Anubhav Sharma
Research Director, CIO Strategy
Info-Tech Research Group

Canadian provincial government organizations operate in a challenging environment characterized by siloed structures of ministries, departments, and agencies. They utilize a combination of dedicated IT groups and shared services, resulting in a complex governance and stakeholder relationship ecosystem.

Numerous external and internal factors affect their work. These include budget constraints, compliance requirements, evolving technology trends, changing public expectations, and the need to collaborate with, and cater to, different stakeholders such as other ministries, departments, and agencies. At the same time, they are expected to execute modernization plans for aging technology applications, upgrade poor or sometimes non-existent data infrastructure, and manage security and privacy, as well as develop and retain increasingly hard-to-find technology talent.

In this environment, it is imperative that provincial government IT leaders have a clear understanding of the organization’s priorities, objectives, and resources so they can develop an IT strategy aligned with organizational goals. A clear understanding will also help them ensure that their technology investments maximize value creation through improved operational efficiency, better cost management, and an enhanced quality of services to the public and other stakeholders.

This blueprint and the associated tools will provide you with a step-by-step approach to achieve an IT strategy that is in sync with your organizational objectives and will help you establish IT as a strategic partner in the broader organization.

David Wallace
Executive Counselor, Executive Services
Info-Tech Research Group

Being a CIO in a provincial government is very different from being a CIO in the private sector. The scope of the mandate for provincial government CIOs is very large, spanning programs that provide critical services to citizens, ranging from health care to transportation infrastructure and safety, to support for the justice system.

Similar to private industry CIOs, provincial government CIOs are focused on business-driven IT goals. However, they also need to align strongly with their provincial government’s goals, objectives, and measures of success – all of which are available online for the public to see. Their focus needs to be on value and the efficient use of public funds to meet service needs and longer-term change to program mandates, rather than revenue and the bottom Iine, which is the measure of success for private industry CIOs.

Given this focus, it is essential for provincial government CIOs to fully understand the priorities of their government, as stated in public and ministerial measurements of success, and to develop data, application, and technology initiatives that meet or exceed the goals of their provincial government. After all, there is one fundamental goal for provincial governments – to meet their published legislative budget and program targets and to do this in collaboration with the appropriate ministries to deliver results.

This blueprint and the associated tools will guide you through the appropriate methodologies and processes to help you, as a provincial government CIO, create a business-driven and tangible IT strategy that aligns with your government commitments to the public and provide strategic IT leadership to the organization and ever-improving services to the public.

Defining an IT strategy means organizing IT’s financial, technical, and human resources around organizational goals and providing oversight to manage risks.

IT decisions are made with a focus on long-term investments. Initiatives are prioritized based on an organization-first approach.

An IT strategy ensures the wise investment of dollars on IT initiatives that help achieve organizational goals and objectives while driving future growth.

An IT strategy enables the alignment of IT activities with organizational objectives and sets expectations about what can be achieved.

Federal/Provincial Structure

• Canada has ten provinces and three territories spread over the second-largest geographical country in the world.
• Canada is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy.
• The provinces receive their power from the Constitution Act, 1867, and the territories have powers delegated by the Parliament of Canada. The provinces are sovereign and are represented by a lieutenant governor. The territories, which are not considered to be sovereign, are represented by a commissioner.¹
• Changes have been made over the years with the Canadian Bill of Rights and the Meech Lake Accord. As a result, more flexibility and accountability have been pushed down to the provincial governments.

Provincial Funding

• The main sources of provincial funding are taxes, fees, and federal transfers.
• Provincial budgets are based on income, sales, property taxes, and fees for various services, such as licenses and permits.
• In addition, provincial governments receive federal transfers to support specific programs for promoting health care, education, and social assistance.
• IT funding is aligned to the staffing model of the provincial government.

IT Governance

• Agencies/departments, although following broad IT strategy guidelines, implement IT governance in varying ways while also using centralized shared services.
• Architecture governance is typically centralized, along with standard and policy oversight.

Staffing Model

• Each provincial ministry/agency develops and implements its own human-resource strategy while following broader guidance.
• IT is structured at a cluster level, reporting to a cluster CIO, in some provinces and structured at a ministry level, reporting to a ministry CIO, in other provinces, which affects the staffing model.

• Meet heightened resident expectations on delivery of government services caused by shifts in attitudes since the pandemic and generational changes.
• Manage a finite budget, requiring prioritization and hard decisions on where to spend.
• Adhere to stringent compliance requirements, including security standards, accessibility requirements, and privacy laws.
• Modernize legacy systems while continuing to ensure critical department/ agency support.
• Attract, retain and upskill top IT talent while facing competition from the private sector.
• Deal with rise in cyberthreats and data breaches, which enhance the need to implement robust security measures to protect sensitive government data.

• Lead digital transformation by leveraging new innovative technologies, such as AI.
• Incorporate user-centered design thinking while developing services/products.
• Leverage data analytics to identify trends, gain insights into department operations, and make better data-driven decisions.
• Defend against cyberthreats by implementing zero-trust security, shifting from securing network boundaries to a focus on verifying users, assets, and resources.
• Migrate to cloud computing to reduce costs, increase flexibility, and improve service delivery.
• Develop cross-department collaboration to focus on similar use cases for service modernization and, thus, improve resource effectiveness.

• According to our Management & Governance diagnostic (MGD), 64.0% of governments have an IT strategy process that they feel is ineffective.¹
• IT does not do a good job of communicating its support for organizational goals. Therefore, 17.5% of government leaders still feel that their goals are unsupported by IT.²
• IT departments that have not developed IT strategies experience alignment, organization, and prioritization issues within the broader organization.

• However, the CIO is often seen as an order taker by the broader organization’s leaders. This usually results in the demands on IT far outstripping its budget.
• In this scenario, projects and initiatives are not prioritized around the organization’s objectives. Synergies and dependencies are recognized too late. Projects are often late or put on hold because of sudden changes to organizational requirements.

• Use Info-Tech’s government-focused approach to discern your organizational context and develop your strategy.
• Clearly communicate to government executives how IT will support the government’s key objectives and initiatives using the Canadian Provincial Government IT Strategy Presentation Template.
• Use Info-Tech’s prioritization tool to help you make project decisions in a holistic manner, which will allow you to select the most valuable initiatives to become part of your IT strategic roadmap.

Establish the Scope of Your IT Strategy

Establish the scope of your IT strategy by defining IT’s mission and vision statements and guiding principles.

Review IT’s Performance From Last Fiscal Year

A retrospective of IT’s performance helps recognize the current state while highlighting important strategic elements to address going forward.

Build Your Key Initiative Plan

Elicit the organizational context and identify strategic initiatives that are most important to the organization and build a plan to execute on them.

Define IT’s Operational Strategy

Evaluate the foundational elements of IT’s operational strategy that will be required to successfully execute on key initiatives.

• Organizational (Org.) Strategy
• Capability Map

• Org. Context Information
• Diagnostic Reports to Assess Current State
• Last Fiscal Year’s Strategy

• Key Initiatives List
• Last Fiscal Year’s Operational Strategy

• Initiatives and Roadmap
• Operational Strategy

Org. Context Information for Step 2:

• Org. goals
• Org. objectives and initiatives
• Government-customized capability map

IT Strategy Information for Approval:

• Strategy scope
• Year in review
• Key initiative plan and profiles
• Goals cascade
• Roadmap

Operational Strategy Information for

Step 4:

• Stakeholder management
• Metrics and targets
• Risk management
• Org. changes
• Budget
• Functional roadmap and next steps

Executive Presentations for:

• Government leadership
• IT team
• Board
• Organization-wide key highlights

• Pre-Workshop
• Industry-Specific
• Guided Implementation

• IT Strategy Workshop

• IT Strategy Workshop

• IT Strategy Workshop

Org. Strategy Information

Government Capability Map

Current-State Assessment

Last Fiscal’s Strategy

Key Initiatives List

Last Fiscal’s Operational Strategy

Initiatives and Roadmap

Operational Strategy

Conduct Org. Goals Exercise

Use Capability Map Template

Interview Department Head/ Govt. Leaders, Peers, and IT Managers

Brainstorm Success Stories

Brainstorm List of Projects Approved by Business

Collect Minimal Operational Strategy Data

Collect Minimal Initiatives and Roadmap Data

Collect Minimal Operational Strategy Data

Follow Org. Context Methodology

Conduct Half-Day Industry-Guided Implementation

Launch Business Vision, CEO-CIO Alignment, and MGD Diagnostics

Gather and Organize Past Fiscal Strategy Documents

Conduct Strategy Workshop

Conduct Strategy Workshop

Conduct Strategy Workshop

Conduct Strategy Workshop

Goals Cascade Visual

Elicit org. context and use the workbook to build your custom goals cascade.

Initiative Prioritization

Use the weighted scorecard approach to evaluate and prioritize your strategic initiatives.

Roadmap/ Gantt Chart

Populate your Gantt chart to represent your key initiative plan visually over the next 12 months.

“Our team has already made this initiative a priority, and we have the time and capability, but some research along the way would be helpful.”

“Our team knows that we need to improve, but we need assistance to determine where to focus. Some check-ins with an expert along the way would help keep us on track.”

“We need to hit the ground running and get this project kicked off immediately. Our team has the ability to take this over once we get a framework and strategy in place.”

“We need a dedicated relationship with a technical expert or IT executive coach to support ongoing delivery and career development”

“Our team does not have the time or the knowledge to take on this initiative. We need assistance through the entirety of this project.”

Gain unlimited access to Info-Tech’s library of research on best practices.

Get support from Info-Tech’s team of subject matter experts.

Have analysts facilitate your team as they define a key initiative or solve a problem.

Build a dedicated relationship with a senior analyst to advise you on key initiatives or your career.

Leverage our benchmarking services team for hands-on support.

Call #1: Discuss organization context and customize your organization’s capability map.

Call #2: Identify mission and vision statements and guiding principles to discuss strategy scope.

Call #3: Assess year-in-review data and evaluate performance.

Call #4: Discuss diagnostic data results and success stories.

Call #5: Identify strategic initiatives and required information.

Call #6: Discuss how to build your roadmap.

Call #7: Discuss and identify appropriate operational strategy components.

Call #8: Summarize results and plan next steps.

Elicit Org. Context

Establish the Scope of Your IT Strategy

Build Your Key Initiative Plan

Build Your Key Initiative Plan (cont.)

Define Your Operational Strategy

Document Strategy

0.1 Complete recommended diagnostic programs.

0.2 Interview key department stakeholders, as needed, to identify org. context: org. goals, initiatives, and the org. mission and vision.

0.3 (Optional) CIO compiles and prioritizes IT success stories.

1.1 Review/validate the org. context.

1.2 Construct your mission and vision statements.

1.3 Elicit your guiding principles and finalize IT strategy scope.

2.1 Identify key IT initiatives that support the organization.

2.2 Identify key IT initiatives that enable operational excellence.

2.3 Identify key IT initiatives that drive technology innovation.

2.4 Consolidate and prioritize (where needed) your IT initiatives.

3.1 Determine IT goals.

3.2 Complete Org.-IT goals cascade.

3.3 Build your IT strategy roadmap.

4.1 Identify metrics and targets per IT goal.

4.2 (Optional) Identify required skills and resource capacity.

4.3 Discuss next steps and wrap-up.

5.1 Complete in-progress deliverables.

5.2 (Optional) Set up review time for workshop deliverable.

1. Diagnostics reports (CIO Business Vision, Management & Governance diagnostic, Government Leadership-CIO alignment)

2. Canadian Provincial Government IT Strategy Workbook – org. context and goals

1. IT strategy scope (IT mission, vision, and guiding principles)

1. List of key IT initiatives

1. Goals cascade

2. Roadmap (Gantt chart)

1. IT metrics and targets

2. IT resourcing changes

3. Next steps and strategy refresh schedule

1. IT strategy presentation

Launch the CIO Business Vision diagnostic.

Launch the Government Leadership-CIO Alignment diagnostic.

Launch the Management & Governance diagnostic.

Gather all historical diagnostic reports (if they exist).

Contact your Account Manager to get started.

Gather organizational strategy documents and find information on:

• Organization goals
• Organization initiatives
• Organizational capabilities to create or enhance

(If your organization does not have this information, contact your Info-Tech account manager to get started.)

Interview the following stakeholders to uncover business context information:

• Government leadership
• CFO

Download the Business Context Discovery Tool.

Gather information on last fiscal year’s strategy, particularly information on:

• IT goals
• Specific IT initiatives/projects completed
• Project start and end dates
• Metrics and targets and progress made toward them
• Last fiscal year’s budget information
• Organizational structure

A mission statement:

• Focuses on today and what an organization does to achieve it.
• Drives the organization.
• Answers: What do we do? Whom do we serve? How do we service them?

"A mission statement focuses on the purpose; the vision statement looks to the fulfillment of that purpose."

A vision statement:

• Focuses on tomorrow and what an organization ultimately wants to become.
• Gives the organization direction.
• Answers: What problems are we solving? Who and what are we changing?

"A vision statement provides a concrete way for stakeholders, especially employees, to understand the meaning and purpose of your organization. However, unlike a mission statement – which describes the who, what, and why of your organization – a vision statement describes the desired long-term results of your organization's efforts."