Previous page: The mobile workforce
Inspections, Investigation and Enforcement's 2,000 field workers are equipped with a variety of specialized wireless tools to capture and process information on the spot. For example, the Ministry of Transportation uses magnetic card readers that can read drivers' licences at roadsides, and Child Services uses tablet PCs that can capture signatures.
"These are critical to our work, they're not nice-to-have tools," says Stager.
Most field staff use specialized Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software to generate checklists, inspection reports and e-tickets, he says.
"Funny enough, if you look at the CRM tools that sales people use to identify clients, spend time with them to capture data, and then generate a report, it's amazing how similar those functions are to the work that compliance folks do in inspections."
Another key area of efficiency that reduces duplication and increases data integrity lies in sharing similar information that's needed across ministries.
The Regulatory Modernization Act 2006 opened up opportunities in this area, explains Stager. "We can share compliance information between ministries now in areas that we couldn't before. This is particularly useful in areas where we need to know the same kind of information."
However, there are limitations on this, he adds. "Information sharing is almost exclusively restricted to business-related information. We're not trying to do things with personal information that aren't allowed under the Freedom of Information and Privacy Acts."
The Transportation Ministry, for example, has databases that track drivers, vehicles and licences via an advanced roadside data capture system used by field enforcement staff.
"This is used for commercial vehicles like long-haulers, where inspection staff may stop them to ensure the vehicle is safe and has the right paperwork," says Stager.
But outside Transportation, the vehicle emissions enforcement unit may need access to the same information, as well as law enforcement and other compliance units. "About 5,000 select staff who are somehow involved in vehicle inspections have access to the database."
Channel convergence
The savings generated by efficient data capture with mobile devices at the front-end ripple through the system, says Stager.
"There are also savings in the huge amount of effort in trying to understand the information, because it feeds into a system of analysis and decision making.
"You have to look at the continuum of activities and overall savings, not just at the data collection point, but in the conduct of compliance activities overall and what they do for you."
The one device that citizens are most likely to have on hand is a cell phone, so using wireless technologies to disseminate information and services to the public will soon become critical.
This will play a role in the broader trend towards demand for one-stop service, says Saskatchewan's Murray.
"What we're seeing is consolidation of all channels the public uses to connect with the government, not just wireless but Internet, phone, service desk, etc."
The federal government is working towards providing the public a central point of contact for a range of services.
In 2005, its wireless portal became operational, says Jirka Danek, director general at Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC).
"Service Canada is responsible for the portal's content and applications, and PWGSC looks after its infrastructure and evolution."
A number of wireless services are currently available, says Melissa Teasdale, head of operations for the Service Canada site.
"We don't provide the content, but we do provide the vehicle for this in partnership with agencies."
Some of the information services offered are border wait-times, currency converter, and a Member of Parliament directory with click-to-call options.
"Our most popular is the weather conditions service, which we added a few weeks ago."
Service Canada is looking into new areas such as using GPS technology to tailor services to provide information about traffic conditions, says Teasdale.
But privacy issues around GPS technology need to be sorted out, and partnerships at the provincial and regional levels will need to be formed to provide real-time information feeds.
"This initiative will require major effort, but users have been asking for traffic services since we launched the portal."
Using GPS to get a location fix could provide other benefits, such as providing the nearest student loan centre or employment insurance office.
"Currently, users need to input what province, city and sector they want, which all takes time to process and download, and they're paying for all that wireless time."
A major challenge in the portal's evolution is dealing with the bewildering array of wireless devices designed with different screens and standards and their associated form factor issues, says Teasdale.
"We're looking into developing client detection capability that would allow us to determine what type of phone or device is being used.
"We can provide more content if their device can handle it, otherwise we can scale back and provide less to avoid download issues. Our biggest issue is building something everyone can access."
Although this will be very difficult to achieve, it is nevertheless a top priority, she says.
"There are so many devices coming out every day, and old devices are still circulating. They don't handle code the same way, so we'll need to do a lot of testing.
"We're looking at building a master database of all devices and their characteristics, and then building an application that could tell us which device is accessing the portal."
This lack of standardization across devices is a universal issue for both government and industry, she adds.
"There's been a lot of discussion around that for a very long time. It's even been suggested that the government step in to create standards. There's a lot of clamour around this issue."
At the back-end, there are also integration and standardization issues to sort out across ministries, she says.
"All the content we provide is obtained through other government departments, but not all their databases are built the same way.
"One department may store data in XML, another may use a different format. So we have to customize ourselves to ensure our apps can handle data in multiple formats, as there isn't a standard way for departments to store and present information."
Continued: Security protocol
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