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Municipalities lead by example
Technological and organizational complexity are intertwined. Since larger organizations face greater complexity, national governments can learn from the early and emerging experiences of smaller governance jurisdictions, such as municipalities and provinces.
Many of the most ambitious transformational partnerships have arisen from these levels where integrated and citizen-centric service delivery, organizational governance and innovative procurement models have converged to form a powerful nexus for collaborative change.
In 1999, San Diego County embarked on what was then one of the largest public-private partnerships at the municipal level: a seven-year agreement jointly devised with industry to refurbish the County's technology and service architecture for 21st-century challenges. Constant dialogue and a real commitment to flexibility meant that by 2005 the County was lauded as an e-government leader by the Center for Digital Government.
A key lesson is that collaborating does not mean relinquishing strategic leadership and total control to outside experts. Instead, the basis of a solid partnership is a shared understanding on both sides, of the challenges, opportunities and constraints.
The San Diego experience also demonstrates that governments need not be afraid of making long-term commitments, as change and transition to new partnership arrangements remain feasible.
The City of Birmingham's current transformation partnership in the United Kingdom is similarly ambitious, encompassing much of the municipal technology and service infrastructure. The lead agency responsible for this effort is a joint venture between a private company and local government, staffed by approximately 500 individuals seconded from municipal departments.
The agency supplies services to the City through lease-type arrangements as opposed to more traditional fee or deliverable-based contracting. The long-term agreement explicitly targets efficiency savings, enhanced service performance and net employment creation.
In Canada, the growing importance of this collaborative logic is also apparent. Provincial governments have also become increasingly assertive in exploring private-public partnerships in the realm of service transformation. The relationship between Service New Brunswick and consulting company CGI Group Inc. is one well-known case study.
More recently, Service B.C. and IBM Canada Ltd. have forged a performance-based agreement to improve service outcomes. In creating this partnership, the Province of B.C. put forth the following objectives: integrate the telephone, online and in-person service channels to provide consistent information and services to its citizens; develop an approach to service channel management in which touch-points, technology platforms, data access and business processes are developed around the needs of the citizen; and more effectively meet the needs of its clients within a new, integrated, cost-effective and efficient service delivery environment.
The B.C. case is noteworthy since it is underpinned by a broader effort to embrace partnering in many segments of provincial operations, including infrastructure, organizational systems and new technologies.
The creation of an alternative procurement system, called Joint Solutions Procurement (JSP), is explicitly premised on the notion that the B.C. Government cannot define in precise terms at the outset what it requires and at what cost from external solutions providers. The partnership is therefore the result of joint discovery.
Continued: Canada must learn to collaborate
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