On Friday, more than 400 representatives of the city’s technology sector packed the Nepean Sportsplex to hear city officials outline their five-year vision for using technology to create a “citizen-centric” model of delivering municipal services.
“We need your help to make it happen,” said Guy Michaud, the city’s chief information officer and director of IT services.
Late last month, city council approved a budget that includes $32.5 million for IT capital projects in 2010.
Of that, roughly $5.4 million will be spent on the city’s mobile workforce. For example, Mr. Michaud said municipal employees should be able to receive new requests for services while in the field, allowing the municipality to respond to more calls.
The largest capital IT allotment is $12 million for citizen-centric services. Mr. Michaud gave the example of issuing a tracking number to a resident who reports a pothole in front of their house. Using the tracking number, that resident could go online and see when work crews are scheduled to repair the road.
“It’s about changing the relationship with residents and giving them more information about the services they get from the city,” said Mr. Michaud in an interview prior to his presentation.
Technology companies are already transforming the way citizens interact with government. In an October 2008 presentation at the annual Government and Technology Exhibition and Conference Ottawa-based Telus director Jamie Darch told delegates how his company helped establish one-stop online service portals for several Quebec municipalities.
At the time, he said the next step was to integrate geomatic capabilities with municipal services so that, for example, residents and city officials alike can track which roads have been plowed by GPS-enabled trucks after a snowstorm.
One of the challenges facing government officials dealing with IT procurement is encouraging the private sector to propose innovative solutions while running an open and competitive bidding process.
It’s a problem that’s plagued the federal department of Public Works. Some Ottawa technology firms, such as Liquid Computing, have all but given up trying to sell to the Canadian government.
In an earlier interview, company board member Pat DiPietro said the firm’s unified computing system is in an emerging product category. He said that while government officials told him they were interested in acquiring the system, they were unable to purchase it directly.
Instead, Public Works would have to "dumb down" its requirements if it wanted other firms to submit a competing bid, robbing Liquid of its innovative advantage, which Mr. DiPietro estimated could save the federal government hundreds of millions of dollars.
The city’s Mr. Michaud acknowledged the problem, and said he is speaking with municipal procurement staff about how the city should respond when it is approached by a technology company with an innovative product.
“We understand that there are skill sets and services that we do not have on our current master standing offer. There are firms out there with technology that we may not be aware of that could be of interest to us,” said Mr. Michaud.
“I don’t think they should be penalized if they came up with the idea first.”
However, he emphasized the city would set its own service and efficiency objectives, and that any technological solution proposed by businesses would have to help the municipality achieve those goals.
Some of the businesspeople in attendance wanted to know how the city planned to use its IT procurement policies to foster home-grown business.
“What is the city doing to support small and medium-sized businesses?” asked Stephen Grant of Opus2 Mobile Solutions. He said large organizations, such as governments, often aren’t interested in dealing with smaller IT companies, who are often asked to partner with large firms on public contracts.
Mr. Michaud responded that the city’s focus is on delivering services to residents at the best price.
“That’s what we are looking at, not the size of the firm.”
Meanwhile, Keith Parker of The Proposal Centre, a procurement consulting firm, suggested the city could improve small businesses’ access to public contracts by publishing a list of its standing offers and the respective expiry dates so firms can prepare their bids.
Jeff Byrne, manager of the city’s supply management branch, said the city would be including more information on its standing offers in an upcoming update to the municipality’s website.
