the truly

remarkable eTl (extract, Transform, and

load) tools available on the market today, it

really is super easy to make this information

available to the public with very little effort.

mandate is another topic that comes up

frequently. When talking about how to best

initiate an open data program, there generally

seems to be two approaches: either council

gives a directive in some form or it simply

starts at staff level. obviously, every organ-

ization is different so saying one approach


is better than another just isn’t possible.

however, I will suggest that if an organiza-

tion wants to simply explore the potential of

open data, keep it simple at the beginning

and try to position it not only as vehicle for

improved transparency but also as a strategic

tool for the organization.

Be Strategica strategic approach to open data is very

important, because while government organ-

izations are continually trying to find new

ways to do more with less, putting in place

a program that doesn’t demonstrate value is

inevitably going to be challenged. don’t get

me wrong, the principles of why an open data

program should be put in place are immensely

important but there is also tremendous value

in being able to position open data as a tool

that helps solve business challenges, further

establishing an enticing value proposition and

setting your program up for greater success.


since the revenue we collected from data sales wasn’t significant from a budgetary perspective, we decided to just give the data away for free and refocus those staff resources on data mainten-ance and other gIs activities.❭

to the advertisers who helped make this publication possible!

Thank You

There has certainly been discussion over

the years about the challenge of how to meas-

ure the value of open data as “value” can be

something that is perceived differently based

on the stakeholder. so it is one thing to say

that open data establishes a good value prop-

osition but measuring the value in a tangible

way can be a challenge.

one approach might simply be to try to

identify datasets that would not only be valu-

able for your constituents but also provide

an opportunity to establish some good oper-

ational value. For example, for many years

the Township of langley published and made

available for purchase a hardcopy business

directory based on business license data.

given the growth of our municipality, those

printed directories became out of date quickly

and, at the end of the day, we were only selling

a handful of them every few months. looking

to improve the offering to the public, staff

built an automated extraction process to pull

the information from the underlying business

system and post the data electronically on the

Township’s open data portal – completely

eliminating the printed version of the direc-

tory. now the public has access to the data in a

form that can be easily manipulated and those

precious staff resources can be refocused on

other tasks that provide better value to the

public. not to mention that costs related to

staff time are easily measurable and establish

a tangible saving that open data has realized

for the organization.

What Will It Cost?of course, the cost of an open data program is

also a topic that inevitably comes up in conver-

sation. The fact is that an open data program

doesn’t really need to cost much, if anything,

to get started. an open data portal can be

as simple as a bunch of hyperlinks on a web

page or as complex as a fully featured portal

packed with aPI endpoints and advanced vis-

ualization tools. If you take a look at the many

open data initiatives across Canada (a good

list can be found on open.canada.ca), you can

begin to appreciate the range in functionality

that is currently offered through open data

portals. The key takeaway here is to be sure

that you strike the right balance between the

resources you have available (that is, money

and staff) and functionality so that whatever

you choose to launch, it is the right fit for your

particular requirements.

It is also important to remember that when

you are considering the costs of an open data

program, you shouldn’t just limit the analy-

sis to technology costs. depending on a host

of factors including but not limited to where

information is stored, the ownership of infor-

mation, and the format of that data, there

could be notable sustainment costs that also

need to be considered as part of the overall

project. data, technology, and organizational

“nuances” can quickly make sustainment

activities challenging, so be sure you try to

anticipate and accommodate these challenges

in your plans whenever possible.

licensing, information accessibility, and

many other topics also need to be considered

when planning an open data program – too

many topics to adequately cover in this article.

The thing to remember is that an open data

program is like a journey through what seems

to be a continually evolving space. Chances

are you will not get it exactly right at the

beginning but don’t sweat it – take your time,

learn from what is working well, and make

it better! ●

Steve Scheepmaker is the Manager of

Information Technology at the Township of

Langley, British Columbia. With many years

of experience in both the private and public sec-

tor, his interests are broad and include enter-

prise and geospatial technology as well as open

government. Steve holds a Master of Science

Degree in Information Systems Management

and can be reached at [email protected].


21,500 sheeTs oF paper weighing

nearly 100 kilograms: That’s how

much the City of airdrie, alberta,

saved in 2014 by conducting its

annual municipal census online at www.cen-

susalberta.ca/airdrie. The data gathered by

the census, which surveys the city’s estimated

21,500 residential addresses, is used by the

City to accurately plan its programs and to

obtain the municipality’s maximum eligible

amount of provincial grants.

“By conducting the census online, we

saved about $25,000 to $30,000 in staff pay

this year,” says Corey halford. he is the City’s

Team leader of data services, and the person

who spearheads the annual online census with

the help of the City’s Information Technology

Feature❭❭

By James Careless, special to Municipal Interface

and legislative services departments. “We

have saved about that much annually since

2005, when we replaced teams of enumer-

ators going door-to-door writing down infor-

mation on scantron paper forms, checking

those forms, and then scanning them into

our computer database,” halford explained.

“We have also saved the nerves of the City

administrators who used to have to run the

paper-based enumeration process.”

The City of airdrie isn’t the only beneficiary

of its online census system. such is the system’s

earned reputation for cost-effective accuracy

that 20 alberta cities have hired the City of

airdrie to host their own municipal censuses.

as a result, this online system saved

115,000 sheets (522 kg) of paper across the

province this year. since airdrie began offering

its hosted census services in 2008, the online

census has saved 395,000 sheets or nearly

two metric tonnes of paper while counting a

total population of 950,138 across all of its

municipalities. according to the sierra Club’s

calculations, this is equal to saving anywhere

from 158 to 316 trees measuring 13 metres tall

with 20 centimetre diameter trunks.

saving paper, trees, and the environment

isn’t the only benefit: The City of airdrie’s

online census is far faster, far less error-prone,

and far more popular with residents than trad-

itional paper-based censuses. It also garners

accurate and meaningful data that aids City

planners and helps obtain airdrie’s fair share

of provincial funding for its programs and

CITY oF aIrdrIe’s aWard-WInnIng onlIne Census saves moneY, Trees and FraYed nerves


services. This means that airdrie residents/

taxpayers and government officials at both the

municipal and provincial levels benefit from

the online census system.

In recognition of this fact, the City’s

online census project received the 2014

minister’s awards for municipal excellence

for outstanding achievement. It was pre-

sented to the City’s Information Technology

and legislative services departments at the

alberta association of municipal districts and

Counties 2014 fall convention in edmonton,

on november 18, 2014.

sixteen other alberta municipalities

received awards in various categories such as

Innovation, Partnerships, safe Communities,

and small Communities from diana mcQueen,

the province’s minister of municipal affairs.

“The minister’s awards celebrate the accom-

plishments of local governments in alberta,”

mcQueen said. “I would like to congratulate

all our winners and thank them for their out-

standing work.”

For Corey halford, winning the

outstanding achievement award was an

unexpected bonus for himself and his team.

“We had applied for a minister’s award on

behalf of airdrie’s online census twice before

this, but had not won,” he said. “This time,

the province recognized us with their very top

prize, which is more than we had asked for.”

To understand why the City of airdrie’s

online census system is deserving of this award,

one has to first consider the problems it solves.

For instance, the former paper-based system

required enumerators going door-to-door;

rousting residents from their dinner tables and

couches to answer basic questions that some

citizens quite frankly didn’t like discussing

with total strangers. add the fact that an aver-

age enumerator could only cover 250 to 300

homes each, at a time when airdrie had up to

12,000 residences (in 2005), and one can see

how the payroll costs would add up, not to men-

tion transportation costs and other sundries.

next, it took time for airdrie city offi-

cials to visually double-check each of the

scantron pages – scantron being those

computer-readable forms on which writers had

to manually fill in machine-readable circles –

before scanning them optically into the city’s

database. “We did our best to prevent errors,”

said halford. “But when you are working with

human inputs, errors happen.”

By 2005, enough was enough: “The city

clerk came to me and said, ‘there’s got to be

a better way of doing this than using people

and paper,’” halford recalled. “I suggested

coming up with an online system, and the

Cour

tesy

Cit

y o

f Ai

rdri

e

In 2014, 54.64 per cent of the city’s now-21,500 residential addresses took part in the census, onto which the City also piggybacks a needs assessment survey from time to time.❭


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clerk agreed. That’s how we ended up doing

our census on the Web.”

In its first iteration, the City of airdrie

online census was conducted without any form

of password-protection for its respondents.

“We only got about 5 per cent participation

in 2005, which was our first year,” said Corey

halford. “Two years in, we added registra-

tion and password-protection to ensure our

data’s integrity and resident privacy, and the

enrollment rate took off. That year, we saw

over 50 per cent of airdrie residents use our

online form.”

since that time, the City of airdrie has

consistently seen its annual census partici-

pation range between 50 and 60 per cent. In

2014, 54.64 per cent of the city’s now-21,500

residential addresses took part in the cen-

sus, onto which the City also piggybacks a

needs assessment survey from time to time.

This is comparable to the voter turnout in the

2012 alberta provincial election, which hit

54.4 per cent. (source: elections alberta.)

“over the years, we have tweaked both the

questions and our online format in response to

feedback from the cities who use our service,”

said halford. “But overall, we have done our

best to keep it simple.”

The City of airdrie census only takes

a few minutes to fill out online, and those

people who do so are eligible to win one

of two genesis Place annual Family

memberships. To put these prizes into con-

text, genesis Place is the City of airdrie’s

multi-purpose recreation and fitness facility.

It has a 25 metre competitive pool, a leisure

pool, a dive tank, and hot tub; two indoor

soccer fields, a fitness centre, two nhl-sized

indoor rinks, and an outdoor athletic field,

track and grandstand.

Today, the City of airdrie is able to rely

on the accuracy of its online-collected census

data. so can the 20 alberta municipalities

that used the City’s hosted census service.

“We charge about $1 an address, and can

manage censuses covering anywhere from

500 to 100,000-plus addresses,” halford said.

“This allows us to run the census service on

a slightly profitable basis; covering our own

costs while earning a bit of extra revenue for

the City of airdrie.”

For the cities that use airdrie’s service, the

$1 per household price tag is a bargain. They

get the census data they need without having

to do the data collection themselves – and

without having to send out a single enumerator.

as for the future? Corey halford and

his staff continue to focus on improving the

City of airdrie’s online census system. “our

efforts are focused on quality assurance, doing

what we can to make the data gathered bet-

ter and more insightful,” he said. “Based on

the enquiries we have been getting, it seems

likely that our service base will grow to about

40 jurisdictions in the near future.”

It makes sense: an online census is far

less hassle, expense and headache for gov-

ernment officials than gathering such data

in person. ●

710888_Digital.indd 1 12/09/14 10:50 PM


There Is eXCITemenT in

eastern Canada as mIsa atlantic

is relaunched after several years

of being somewhat dormant.

municipal IT professionals in new Brunswick,

newfoundland, nova scotia and Prince

edward Island have banded together with

likeminded colleagues concerned with cyber

security issues and other issues relating to

their industry to recreate the atlantic prov-

inces branch of mIsa.

according to maurice gallant, president

of mIsa atlantic, although they are referring

to the newest chapter of mIsa as a re-launch,

folks in eastern Canada with a vested interest

in the effective use of information technology

have always stayed connected. “Through the

years, a number of us that work in municipal

information systems and technology have

kept in touch. We continued to exchange

ideas and even made an effort to meet on an

informal basis. after much conversation, we

decided the time had come to more formally

re-establish the atlantic Chapter of mIsa,”

gallant explained.

although several parties played a pivotal

role in the re-launch of the atlantic Chapter,

gallant notes the work of donna davis and

her team from the City of halifax. “donna

and her team took on a leadership role. They

wanted to see the mIsa atlantic Chapter

succeed. I credit them for their efforts in

working with several chapters from across

Canada. her group of IT volunteers has

helped with the creation of committees and

the day-to-day operations of anchoring mIsa

atlantic and preparing for the august annual

Conference.”

In recognition of their efforts, the newest

mIsa Chapter will be holding its annual

Conference in halifax in august of 2015.

“From august 11th to august 13th, we are

encouraging members to join us for the 2015

mIsa atlantic annual Chapter Conference.

The two-day conference will be held in halifax

at the halifax marriott harbourfront hotel.

This is an excellent opportunity for heads of

the IT departments and others to collabor-

ate and continue discussions on IT issues of

common interest,” gallant said.

gallant, CIo and director of Information,

Improvement and Innovation for the City of

Fredericton, goes on to acknowledge the mIsa

Prairies Chapter for their support. “We want

to thank the mIsa Prairies Chapter for decid-

ing to hold the semi-annual meeting of its

members in conjunction with our atlantic

annual Chapter Conference. The same goes

for mIsa/asIm Canada, which will also be

holding the municipal CIo summit in halifax

on the two days preceding the mIsa atlantic

Conference. We would like to encourage their

members to join us in halifax and learn more

about our Chapter.”

In addition to their attendance at the 2015

mIsa atlantic annual Chapter Conference,

Feature❭❭

mIsa aTlanTIC relaunChedBy Stephen Murdoch, special to Municipal Interface


gallant wants to thank their cohorts from

the Prairies for their financial support. “The

Prairies Chapter is to be commended for

contributing to the financial sustainabil-

ity for our Chapter. There is no doubt that

we couldn’t have established the atlantic

Chapter if not for their generous support.

other chapters have indicated that they too

would like to help, and we look forward to

speaking with them in the coming months,”

gallant went on to say.

To date, the response from IT profession-

als from across atlantic Canada has been

extremely positive. “We have received interest

from across the four provinces. municipalities

and vendors have indicated they would like

to join the atlantic Chapter. We’re looking

forward to increasing our membership base

in early 2015. several IT professionals have

expressed their enthusiasm that there is a

local chapter in place that can help with

establishing best practices in our industry.”

aside from establishing best industry

practices, gallant expects mIsa’s new-

est chapter to play a role on the national

level. “across all levels, the role of the IT

professional continues to change. each day,

we are managing change and economic pres-

sures. It’s only through ongoing dialogue as

an industry that we can make positive change.

In the coming years, the atlantic Chapter

looks forward to working with others chapters

from across the country to advance the inter-

est of IT professionals from coast-to-coast,”

gallant concluded. ●

The mIsa atlantic Conference organizing Committee:

Top row: heather Caldwell, John Fenton, Paul shaffelburg, donna davis, Ches norman, george hayman, marlene lariviere.

Bottom row: ken lenihan, Jennifer helm, athea Costello, Frans sanders, Janice oakley, donna Flynn.

missing: maurice gallant, Jennifer everett, valerie kelly, amanda Thurbide, Tammy Currie, edwina Penney, greg da ros, Cindy stevens, Jay redmond,

sherry levesque, dennis Wood, katherine holmes, kim Taylor, lanna Prowse, grant longard.

“several IT professionals have expressed their enthusiasm that there is a local chapter in place that can help with establishing best practices in our industry.”❭


ITaC PuBlIC seCTor CIo oF The Year “sTIll havIng Fun”s

InCe BeComIng The gov-

ernment of Canada’s Chief

Information officer in may 2009,

Corinne Charette has deftly steered

the feds’ IT departments towards performance-

enhancing consolidation, improved efficiency,

and system-wide modernization; all while

working with tight budgets.

such has been her success that Charette

recently won the Public sector Canadian

CIo of the Year award from the Information

Technology association of Canada (ITaC).

she and private sector CIo Brenda hoffman

(TmX group) were presented with their

awards – the first ever presented by

ITaC – at an ITaC 2014 Ingenious awards

gala reception and dinner in Toronto on

november 19th, 2014.

“I only found out about the award when

ITaC contacted me a week before the gala,

to confirm that I was going,” said Charette.

“I was very pleasantly surprised and pleased

to find out that I had won.”

Five years into her job, Corinne Charette

is as enthusiastic as she was on day one. “Yes,

my job has its daily challenges and stresses,

but it’s still a lot of fun,” she said. “I get to

work with some of the most capable and dedi-

cated people in the public sector – and we

are doing work that I know has a real impact

not just on government, but Canadians as

a whole.”

a professional engineer by training – she

holds a Bachelor of science in engineering

degree and honourary doctor of laws degree

from Concordia university – Charette has a

solid grounding in both public and private

sector IT. Before becoming Canada’s CIo at

Treasury Board secretariat, Charette was vP

Feature❭❭

By James Careless


and CIo of Transat a.T. Inc., the international

tour operator. Charette has also been deputy

director and CIo of the federal government’s

Financial Transactions and reports analysis

Centre of Canada (FInTraC); senior vice-

President, Internet Channel, for the Canadian

Imperial Bank of Commerce; and a Partner

with kPmg Consulting in charge of their

e-Business practice.

When she took the federal government’s

CIo post in 2009, Charette had some very

clear goals. First, she wanted to consolidate

and rationalize the hodgepodge of depart-

mental government data centres from more

than 200 to 10 centres or less, shared across

the entire government, with mirror sites pro-

viding backup. Charette also wanted to root

out seriously obsolete legacy systems – “some

of them were up to 30 years old,” she said –

and improve operational security to further

protect against hacking and privacy breaches.

Canada’s CIo has made substantial

progress towards these goals. “my goal has

been for government to look at trends in

industry IT, and see how those trends can be

appropriately applied to the public sector,” she

said. “In the wake of the 2008 fiscal crisis, the

private sector was moving towards reducing

IT costs through consolidation and resource-

sharing. They were applying an enterprise-

level approach to IT management; providing

better service and system management while,

at the same time, standardizing their software

and hardware to cut costs.”

Charette has taken the private sector’s

lessons to heart, applying them in ways that

improve the functioning of Canada’s public

IT infrastructure. one way she has done this

is by shifting the federal government’s IT

management perspective from a department-

specific to an intra-departmental focus.

“my goal has been to align the 42 CIos

who work for various federal departments

and agencies out of their silo operations,

so that they may better work with their col-

leagues across the federal public service,”

Charette said. such collaboration results in

fast solutions, and an adoption of standardized

procedures that, in turn, lend themselves to

enterprise-wide solutions and efficiencies. Put

plainly, instead of 42 CIos trying to separately

solve the same problem independently, each

in their own way, the government now has

42 CIos working together to solve the same

problem and then applying their shared solu-

tion to their respective departments.

Charette has also worked closely with

Communications security establishment

Canada (CseC) and other responsible federal

departments to improve security practices

and procedures. at the same time, she has

improved matters by taking common sense

steps. For instance, “we have pushed our

departments to upgrade their portfolio of PCs

off Windows XP and onto newer, more secure

operating systems,” Charette said.

security is also why the federal govern-

ment is a no-BYod (Bring Your own device)

zone. “We are absolutely not in the BYod

camp,” said Corinne Charette. “We have

analyzed the possibilities of BYod closely,

and concluded there is far more risk than

reward in connecting employees’ personal

smartphones, tablets and laptops to our gov-

ernment network.”

Charette’s aversion to BYod doesn’t

mean that she is adverse to new ideas;

far from it. For example, “we push our

department to use off-the-shelf software

products where appropriate, in order to avoid

developing costly custom applications when

standardized commercial products will do,”

she said.

Charette is also a strong supporter of

cloud-based services, as long as they provide

the necessary level of security for the job.

This includes the feds using “software as a

service” (saas) cloud-based software applica-

tions, rather than buying individual desktop

versions. “as well, we are using a cloud-based

product to manage the government’s social

media accounts,” she said.

on the intergovernmental front, Charette

is a big advocate for ottawa working more

closely with its provincial and municipal gov-

ernment IT counterparts; an advocacy she has

pursued through her work with mIsa/asIm

Canada. The CIo of Canada office and ITaC

are working with mIsa to help its municipal

members adopt common procurement policy,

and move towards common “open data” infor-

mation access rules.

“It is very difficult for people sourcing

information from governmental open data

sources when the rules governing that data’s

usage vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction,”

Charette said. “our goal is for all levels of

governments to develop common standards,

to allow the freer flow of open data for

all Canadians.”

Five years in, it is clear that

Corinne Charette is passionately committed

to being Canada’s CIo, and plans to remain

in this position for the foreseeable future. “I

often tell people that I have the very best CIo

job in Canada,” she said. “and yes, it is still

a lot of fun!” ●

“my goal has been to align the 42 CIos who work for various federal departments and agencies out of their silo operations, so that they may better work with their colleagues across the federal public service.”❭


Column❭❭munICIPal neWs aCross Canada

Calgary Police Offers First Online Police Information Check Service

City of Burlington Wins International Asset Management Awardon nov. 27, City of Burlington infrastructure technologist

Paul rohoman was awarded the next generation asset management

award at the Institute of asset management’s annual awards ceremony

in london, england.

The award, given to individuals who have made an outstanding

contribution to the implementation and development of asset man-

agement, and demonstrated great potential in the field, was awarded

to mr. rohoman for his work on the design and implementation of

rivads, a software program that helps predict the rehabilitation

needs of the city’s road infrastructure assets for the next 60 years.

“This international recognition demonstrates the City of

Burlington is a leader in its approach to managing and maintaining

the health of the city’s infrastructure assets,” said scott stewart,

general manager of development and infrastructure. “We are proud

of the innovative methodology used to create and implement the

riva ds rehabilitation models. The information from the models

was used to establish a long-term sustainable financial plan that

will ensure the city’s assets are maintained in good condition for

future generations.”

The Institute of asset management is a worldwide association

of professionals dedicated to the acquisition, operation and care

of physical assets, in particular critical infrastructure like roads

and bridges. For more information about the Institute of asset

management, visit www.theiam.org.

more than 20 countries were represented at the Institute of asset

management’s annual awards ceremony, with nominations in the

next generation asset management award category coming from

the united kingdom and malaysia.

The Calgary Police service is encouraging agencies

and businesses that require Police Information Checks for

employment and volunteer purposes, to register with the new

online electronic police information check system, ePIC.

ePIC gives organizations the convenience to create

accounts and view all of their applicants’ results online.

The new automated system will also allow agencies and

businesses to monitor application processing dates and

manage or track shared applicant results.

“The ePIC system enables applicants to share their

results with multiple stakeholders, allowing for less time

delays, reduced associated costs and the potential to exped-

ite placement for potential employees, volunteers or stu-

dents,” said amanda Welfare, manager, CPs administration

section. “This is the first system in Canada where the entire

Police Information Check can be completed online, requir-

ing no visit to a police station.”

so far, 108 agencies have signed up for ePIC, repre-

senting the volunteer, business, not-for-profit and educa-

tional sectors and the system has been met with positive

response.

“Columbia College is looking forward to using an elec-

tronic system where we can easily access the results of our

students’ Police Information Checks once they share them

with us. setting up our account online was fast and easy.

We think that students will feel more in control of their

Police Information Checks as they are the key drivers of

their online application,” said Caroline ellis, assistant

registrar, Columbia College.

step-by-step instructions on how to register for ePIC

are available online at http://www.calgary.ca/cps/Pages/

Public-services/Police-information-checks-locations.

aspx. an instructional video is also available online at

http://youtu.be/ibdgbiluel8.


The City of Port alberni launched a redesigned website on

december 24th, 2014. The site has been developed to better serve

residents, businesses and visitors by making it easier and quicker to

access the City’s online information and services.

The website features enhanced functionality as well as a much

cleaner, simpler layout for users. In addition, the website uses local

imagery to promote Port alberni’s cultural, recreational and eco-

logical assets.

“The City’s website is a key tool in our effort to communicate with

the community,” said ken Watson, City manager. “The redesigned

site is more customer-focused, simpler to use, and provides more

detailed information to better connect us with the community and

worldwide.”

The new design provides for easy viewing no matter the device,

improved search capabilities, integration with the City’s social media

accounts and a document library containing commonly requested

reports and other publications.

updates to the website are expected over the coming

months as the City gathers feedback from the public and other

stakeholders. ●

City of Windsor Launches 911 Texting for Deaf, Speech Impaired

Windsor’s emergency 911 Centre is

launching a new service for those who are

deaf, hard of hearing or have a speech

impairment.

starting monday december 8, people

who fall in these groups will be able to text

911 for help when in trouble.

“It is something that is being rolled

out in the united states where there’s tex-

ting for the entire population, it’s not here

yet,” said lori Powers, the director of the

emergency 911 Centre in Windsor.

she said all people need to do is regis-

ter their cell phone numbers with their

wireless provider, then actually call 911

to finalize the set-up.

Powers said dispatchers will listen to

noise in the background to make sure the

owner of the phone is placing the call.

she said Windsor is the fourth com-

munity in ontario to get the service.

she said in the future there will be a

“next generation 911.”

“That will be in the next five years,”

said Powers. “eventually we’ll be able to

receive picture, video, data and all kinds

of information through 911.”

City of Port Alberni Set to Launch New Website


as We aPProaCh a new year

(as I write this), I reflect on a

number of my friends and col-

leagues, long time municipal IT

leaders, who have departed the scene over the

past few years. While many have had long and

distinguished careers, their departure has

not always been at a timing of their choos-

ing. In recent years, many organizations and

their leaders seem to be looking for different

skills than those represented by my genera-

tion of IT leaders. But having made a change,

these same organizations have not always been

successful in choosing replacements – with

the shiny new leaders not living up to early

expectations and, themselves, becoming vic-

tims of perhaps unrealistic expectations.

A Compressed History of IT in the WorkplaceIt should not be surprising that the key skills

making a successful IT leader may not be

Governance Matters❭❭The IT leader – Change agenT or Change BloCker

By Roy Wiseman, Executive Director, MISA/ASIM Canada

the same today as they were when I began

my IT career some 45 (!!!) years ago. however,

it might be worth looking at how delivering

IT services has changed over that time.

notwithstanding a media tendency to see

every minor technology change as revolution-

ary, my experience is of a steady and continu-

ous evolution in the role of technology in the

workplace and in our personal lives, with some

key milestones along the way:

1960s: data Processing, as it was then

called, operated in primarily batch mode.

Computers were hidden away in closed rooms

and only data Processing staff (“computer

operators”) got to actually touch the machines.

1970s: With the introduction of online

processing, selected staff in some business

functions were interacting directly with com-

puters and data through text-based online

terminals (“green screens”). (does anyone

still remember CICs – the absolutely domin-

ant IBm online processing environment of its

day?) The data Processing organization had

become “systems” or “Information systems”

and was directly supporting end users, for

the first time.

1980s: The first real revolutionary change

involved the introduction of the personal com-

puter, expanding the population of computer

users by an order of magnitude to include a

broad range of office staff for generic office

functions (typing, filing) – using software

(word processing, spreadsheets) in which

they became more proficient than the IT staff

supporting them. (I remember during this

period migrating all secretaries, as they were

then called, from their memory typewriters to

PCs running WordPerfect. some took to the

new environment like ducks to water – while

others, generally older workers – left their new

computers virtually untouched until we came

to physically remove the typewriters after the

planned six-month transition.) since this PC

transition was happening alongside the con-

tinued growth of online (typically mainframe)

business systems, IT organizations found

themselves supporting two distinct classes

of users – and typically assigned lower priority

to the PC client, giving rise to dissatisfaction

by many clients with the quality of their IT

support and a feeling that they could do better

by themselves.

Late 1980s and early 1990s: stand-alone

PCs became networked; e-mail became the

dominant form of internal communication and

computers were now firmly embedded as the

key to office functioning. By this time, most

office workers had computers, and end user

support became a core IT service – giving rise

to the IT help desk (service desk) and the

emergence of ITIl, as a standard for IT ser-

vice delivery. during this same period, main-

frame systems were being replaced by client/

server applications, so that the network (with

PCs, rather than terminals) became the dom-

inant environment for business applications.

Mid-1990s: The Internet emerged as

the second genuinely revolutionary change,

opening the corporate IT environment to

the outside world. at first, the Internet was

primarily for one-way communications – for

either accessing information using services

such as Compuserv or for publishing informa-

tion through municipal web sites.

Early 2000s: The Internet became a plat-

form for service delivery with much interest in


government online (gol). For the first time,

IT (this name was now in vogue) was seen as

not just an internal tool for business auto-

mation (as in the 1970s and 1980s) or office

productivity (as in the 1980s and 1990s), but

as a means for delivering value and services

directly to citizens (or customers in the pri-

vate sector).

Mid-2000s and early 2010s: mobile devices

further expanded the community of IT users

to include mobile/field-based workers. With

the related consumerization of IT, virtually

everyone had their own IT devices and many

knew as much or more about them than did

their corporate IT support. This same period

also saw the rise of social media which, while

undeniably influential in society at large, had

a less dramatic impact (in my view) on most

IT organizations. (other parts of the organiza-

tion, such as corporate communications, may,

in fact, have been more directly impacted by

social media.)

Mid-2010s: Cloud-based computing emer-

ges as a viable option. With the network con-

nected to the outside world, applications and

data no longer need to be stored in-house

and/or supported by internal IT staff. While

we are still in the early stages of cloud comput-

ing, my expectation is that few, if any, applica-

tions will still be running on in-house servers

within the next ten years.

In reciting this history, some common

threads emerge regarding the changing role

of the IT organization:

• ExponentialincreaseinthenumberofIT

users, such that IT support (help desk, etc.)

has become a core IT function;

• Parallelgrowthinthesizeandimportance

of the IT organization, from a few people

creating, supporting and running a small

number of business applications to a key

function, supporting virtually all aspects

of the business;

• Growthinknowledgeandsophisticationof

IT users, such that the role of IT support

has largely contracted into insuring that

the technology is functioning properly;

• SignificantdeclineinITdevelopment,with

steady replacement of in-house developed

applications with packaged solutions.

notwithstanding this decline, many IT

shops still see themselves as being in

the application development business.

IT workers providing client support func-

tions are often still rated lower in the IT

hierarchy/status.

The evolution in the name of the function

also provides clues to the changing empha-

sis over time: data Processing = back room

number crunching; systems = application/

application development is king; Information

Technology = shifting emphasis from the

applications to the tools (and the information).

IT As a Utilitygiven this brief review of IT in the workplace

over the previous decades, it would be difficult

to argue that successful IT leaders of the past

have not been able to adapt, and indeed lead

their organizations, through continuous and

sometimes revolutionary change.

at the same time, British author and for-

mer CIo, Ian Cox (author of Disrupt IT: A New

Model for IT in the Digital Age) has argued

that in recent years:

“IT got left behind. The digital

business has to be agile; it needs

to be able to respond quickly to


changing market conditions, cus-

tomer preferences and competitor

activity. But the traditional IT func-

tion is not set up to be agile; it is

weighed down by the baggage it has

collected over the past 20-30 years

when technologies such as social,

mobile and cloud did not even exist

and when the rest of the business

had different needs and expecta-

tions of its IT team.”

While one can criticize this analysis as

overly simplistic and not applicable to all

organizations, perhaps it contains more than

a grain of truth – more than we might like

to admit.

so why did this happen? Why has IT

become perceived in many organizations not

as change agents but as change blockers?

as one possible explanation, notwithstand-

ing the generally hostile reaction to nicholas

Carr’s 2003 depiction in Does IT Matter? of

IT as just a “utility” service, perhaps this is

what many of us have become. We have not

been able to get out from under the baggage

(Cox’s term) of our existing applications, infra-

structure and resources, and are now focused

almost entirely on keeping the ship afloat,

rather than on sailing it in new directions.

When IT leaders measure their performance

using primarily utility-type metrics (availabil-

ity/reliability, response time, client satisfac-

tion) focused on help desk support, rather than

value to the organization, they are feeding the

perception of IT as a utility.

as a result of this evolution, we may

give preference to leaders who are skilled

at managing a utility service. While such

IT leaders may understand that the utility

must continue to grow to accommodate ever

increasing demands (and to provide new types

of service), utility operators can also be sus-

picious of changes that threaten the stabil-

ity of the environment. They may become

defenders of the status quo – or of incremental

change – at a time when the organization may

be demanding or expecting something else.

using the run/grow/Transform paradigm,

such leaders may be entirely consumed by

“run” and “grow”, leaving little or no room

for “transform”.

The Need for New IT LeadershipWhatever the reason, there appears to be

increasing dissatisfaction with the type of IT

leadership that has evolved over the decades,

as partly evidenced by the number of changes

in municipal IT leadership (with similar chan-

ges in other industries), but also in the number

of articles calling for a new type of IT leader.

In examining the reasons for this dissatis-

faction, several common themes emerge:

• ITistoorigid,usingpoliciesandrules

to block innovation, rather than being a

champion of needed change;

• ITistooslow,requiringmonths,oreven

years, to deliver new solutions in a fast-

changing world where such a pace is no

longer acceptable;

• IT(andthetechnologyitsupports)isbehind

the times; most employees now have sub-

stantially more up-to-date technology in

their personal lives than what is provided

at the office;

• IT is not open to new ideas; too often,

they reject such ideas because they don’t

fit within the existing framework – rather

than acknowledging that the framework

must continually change.

as a result of such perceptions, some

organizations are looking outside IT for the

innovators and change agents that many IT

leaders still see themselves as being – and

which many organizations understand that

they need to keep up in today’s world.

one approach, being implemented in some

organizations (including my former employer

at Peel region), involves more clearly

separating the innovation/change leadership

function from the daily responsibilities of run-

ning the IT organization. While this approach

can take many forms, it can involve assigning

responsibility for leading technology-based

organizational change to a CIo, with a CTo

(Chief Technology officer) responsible for

both managing the IT environment and

actually delivering the change championed

by the CIo.

Summaryas has been the case over several decades, IT

leadership is not for the faint of heart. Change

will continue to be a fact of life and the suc-

cessful IT leaders will embrace change – or

will be replaced by those who do. at the

same time, IT leaders must come to grips

with their utility function. like it or not, the

IT infrastructure has become as integral to

business as lights and power. Failing to “keep

the lights on” (and to secure the data) will

be equally fatal to the career aspirations of

IT leaders.

But simply keeping the lights on is not

sufficient, and wouldn’t be satisfying for most

current and future IT leaders. nor would it

meet the needs of their organizations, for

which technology-driven organizational

change remains essential, at least in the

near future.

In other words, the successful IT leader

must find a way both to run an important

utility, while continuing to embrace and lead

change. It’s a delicate balance, but if they don’t

do it someone else will – and IT will find itself

relegated to the engine room (or outsourced).

In summary, ask yourself whether you are

a change leader or a change blocker. Which

do you want to be? ●

We have not been able to get out from under the baggage of our existing applications, infrastructure and resources, and are now focused almost entirely on keeping the ship afloat, rather than on sailing it in new directions.❭


National Officers www.misa-asim.ca

PresIdenT kathryn Bulko, City of Toronto 416-397-9921 [email protected]

vICe PresIdenT Corey halford, City of airdrie 403-948-8800 x 8706 [email protected]

Treasurer garry Bezruki, mIsa/asIm Canada 226-647-6292 [email protected]

MISA Ontario www.misa.on.ca

PresIdenT dan munns, Town of Whitchurch-stouffville 905-640-1910 x 2285 [email protected]

vICe PresIdenT Christine swenor, City of Burlington 905-335-7600 x 7776 [email protected]

Treasurer garry Bezruki, mIsa/asIm Canada 226-647-6292 [email protected]

seCreTarY Catherine Baldelli, Town of milton 905-878-7252 x 2162 [email protected]

MISA AtlanticPresIdenT maurice gallant, City of Fredericton 506-460-2830 [email protected]

vICe PresIdenT donna davis, halifax regional municipality 902-490-4417 [email protected]

naTIonal and memBer eXeCuTIvesseCreTarY Jennifer everett, City of Fredericton [email protected]

Treasurer Cindy stevens, halifax regional municipality [email protected]

MISA Prairies www.misaprairies.ca

PresIdenT sabina visser, City of lethbridge 403-320-3880 [email protected]

vICe PresIdenT steve Jeffery, City of regina 306-777-7234 [email protected]

Treasurer dan newton, City of red deer 403-342-8283 [email protected]

seCreTarY adam scharmann, sturgeon County 780-939-4321 [email protected]

memBershIP kelly kaban, City of Yorkton 306-786-1729 [email protected]

MISA BC www.misa.bc.ca

PresIdenT guillermo Ferrero, City of nanaimo 250-755-4486 [email protected]

vICe PresIdenT Barbara davey, metro vancouver Corporate services 604-456-8838 [email protected]

Treasurer Chris mazzotta, regional district north okanagan 250-550-3775 [email protected]

seCreTarY Chris mcluckie, district of north vancouver 604-990-2308 [email protected]

memBershIP Joanne henry, City of vernon 250-550-3488 [email protected]

Réseau de l’Informatique Municipale du Québec (RIMQ) www.rimq.qc.ca

PresIdenT Yves seney, ville de sherbrooke 819-823-8000 x 6030 [email protected]

vICe PresIdenT andré labonté, ville de saint-Jean-sur-richelieu 450-357-2435 a.labonte@ ville.saint-jean-sur-richelieu.qc.ca

Treasurer michel hurteau, ville de sorel 450-780-5600 x 5714 [email protected]

seCreTarY andré robitaille, ville de st-Bruno-de-montarville 450-653-2443 x 2911 [email protected]

CANADA


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