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Green power
Another benefit beyond energy savings is the simplification of OPS business continuity and disaster recovery planning. "We'll have triple redundancy when the sites are built, so we'll have a way to trade off processing no matter what goes wrong," says Langhout.
"And we can get away from having many small places that must all have an independent recovery plan to having substantial plans that support the bulk of our computing capabilities," she adds.
There are no specific energy targets for the I&IT sector, but broad targets exist for the province overall. "We're thinking large thoughts around emissions reduction, not just in government but for Ontario. We're actively inviting organizations to participate in programs aimed at peak energy requirements."
Green sensibilities are rapidly growing in both the private and public sectors, she observes. "The whole green agenda can only get larger, and it has no political shade to it - all parties are concerned."
A strategy is supposed to set direction, but it isn't written in stone. "We recognize the five-year I&IT plan will be detailed in the early years, but less so in the outlying years, so it will be refreshed on a regular basis," says Dowler.
In the ecology of strategies, some initiatives may live on, but others may die. Scott Campbell was Ontario's CIO during the watershed period of 1998 to 2001, and he learned many lessons during his tenure.
"We had many initiatives under way. Some such as Smart Systems for Health (SSHA) are still being implemented today, but the integrated justice project we started was discontinued," he says.
But he points out the larger goals of the strategic plan of the day were fulfilled. "We laid the groundwork for the eventual consolidation of the infrastructure and treating it like a utility," says Campbell, adding that other jurisdictions, undergoing similar public sector IT consolidation today, continue to draw on his experience.
Although Ontario has made progress in some areas such as e-health and social service delivery over the past decade, Campbell believes insufficient attention has been paid to others. "Program areas such as education were not a success in my term, and that's still the case today.
"There are no major I&IT initiatives in e-learning for K-12, and that's unfortunate," he says. "Also, the court side of justice needs more work. Police and corrections have gotten attention, but not court administration."
A new economy
Campbell notes that Ontario is turning its attention to linking technology development with economic competitiveness. "Developing the digital economy and bridging the digital divide have been a real priority for Premier [Gordon] Campbell in British Columbia, but Premier [Dalton] McGuinty has had other priorities," he says.
"But I give the Ontario government full marks for this whole piece of work that it's beginning to work on. We need to look at technology as a tool in the economic arsenal and push it further."
While many dominoes need to line up to ensure a project's success - clarity around the government's goals, value for money, feasibility - the issue of timeliness can derail a good project.
"If it takes five years to get there, that's too long in the political life-cycle. You need bite-sized chunks: six-month periods [for example] with some clear things delivered, not the whole system," says Campbell.
Good project governance and stakeholder engagement are key ingredients in any IT project, but Campbell stresses engaging politicians is crucial in public sector projects.
"As we moved forward on our management agenda during my term, we didn't engage the politicians to the extent I would have liked, on the actual ends the technology would be put to.
"Better health care and education became second-order effects, and I would have liked twisting that around 180 degrees. But we knew at the time we didn't have the management capacity - we needed to do that first before we could get to the second. If I could do it over again, I would try to do both."
Rosie Lombardi is a freelance writer based in Toronto. Contact her at rosie@rosie-lombardi.com
Related content:
Q&A with Rob Dowler, Ontario Ministry of Government Services
Lost in space: Digital preservation for eternity
Ontario partners ITAC to ease procurement pain
Finding perspective amidst IT's green agenda
SOA at work: Ontario's common components
Building a project management culture
Q&A with Ron McKerlie
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