The president of Gatineau-based Stay Technologies, which specializes in IM/IT professional services and IT service management training, developed a program called Management of Services Tool, or MST. It allows information management and technology organizations to document services provided, compile end-user requests, cost and associated resources required, and ultimately build and manage agreements to properly justify IM/IT costs.
Even though MST was built to work with government systems, Stay Technologies quickly encountered hurdles relatively common to vendors pitching innovative products to Public Works.
Indeed, how can a firm sell leading-edge products to the government when Public Works doesn’t even have a category for it – let alone a solicitation upon which that technology is required?
“Government procurement is not in line with innovation,” said Mr. St-Arnaud.
It’s a message federal politicians and bureaucrats have heard repeatedly, and a problem senior procurement officials hope to address with a recently unveiled program allowing companies to test cutting-edge technology within the government.
“Traditionally, (the government) identifies a need and puts out a call (for tenders). But when there are new products or innovation on the market, we don’t know we need them,” said Shereen Miller, a director-general in Public Works’s acquisition branch, during a recent conference call hosted by the Canadian Advanced Technology Alliance.
Late last month, Public Works launched the Canadian Innovation Commercialization Program as a pilot project to speed up the time it takes to bring new products to market.
Under four separate calls for proposals, companies can pitch their innovative products and services to the government. Successful vendors are matched with appropriate departments in what Ms. Miller called the “e-Harmony approach.”
CATA had lobbied Public Works to introduce what it calls “technology test beds,” or opportunities for businesses to test their products and services within the government to gain valuable feedback and a significant reference account.
It is a core plank of the “Innovation Nation” platform championed by CATA national spokesperson and local tech mogul Terry Matthews.
“We need to consider how Canadian governments at all levels can play a larger role as early adopters and strong supporters of Canadian technologies, while still respecting our treaty obligations,” he said in a keynote address last year at an event hosted by Industry Canada.
CATA president and CEO John Reid said he hoped the program would also bring a culture change within the civil service, so bureaucrats look at government as a potential marketplace that can foster and be a catalyst for new technologies.
“That, in turn, creates a richer fabric of innovation in Canada,” said Mr. Reid, calling the government’s current approach “absolutely right on.”
The first call for proposals closes early next month, with contracts expected to be awarded in the spring.
FACT BOX: Canadian Innovation Commercialization Program primer
Size: $40 million over two years
Maximum contract value: $500,000
Structure: Four calls for proposals will be published for innovative goods and services under four broad categories: environment, health, safety and security, and enabling technologies. Proposals will be competitively evaluated on a point-based scale. Successful companies will be matched with end users within the government and receive feedback on their product.
Criteria: Products and services must be in the final stages of development, must not have been produced in great quantity, only ever have been sold for testing and demonstration and should not already be readily available in the marketplace. Subsidiaries of foreign companies are eligible, providing they have Canadian operations.
Source: Public Works and Government Services Canada
