IfG.CC - The Institute for eGovernment

Barcelona’s chief technology and digital innovation officer believes the protection of personal data is a “fundamental right” for citizens.

Francesca Bria, who is the city’s top expert and adviser on policies related to technology, information and digital strategies, is a leading proponent in Europe of “data sovereignty” — ensuring that citizens, rather than big tech, get to control the way their data and the data collected in public spaces is used.

Longtime health care IT executive Sarah Kramer, no stranger to large and complex challenges, now faces the biggest challenge of her career as she assumes the post of president and CEO of eHealth Ontario, an agency created recently to harness information and technology to improve patient care in Ontario.

The survey, called Leadership in Customer Service: New Expectations, New Experiences, lists e-government service delivery in 22 countries. This year, Canada is followed by the United States, Denmark, Singapore and Australia.

The government plans to consolidate 100 different email systems into one government-wide email system, reduce the number of data centers from 300 to 20, and streamline over 3,000 networks within and between government departments.

Canada is setting up a new entity called Shared Services Canada to oversee the consolidation and to provide IT services and security going forward. The new entity will be part of the Ministry of Public Works and Government Services. Shared Services Canada will consolidate the existing IT resources and personnel from 44 separate departments and agencies.

Ten years ago, Canada held the distinction of being the top ranked country in the world for the breadth and sophistication of its electronic government services. Citing the Canadian government's integrated, strategic approach, annual assessments by Accenture found that more important services were offered online in Canada than anywhere else.

All regions of the country will face systemic skills shortages, according to a report by Ottawa-based Information and Communications Technology Association (ICTC).

ICTC believes the job market is undergoing “a radical change in skill sets”.

The research firm says recent graduates of co-op programmes will generally find work. However, graduates of traditional ICT programmes and foreign-trained workers will have a much harder time finding work.

While the Ontario government is dealing with the political fallout of the eHealth Ontario scandal and Ottawa reviews its funding commitments to Canada Health Infoway, a new research report suggests Canada may need to fill approximately 12,000 IT-related health-care jobs within the next five years.

The Canadian government offers cloud-based services through a ‘Community Cloud’ to its 325,000 Federal employees and 140 departments, including a pension and payroll enterprise app and Web 2.0 collaboration tools.

Canada Health Infoway was born in 2001 out of an idea that has deep intuitive appeal: Wouldn’t it be nice if the health records of all of us, every Canadian, could be stored electronically in one place? Imagine the possibilities: A prescription flows electronically to a pharmacist, the information assembled with other health data — lab work, previous health problems, surgical procedures — making it possible for the patient — and health professionals — to have a full and complete record of his or her medical history.

Infoway was the vehicle created by Ottawa and the provinces to spearhead the creation of such a national electronic health system. In the dreams of bureaucrats and politicians, the objective was to electronically hook something like 400,000 health care professionals, pharmacists and doctors, more than 700 hospitals, thousands of private clinics, and 33 million Canadians into one big national interoperable system.

Canada Health Infoway (CHI) is investing billions in the architecture for a national electronic health record (EHR) system, which will likely be in place in most provinces by 2015, says Wayne Gudbranson, CEO of The Branham Group, an Ottawa-based technology research firm.

Of the total amount allocated to Infoway, $380 million of the new money will be directed to speed up the implementation of electronic medical record systems.

EMR systems are the gateway that will enable physicians and nurse practitioners to securely access vital patient information including diagnostic images, blood test results, drug histories and clinical reports.

"This report underlines Canada's success in offering on-line services that best serve Canadians," said Minister Owen. "We are leading the way in e-government in terms of service breadth, service depth and customer relationship management. We are providing services in ways that cross traditional program, departmental and governmental boundaries. Canadians have told us how they want to receive their services, and the Government of Canada is delivering."

The comparative study, conducted annually for the past five years by the high-tech consultancy Accenture, rates the quality of service governments in 22 countries offer their citizens. In it, Canada placed first in all categories of e-government "maturity," which Accenture calls service breadth, service depth and customer relationship management.

The United States can take a lesson from its neighbors to the north when it comes to executing E-government initiatives. For the fourth straight year, Canada topped the annual list issued this week by the management consultant and IT outsourcer Accenture of most mature international E-government offering. The United States is no laggard; it moved up one notch, tying for No. 2 with Singapore. Yet, with a score of 80 out of 100, Canada easily outdistanced the runners-up, both of which received a score of 67.

Customer satisfaction is a key driver of government CRM programs, and Canada tops the world in terms of its government's use of CRM to reach its citizens, according to a recent report by consulting firm Accenture.

Open Text executive chairman Tom Jenkins put it bluntly at the kickoff to the Canada 3.0 digital-media conference in Stratford Tuesday, cautioning against the "technospeak" that threatens to bury the message about the critical importance of digital media to Canada's future.

"We have to make it relevant," he told more than 1,500 digital pilgrims who converged on the Rotary Complex for the third annual conference.

The study, "Leadership in Customer Service: New Expectations, New Experiences," is Accenture's sixth annual global report on government service delivery. In a departure from previous reports, the 2005 study goes beyond measuring the extent to which governments offer services online to investigating their leadership in delivering true customer service - the value they bring to their citizens through multiple channels.

Accenture says the Canadian government is the most electronically advanced in the world among 22 industrialized and developed countries, surpassing even the United States.

Predictions on the Canadian Government Sector in 2005, produced by IDC, suggests that e-service roll-out will be a priority for no more than a quarter of government IT project managers in 2005. This compares with it being a priority for 42 per cent of project managers in a similar survey two years ago.

The complex structure of the spectrum auction means the government is deriving revenues from two groups of bidders: Incumbent service providers are restricted to bidding on 60% of the available spectrum in an open auction, while new entrants to the industry are able to bid both on the open spectrum and the remaining 40% of the spectrum, which has been especially reserved for them in a closed auction. This has created a huge premium, estimated to be about $750-million, for the spectrum in the open auction.