Collaborating between teams is hard. Collaborating between organizations is harder. Dave McGarva, Managing Principal at Tantus Solutions Group, and Sabina Visser from the City of Lethbridge showcased their collaboration effort to help Alberta municipalities identify and prepare for opportunities to collaborate on IT projects to save money and provide extra value to citizens. Dave and Sabina presented at the Municipal Information Systems Association Prairies Chapter Conference May 21, 2015. For more information, please contact Dave at dave.mcgarva[at]tantus.com

1. Shared Technology Service
Delivery - Regional
Collaboration Initiative
MISA Prairies Conference
May 21, 2015 1:00 pm – 1:30pm
Banff Centre, Banff

2. Sabina Visser
City of Lethbridge
Dave McGarva
Tantus Solutions Group Inc.
The Curators

3. The Inspiration
Transforming citizen service
delivery through the use of
technology by:
• strategically evaluating
collaboration opportunities
across municipalities,
• prioritizing opportunities
based on mutual benefit,
and
• implementing actionable
plans that increase the
overall efficiency and
effectiveness.

4. The Patron
• $170,000 grant
through the Alberta
Regional Collaboration
Program

5. The Genre
• A Targeted Business Approach
• Review municipal services and
identify key areas for collaboration
• Areas of Excellence
• Areas of Pressing Concern
• Areas of Future Concern
– Information Technology is an
additional service area similar to
Waste Management, or Planning
and Development
– Assessment of current technology
enablement not business process
– Shorten the list of services to
review areas of greatest need,
and/or greatest opportunity

6. The Artists
• City of Airdrie
• City of Brooks
• City of Calgary
• City of Grande Prairie
• City of Leduc
• City of Lethbridge
• City of Lloydminster
• City of Medicine Hat
• City of Red Deer
• City of St. Albert
• County of Grande
Prairie
• County of Vermillion
River
• Leduc County
• Lethbridge County
• Mountain View County
• Municipal District of
Bonnyville
• Municipal District of
Lesser Slave Lake
• Parkland County
• Regional Municipality
of Wood Buffalo
• Strathcona County
• Sturgeon County
• Town of Banff
• Town of Canmore
• Town of High River
• Town of Okotoks
• Town of Strathmore
• Town of Taber

7. The Tools
• Workshops
– Interactive sessions to scope
project, define terminology,
organize content and supply
feedback
• Workbooks
– Structured data collection
workbook allowing scaled
responses on many topics
• Governance Tools
– Templated set of planning
documents to guide governance
and execution
• Governance Charter
• Requirements Specifications
Sample
• Service Level Agreement Sample
• Total Costing Model

8. Data Collection
Issues
• Lack of consistent
terminology
• Other barriers to
data retrieval and
sharing
• Aversion to sharing
data

9. Opportunity Maps

10. Opportunity Maps (2)

11. High
Low
Low
High
Priority
Client
Test
Cemeteries
Park
Asset Access
Council
Financial Mgmt
Infrastructure
LandPlanningandDevelopment
Parks
Server-Storage
ServiceImprovementOffering
Pursue
InformationMgmt
Recreation
Explore
BusinessIntelligence
IntegratedServiceDelivery
Professional Support
‘Objet d'art’ - Lethbridge
High Invest
Harvest
Maybe (Unknown)
Asset Access
Server-Storage
CemeteriesCouncil
Financial MgmtInfrastructureLandPlanningandDevelopment
Parks
Park
Improve
BusinessIntelligenceInformationMgmtIntegratedServiceDelivery
Professional SupportRecreation
Low Low
Readiness
High
ServiceImprovementOffering
Supplier

12. The
Composition
• Assessments Results
– Benchmarked
Responses against
Group Means
• Recommended
Opportunity Groups
– "CLASS“
Replacement
– Electronic Council
– Financial Systems
(ERP)
– Asset Management
– Permitting Systems
– Disaster Recovery
Space Shortage

13. Recommendations
To Municipalities
1. Further engage municipal
business areas in the
collaboration discussions
2. Explore collaboration in many
levels
3. Collaborate on the top 6 prime
opportunities
4. Use the appropriate governance
tools
5. Continue to share procurement
documents and group buying
opportunities
6. Leverage procurement through
group buying sources
To MISA
7. MISA continue its leadership and
encourage participation
8. Explore ways to engage smaller
municipalities to participate
9. Act as a portal for knowledge
sharing
10. Develop standard definitions
around a municipal service
delivery model
11. Foster sub-communities of action

14. The Masterpiece!
• Next Steps
– Review Analysis
Review the data to better
understand the priorities
– Look for Champions
Municipalities should self
identify as leaders for areas
of highest priorities
– Conduct initial scoping
meetings
Interested municipalities
should attend first meetings
to dig deeper into the scope
that will be explored

15. The Critics
• Questions?
For more info contact:
Dave McGarva
Tantus Solutions Group Inc.
dave.mcgarva@tantus.com