Cambridge: Fire IT Strategy
Read how we helped Cambridge Fire develop a focused IT Strategy for the department.
Perry Group has supported multiple Emergency and 24/7 Service departments within various municipalities develop their long-term information and technology master plans and strategies.
With Provincial funding from the second round of the Audit and Accountability Fund (AAF), the City of Cambridge wanted to review the technology that Cambridge Fire Department (CFD) uses and its service delivery processes with the goal of finding efficiencies and recoverable funds that can be used to provide improved and streamlined services.
Focused on becoming a data driven organization, powered by evidence based decision making we worked collaboratively with CFD and Technology Services department to produce a fire-focused IT strategy that maps out the immediate, mid-term, and long-term direction for CFD’s modernization of workflows, resource allocation and integration technologies.
We provided a range of detailed recommendations, including for the implementation of a robust, modern Fire-specific RMS platform that eliminates the non-optimized use of multiple software applications that do not interface with each other and reduces manual manipulation of data.
Innisfil - Cybersecurity Strategy
Read about our work developing a cybersecurity strategy with the Town of Innisfil.
Cyber threats are on the rise, as the sophistication of attackers evolves. Municipalities have unquestionably become a target and many municipalities in Canada have been severely affected by cyberattacks in recent years.
In addition, the IT landscape in municipalities is changing, with more cloud computing, a more mobile workforce, and more resident and business engagements through online and social media channels.
Our consultants have extensive experience in the municipal space in preparing and developing
Cybersecurity Multi-Year Programs
Cybersecurity Maturity Assessments
Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Plans
We have been helping municipalities in this space thoroughly assessing, mitigating cybersecurity risks and creating cyber resilience.
We recently worked with the Town of Innisfil to help them assess their cybersecurity posture and develop a strategy and plan to improve it.
We took a holistic approach by conducting a holistic review which looked at all facets important to IT security. The cybersecurity maturity of the Town was assessed against the NIST Cybersecurity Framework 1.1.
Using this baseline, a formal security program and strategy was developed for the Town containing a set of recommended initiatives that would initially upgrade the security posture of the Town, and then provide a set of ongoing tasks to facilitate continuous improvement.
Thunder Bay Digital Strategy
Read our case study on our work to help Thunder Bay develop a Digital Strategy
A City of Thunder Bay program and service review in 2019 identified the importance of technology to the effectiveness of a municipality. The city was not taking full advantage of technology to deliver its services and this necessitated creating a corporate digital strategy.
Perry Group worked with the City to develop its first Corporate Digital Strategy.
Read more about our work on the Thunder Bay Digital Strategy.
Cambridge - IT Finance and Service Delivery Review
How we helped Cambridge review its IT financial management processes and re-think services from a digital-first lens.
As part of this AAF project we conducted a comprehensive review of Cambridge's IT financial management practices, including a close examination and analysis of budget management, cost management, benefits management and realization processes and practices. The review benchmarked the City's technology investments against peers, carried out a deep dive analysis of expenditure trends, and identified opportunities for savings and reallocation.
The second workstream of the project worked with service owners around re-imagining ten City services (including parking, special events, building and planning inquiries, development approvals and newcomer services) as fully digital-first services - identifying the people, process and technology changes required to realize digital service delivery.
South Huron - IT Service Delivery Review
How we helped South Huron take a step back and review their IT setup and IT management practices through an IT Service Delivery Review.
The Municipality was looking for a review of their IT services with outcomes including improving efficiencies, optimizing business processes, looking for redundant IT solutions functionality and improving governance.
Our discovery work revealed a number of potential opportunities to address the desired outcomes of the review, and the consultants put together a set of recommendations that looked at IT resources, functionality duplication, manual processes and governance around evaluating and prioritizing projects and other IT-related activities.
Recommendations were prioritized and put into a work plan that would assist South Huron to move forward with a more effective IT environment resulting in improved service delivery.
Orillia - ECM Review and Business Process Optimization
How we helped Orillia review 28 business processes to determine high priority opportunities for process improvement, set out technology priorities and a roadmap for implementation. Also, how we helped them figure out whether they could use Office 365 for their document and records management needs.
PROJECT: ECM REVIEW AND BUSINESS PROCESS OPTIMIZATION
DESCRIPTION
Funded by the Province's Municipal Modernization program, the City of Orillia's project had two goals a) Review and determine whether Office 365 could meet their needs for a corporate Enterprise Content Management system replacement, and b) to conduct a BPO review of 25 business processes.
OUTCOME
On the ECM portion of the project we worked with the City's IT and Records Management staff and representatives from all business units to review records management practices and develop a set of business requirements. We assessed Office 365 against the requirements and confirmed that the vast majority of required features could be met, out of the box. The recommendation was to implement Office 365, without add-ons to replace their current ECM product.
The BPO portion of the project conducted as-is and to-be business process design against 28 services and processes, including Utility Locate Requests, Building Permits, Road Occupancy Permits, Complaints and Service Requests, and Tax Certificate Request Management.
The review identified over $900,000 of potential savings, significant customer service improvements and the elimination of waste.
Importantly, we identified the technology and people required to support the implementation of the process improvements, and a roadmap to follow for implementation.
PROJECT DATA
Population: 30,000
IT Team: 5
Budget: 150K
Timeline: 9 months
Haldimand: IT Organization Review
How we helped Haldimand leaders determine their IT priorities and design an IT organization structure equipped for the next 5 years.
PROJECT: IT ORGANIZATION REVIEW
DESCRIPTION
County leaders recognized the importance of technology. They were making significant investments in business systems with an ERP replacement project, new work management systems, and planning, permitting and licensing systems implementation. Our review identified gaps in business systems management skillsets and a requirement to scale up the IT function to support the new systems being implemented.
OUTCOME
We worked with County leaders to re-imagine the role of the IT function as a partner, not a supplier. We designed a new IT organization that could respond to this new mandate. This meant renaming the organization, an elevated role for the leader of the division to CIO, and the creation of 3 separate teams. We identified and prioritized the addition of positions over a multi-year period. We developed revised job descriptions for all members of the IT division.
PROJECT DATA
Budget: $50k
Timeline: 4 months
2020
Halton Hills - Website RFP
How we worked with the Town of Halton Hills to run an RFP and select a vendor-partner for the implementation of a new website and online services.
PROJECT: WEBSITE RFP
DESCRIPTION
We worked with the Town of Halton Hills to develop a Corporate IT Strategy. One of the key projects identified was a need to replace the Town's website, while introducing a range of new online services. Town leadership saw the importance of the project, but didn't have the resources available to get the project moving in the short-term.
OUTCOME
We worked with internal stakeholders to prepare business requirements and build an RFP document for the new website and online services. We worked with the Town's purchasing team to facilitate the running of the RFP, to review responses, shortlist and conduct interviews - with key stakeholders involved throughout. Once a selection was made, we handed over the Town's project team and selected vendor to implement.
PROJECT DATA
Timeline: 3 months
Budget: 20k
Grey County: Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Plan
How we helped Grey County define its Business Continuity requirements and an accompanying IT Disaster Recovery Plan.
DESCRIPTION
Grey County engaged Perry Group to develop an organization-wide business risk assessment and impact assessment to guide recommendations for a disaster recovery plan. A precise evaluation of the services each department delivers with a qualitative and a quantitative assessment of the potential impact of losing those services is unlike many other disaster recovery assessments that focus on technology.
Town of Whitby: Corporate IT Strategic Plan
How we helped the Town of Whitby’s new IT leader and new CAO develop a realistic but progressive Corporate IT Strategic Plan.
PROJECT: Corporate IT STRATEGIC PLAN
Revitalizing it in response to the cao’s challenge to become more digital and customer centric.
DESCRIPTION
A new CAO joined the Town with a vision for digitizing the customer experience, and a new IT Manager in an organization that had historically treated IT as a back office function. This project focused upon educating senior management upon the importance of technology, establishing the right conditions for the Town to become more tech savvy and establish the foundations to realize the CAO’s vision. Our assessments identified key challenges in the infrastructure area which needed to be rapidly addressed, and a need to replace a number of aging business systems, including the core ERP system. We provided a project plan to assist them in staying focused on the priorities while not getting distracted with new opportunities.
OUTCOME
The creation of a CAO chaired ‘Technology Transformation Team’, a governance body to oversee the modernization of the technology environment was a central recommendation helping the Town focus on the key issues. Recommendations to invest in a new ERP, re-organize and revitalize the IT Department with the addition of a number of new supervisory and business analyst positions were also included in the strategy.
PROJECT DATA
Pop: 130,000 growing to 200,000 in the next 10 years
IT Department: 15
Project: Corporate IT Strategic Plan
Budget: $50k
Timeline: 6 months
2017
City of Burlington: CMMS Review
How we helped Burlington review its existing CMMS, determine a need for replacement, and how we helped them budget and plan for the replacement project.
Project: CMMS SYSTEM REVIEW
Building and negotiating consensus on the strategic path forward with corporate maintenance management systems description
The City had implemented a Maintenance Management system (MMS) 8 years earlier, but the system had not met expectations, implementation was incomplete and overall satisfaction with the solution was low. We conducted a review of all of the City’s current multiple work and maintenance management systems (linear, facilities, and fleet) and supporting business processes. We analyzed the current situation and identified shortcomings and opportunities. We facilitated a market scan and an environmental scan of other municipal MMS implementations - identifying lessons learned. We incorporated findings and research into a recommended strategy, that clearly identified the way forward, resource and budget requirements.
OUTCOME
A clear direction on the MMS was set and approved by the IT Governance Committee, budgets and resource requirements were provided to support the budget process
PROJECT DATA
Pop: 180,000
IT Department: 35
Projects: IT Strategy, eGovernment Strategy
Timeline: 6 months
2017
City of Guelph: BRM Program
How we helped the City of Guelph setup a Business Relationship Management program for their IT Department.
Project: BRM PROGRAM
Improved business partnership through a focus on business relationship management
DESCRIPTION
We worked with the City's GM of Innovation and Technology to help reorganize the IT department to establish clear lines of accountability, and create leadership around digital, data analytics disciplines. One key area of focus was the creation of a Relationship Management function within the IT department, designed to build stronger relationships with business units.
OUTCOME
The Business Relationship function has had a major impact upon the ability of the IT organization to truly partner with business units, ensuring that IT is actively involved in business led technology initiatives.
PROJECT DATA
Pop: 125,000
IT Department: 32
Budget: $20k
Timeline: 2 months
2016
City of Burlington: IT Strategy
How we helped the City of Burlington - a mature and well managed IT organization - develop a Corporate Technology Strategy.
PROJECT: IT STRATEGY
Taking a mature it organization to the next level
DESCRIPTION
We have worked with Burlington on a number of occasions over the last 10 years, developing previous IT Strategies and eGovernment plans. The City has a mature and well managed IT environment with stable and strong leadership. Nonetheless, an IT Strategy represents an opportunity to look closely at what improvements can be made. In this case, a number of areas emerged. One was a need to more effectively coordinate Information Management activities across the organization as a result of work in the Enterprise Content Management, Data Analytics, Business Intelligence domains. A second was a need for the IT team to increase its agility, by enabling and empowering tech savvy departmental staff to become increasingly self-sufficient.
OUTCOME
Strategy themes included building a corporate tech savvy culture, a revised IT governance model, a modernization of IT services, a re-organized IT team, an increased focus on Information Management, and a modernization of technology – including cloud strategy and mobility roadmap.
PROJECT DATA
Pop: 180,000
IT Department: 35
Projects: IT Strategy, eGovernment Strategy
Timeline: 6 months
2016
Hastings County: IT Review
How we conducted an IT review for Hastings and how we worked with their leadership team to make significant changes.
PROJECT: IT REVIEW
DESCRIPTION
The CAO of the County felt that IT was underperforming and area municipalities were interested in exploring a shared service arrangement for IT. The County thus initiated an IT review and strategy. Upon our review It quickly became evident that the County’s technology infrastructure was not sufficiently robust to support its aspirations, its practices were not mature and the IT team was not set up to be successful. We recommended numerous changes to the situation, with the central recommendation being the creation of a new Director of IT position, as a member of the Senior Management Team who would lead the renewal of IT service delivery.
OUTCOME
The County hired an experienced IT Director to stabilize the IT environment and renew the core infrastructure. This has been achieved, and now the IT team is providing strategic value to the corporation, with IT at the table for key County decisions.
Project Data
Pop: 40,000
IT Department: 7
Budget: $50k
Timeline: 6 months
2016
Innisfil: IT Master Plan
How we helped the Town of Innisfil develop its first IT Master Plan.
PROJECT: IT MASTER PLAN
DESCRIPTION
The Town was growing rapidly with an innovative leadership team excited to use technology. Unfortunately, the IT team was strapped for resources with only 3 staff at the time. The question was, how can we move the technology agenda forward with so limited a staff base?
OUTCOME
We worked with IT and organizational leadership to increase the profile of IT within the Town (bolstered more recently by the Town winning a number of MISA Ontario awards). We recommended, and the Town followed through on growing the IT team with the addition of new resources, including GIS and Business Analyst staff. The Town also used third party vendors, service providers and contracting to augment their limited resource base. A growth in the IT funding operating and capital envelope was also secured and a governance model was established to ensure alignment of technology and business priorities. Major enhancements have been seen around IT customer service and project delivery, GIS and the mobilization of field staff.
PROJECT DATA
Pop: 30,000
IT Department: 3 staff
Project: IT Master Plan
Budget: $40k
Timeline: 5 months
Year: 2015