Automated language translation … a solution to public sector communication requirements

R gse f r T C 2 0 t d y V st
e i r o G E 0 9 o a ! iiwww.tcc .
t g e .a

G v r me t . S rie
o e n n 20 e vc

R gse t d yf r a a asG v r me t e h oo yE e t
e i r o a o C n d ’ o e n n T c n lg v n
t
a dtk a v n a eo :
n a e d a tg f
A D sicinA r sGaarc g iig
i nt
t o wad l e o nzn T eC O B o C mp
h I ot a
E c l n ei G v r me t e vc D l e y
x el c n o e n n S rie ei r
e v
P a t a wo k h p a ds mias
rci l rs o s n e n r
c
A 3d yC nee c
a o frn e
Ne wo kn e e t a df c s dlann
t rig v n s n o u e e r ig
Hg p oi k y o e
ih r fe e n ts
l
A 2d ys o a e
a h wc s

OC OB R 5 8 2 0
T E ,0 9
G E
TC W E TN H E
S I OT L OT A
T WA C N D
,A A A

FROM THE EDITOR

editor@summitconnects.com

September 2009

It is hard for me to believe that summer has passed and here
we are in September already. While the weather is cooling,
many things are just heating up, including a variety of seminars,
conferences and training opportunities designed with you in
mind.
And as always, in the information technology sector, things
move as fast as the seasons seem to pass. Our fall Focus on IT
issue highlights how evolving technology makes more and more
possible… and also how technology evolves to support our
evolving world. The influence that each has on each other
seems to create a circle of increasing productivity.
In this issue, we focus on the procurement challenges of
acquiring open source software, on the developing translation
software and on how enterprise software properly acquired and
implemented can change the public sector workplace. We also
look at some procurement issues in the area of Ontario’s
eHealth system.

In my recent Editor’s note, delivered to you by email, I
requested your participation in a short survey on how your
organization handles e-waste disposal. Please take a few
minutes before September 30 and take the survey at
http://www.aberdeen.com/survey/6221Ewaste_summit/

I would like to welcome as publisher of Summit magazine,
Steve Bauld. His experience in both the public and private
sectors and his passion for procurement offer much to benefit
this magazine and you, its readers.
.
Please also note the information on our You Asked for It! Regional sponsor: Ontario Institute of PMAC
workshops, designed with input directly from you. Information October 16, 2009 in Ottawa
on our fall workshop is now available in the notice next to this
letter and also at www.summitconnects.com . Fee to attend is $500 and includes
workshop materials and two
books by Bauld and McGuinness.
Enjoy.

.

September 2009 www.summitconnects.com

CONTENTS
September 2009

PUBLISHER Steve Bauld
publisher@summitconnects.com
Editorial
EDITOR Anne Phillips Automated language translation
editor@summitconnects.com No matter the language, IT translation software
is increasingly providing a solution for public
CONTRIBUTORS: Mike Gifford, Hannah Grap, Andrew MillerRalph Blauel, sector communication requirements.
Steve Bauld, Kevin McGuinness by Hannah Grap
PHOTO/ILLUSTRATION/GRAPHICS jupiterimages.com
COVER jupiterimages.com
Procuring “free” software
Circulation
Governments face some challenges when
CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Terry Gray deciding to procure open source software.
subs@summitconnects.com Understanding the value and the options open are
Subscription Information key to success.
by Mike Gifford
Tel: 1-800-575-1146 or 613-688-0768
Online : www.summitconnects.com
Subscription Rates (1 yr) Government, citizens, services, growth
Canada: $21.95 + applicable tax Ontario’s Halton region maximizes its IT
International: US$21.95 investments to support organizational efficiency
and citizen service.
Publications Mail Agreement: 40016453
by Ralph Blauel
Business No: 87996 3791 RT0001
Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to:
Summit Group
263 Holmwood Ave, Suite 100, Ottawa ON K1S 2P8
Advertising
Dovetail Communications Inc. eHealth lessons
Beth Kukkonen, Sales Manager What can we learn from the procurement
Tel: 905-886-6641, ext. 306 processes being scrutinized at Ontario’s eHealth
bkukkonen@dvtail.com, sales@summitconnects.com agency?
Robyn Cooper, Account Manager by Andrew Miller
Tel: 905-886-6641 ext.305
Email: rcooper@dvtail.com

Editorial Advisory Board opinions
Lynda Allair, Consultant
David Ash, Government of Manitoba A house divided
George Butts, Consultant municipal matters
Sue Cork, City of Toronto …It is “particularly critical that the exclusivity of staff and
Howard Grant, Partnering and Procurement council responsibilies be made both express and manifest in
Bill Michalopulos, Canada Post relation the purchasing function.” Bauld and McGuinness look
Stephen Whittaker, Ontario Education Collaborative Marketplace at this important element of municipal government.

Summit magazine is the professional publication of choice for members of
the Canadian Public Procurement Council and the Canadian Institute for
Procurement and Materiel Management.
________________________________ I want to welcome Steve Bauld, as the new publisher of
Vol. 12, Online No. 6 ISSN: 1481-4935 Summit: Canada’s magazine on public sector purchasing.
Steve has worked in procurement for over 20 years in
©2009 Summit: Canada’s magazine on public sector purchasing both the public and private sectors. He is a noted author
Published by Summit: The Business of Public Sector Procurement Inc. and speaker on procurement issues. His experience and
o/a The Summit Group
knowledge will help Summit magazine serve you in even
Tel: 613-688-0762 Fax: 613-688-0767
more and better ways.
Any errors, omissions or opinions found in this magazine should not be McEvoy Galbreath
attributed to the publisher. The authors, the publisher and the collaborating President, Summit Group
organizations will not assume any responsibility for commercial loss due to
business decisions made based on the information contained in this
magazine.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, reprinted, stored in a
retrieval system or transmitted in part or whole, in any form or by any
WWW.SUMMITCONNECTS.COM
means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise
without the prior w ritten consent of the publisher.

Automated
language

translation
… a sol utio n to p ub lic sect or
comm unicatio n requir em ents

by Hannah Grap

www.jupiterimages.com

The Web has closed the gap between countries organizations that need to communicate and
and people, allowing users around the world to access information in and across multiple
exchange opinions and information in entirely languages.
new ways and in more languages. Nearly 1.5
billion people are now online. What’s more, the Enabling government objectives
Web is increasingly used as a communications Government organizations need solutions that
medium through social media – including social enable mission-critical decision making. This
networks, message forums, blogs and email – typically includes rapid access to all relevant
allowing people to interact and share information, and the ability to search and
information around the world, regardless of quantify unstructured information from a variety
location. of languages.

This growth of content creation and distribution
around the world has created an enormous
challenge for both government and commercial


For hundreds of years, these organizations have Deploying automated translation for
relied on translators for this work to meet government
intelligence, commerce and diplomacy For government organizations, the key objective
objectives, but the digital era poses special is to get as much content into one language as
challenges for translators. The volume of content quickly as possible so that decision makers have
to be translated is now so massive that it vastly timely access to relevant information from a
exceeds the limits of the world’s human variety of sources.
translators, even working at full capacity. To
make matters more complicated, digital content Currently, Language Weaver deploys automated
appears in a variety of different formats and language translation solutions in a variety of
languages – and it’s growing exponentially. ways in the government sector. In many of these
deployments, the automated language translation
Today, there is a solution to this challenge. software is seamlessly integrated with existing
Language translation software offers third-party applications to accelerate access to
organizations innovative and expanding foreign language information. Below are some
possibilities. Translation technology has examples of automated language translation in
advanced to the point where it can offer a action:
trusted, reliable level of translation quality that
conveys meaning quickly and accurately. By Foreign broadcast monitoring: Users see
dramatically lowering the cost of translation and hear the original news broadcast in a
while still delivering translation quality, foreign language and see a transcription of
automated translation software offers a range of the original broadcast with a translation
opportunities inconceivable just a decade ago. provided by Language Weaver. Using
trusted technology from partners, all of
Language Weaver, one of the leading developers this is done in near real-time (5-30 minute
of translation software, commercialized a delay from live broadcast).
statistical approach to automated language
translation and natural language processing. This Multilingual search: Users are able to
breakthrough technology overcomes the search the web in another language, such
weaknesses that have limited commercial as Arabic. The application translates an
success for automated translation in the past and English query into Arabic, searches the
now can enable human communication across web in Arabic and returns the original
languages. Arabic search results, with the English
translation. Users can translate each page
in the results on-demand using Language
Weaver's software. Users retrieve much
different and more relevant results than if
By adding automation to the translation process, they were searching only in English.
government organizations can quickly translate
documents, blogs, websites, and focus on Cross-lingual chat: Users can instant
supporting language efforts where it is difficult message or “chat” in their native language
to scale human translator resources. Only with foreign language speakers. The
relevant documents need to be sent to humans application provides a translation for each
for a more accurate translation and analysis, message sent, allowing human communi-
allowing governments to prioritize and cation across languages.
maximize translation resources and gain
significant improvements in productivity.


Ad-hoc document and website information, regardless of the original language,
translation: Users are empowered to can be analyzed and escalated as needed.
translate documents and websites to and
from a broad list of languages. This initial In today’s digital world, content volume is
translation enables users to escalate massive and the growth of content is
critical information for further analysis overwhelming. Web-based communications
and interpretation. channels are numerous, expanding in number,
and in continuous use around the world.
Leveraging automated translation in Government organizations rely on innovation
government through advances in automated language
Automated translation software cost-effectively translation to stay informed.
enables government organizations to translate
everything in near real-time so that all

Hannah Grap, director of marketing at Language Weaver (founded in 2002), has addressed audiences in North
America and Europe on the value of translating new types of content and providing more focus on multilingual
communication. She is in charge of Language Weaver's international marketing initiatives and works with the
company’s strategic partners. Her background is in marketing and technical communications and she previously
worked in the financial services sector. Hannah holds a Master of Science degree in technical communications from
the University of Washington.


www.jupiterimages.com

How can government responsibly

procure free software?
by Mike Gifford

Free software is “free” in two senses: it is In this age of the Internet and mature, enterprise-
distributed free of charge, and can be freely used ready, open-source projects, commercial off-the-
and shared because it is unencumbered by shelf software is an outdated concept. There is
onerous and restrictive licences. This software no longer a need for either the boxed software or
model has been refined over the past twenty-five the shelf it sat on. This article offers an
years, and its use has become mainstream. 1 introduction to this model [open source] of
software development and distribution, and
For example, in 2008, leading IT industry offers procurement professionals guidelines for
analyst Gartner Research announced that, approaching and understanding free and open-
“Eighty-five percent of companies are already source tools.
using open source software, with most of the
remaining 15 percent expecting to do so within
the next year.” Amazon lists 90,000 books when 1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_software
2
searching for “open source,” and there are many http://amazon.com/dp/0815733933
more publications available electronically. 2


What is free/open-source software? expertise that can be mobilized, commercially,
Free software is distinguished by its licensing or not, to troubleshoot and improve FOSS
and by its transparency; it can be freely systems.
distributed and modified because its source code
is made available. In contrast to the opaque Open source software reduces up-front
workings of proprietary software, free software implementation costs by eliminating license
is developed in public, and is freely available for fees, but more importantly it can help protect
inspection, evaluation, and modification. against single -vendor lock-in.

There are subtle licensing and philosophical Vendor lock-in is a problem because it increases
differences between “free software” as defined the cost for the deliverables. Lock-in is also a
and promoted by the Free Software Foundation problem in terms of future-proofing your data or
(FSF) and the broad world of “open source” applications. If a company is bought out, goes
software. Our focus will be on free open source out of business, or simply discontinues a product
software (FOSS), but most of the points will line, you may not be able to get support for your
also be relevant to open source software (OSS) software. Software producers benefit by lock-in
as well. because they have an effective monopoly on
their customers; this means they have little or no
However there are many assessments of the incentive to make better products, or to make
value of FOSS products which clearly show that their products interact well with other tools.
this is not the case. According to Ohloh.net, for
example, the OpenOffice.org office suite would
cost almost USD $150 million to develop from
The “free” aspect of [open source
scratch, but it can downloaded for free, and
offers a near drop-in replacement for Microsoft software] has been seen as problematic,
Office. In addition, it can then be distributed, inasmuch as things that are free are often
modified, and improved just like other FOSS
seen as being without value.
software. 3

Given that the current economic challenges On a technical level, FOSS tools benefit from
mean everyone is trying to do more with less, open, distributed, community-driven
paying for a licence is often an unnecessary development. Many FOSS projects enjoy the
expense. And proprietary, closed-source attention of hundreds or thousands of
software has far more costs than most developers, and tens or hundreds of thousands of
government agencies realize. When you hire engaged users. Such projects have demonstrated
consultants to deploy and manage closed source very rapid cycles of continuous quality
products, there is no added value or opportunity improvement. Moreover, they are directly and
to participate in a community of innovation. actively responsive to the needs of their users.
Investment in FOSS projects, on the other hand, Many organizations have chosen to implement
benefits the entire sphere of FOSS users and mature open source projects because they allow
developers. Open source tools free you from
dependency on the sustainability, competence,
3
and good will of third-party software vendors http://gnu.org
because there is a community of technical


for the fast delivery of a well-tested product. In depend on finding a cost-effective manner to
developing the Canadian Museum for Human deliver services. Government financing comes
Rights4 website within just six weeks, for largely through its citizens and anything that is
instance, Mark Stephenson of RealDecoy5 said, produced is ultimately there to benefit the
“the Drupal6 framework really saved us a lot of community. Likewise software projects are
time.” responsible to their community of users.

Despite its strong technical reputation and very Deputy Chief Technology Officer for Canada,
widespread use, there remains a great deal of Jeff Braybrook, spoke in February about the
uncertainty about free software. Many of the Treasury Board’s adoption of MediaWiki for
concerns are unfounded, and based on limited GCPedia. In his summary government and
knowledge of the FOSS community. For FOSS communities are natural allies as they
instance, the following are all true of FOSS share common values. Both communities: i)
software: encourage participation and have a platform to
perform, contribute and interact with others; ii)
• there is a great deal of commercial promote co-operation and collaboration which is
support available; critical for any successful federal government or
• you have a wide choice of vendors open source project; and iii) depend upon and
(unlike many proprietary applications); are improved by agreed upon standards that
• it is almost always more secure than allow for innovation. 9
closed-source code and on par or better
than proprietary software, because the To be innovative you need to encourage
user/developer community is constantly creativity, collaboration and provide inspiration
evaluating and improving it; for those working on common problems.
• industry has built and extended FOSS Innovation is largely about combining old tools
applications for real world enterprise in new and creative ways. FOSS allows you to
environments; and do this by not limiting how one can learn from
• active communities allow users to learn and extend the tool and by encouraging the
from each other and encourage technology to be shared with others. Govern-
innovation. mental use of FOSS tools thus provides a ready
opportunity to both fulfil internal technical
requirements while at the same time fostering
Government and FOSS: shared values and disseminating innovation.
Free software is presently being used by most if
not all government departments. There is no
central listing of software used by the FOSS procurement internationally
Government of Canada. A short survey conduc- Earlier this year in the UK, the IT in
ted by OpenConcept7 revealed that nearly half of Government initiative of the Cabinet Office put
the 400+ government websites reviewed were forward a very progressive procurement
using some form of open source software.8
FOSS is already being used extensively from the 4
Canadian Revenue Agency (CRA) to the http://humanrightsmuseum.ca
5
Canadian Space Agency (CSA). http://www realdecoy.com
6
http://drupal.org
7
http://osbr.ca/ojs/index.php/osbr/issue/view/85
In many ways FOSS software is a natural match 8
http://openconcept.ca/blog/mgifford/canadian_gover
for government. Both software projects and nment_uses_plenty_of_open_source_software
government departments are mission-based and 9
http://openconcept.ca/node/2086


position. They called for more use of open Industry Canada maintains an OSS Solutions
source, open standards and re-use within and Support Providers page, and Public Works
government. They were looking for solutions and Government Services Canada (PWGSC) has
that provided the best value for money and also created a Software Acquisition Reference Centre
encouraged share and re-use of what the (SARC) that has a section for OSS. Neither of
taxpayer has already purchased. The initiative these is an endorsement of the companies listed,
was designed to encourage innovation and this but reflects a general need for government
precedent will not only benefit governments departments to know where to consider their
within the UK, but also around the world. 10 options.14

In the USA, the Department of Defense is a big PWGSC put forward an request for information
advocate of this software model. Recently they (RFI) earlier this year in an attempt to get clarity
launched Forge.mil, which is hosting the on how the federal government should approach
military’s open source projects. In their study, this issue. There should be a good summary
they determined that using open source projects from all of the input that was submitted,
increases flexibility, produces greater however, in my view the question was much too
interoperability and reduces IT costs. The US general. The RFI was for “Not for Charge
National Defense Authorization Act “has Software,” which included both OSS and FOSS
explicitly articulated a preference for open licences, but also careware, trialware, shareware
source software.”11 There is a strong effort to and adware. This very broad set of licences has
even further entrench open source within the very little in common other than that there is no
USA government, especially since the election upfront financial cost. It should be stressed that
of Barack Obama to the presidency. Large open openness and collaboration are distinctively
source companies are banding together to lobby characteristic of OSS and FOSS projects.
for change. Critical websites like Recovery.gov
have been built using the Drupal CMS, and OSS procurement
There are strong precedents for the use of FOSS,
others are coming online using other open
clear indications of value for total cost of
source tools.12
ownership, and plenty of evidence that OSS can
FOSS procurement in Canada deliver enterprise-class results. But how does a
It is a misconception that FOSS isn’t being used procurement officer evaluate software in this
in the public sector in Canada. The Treasury new paradigm? In many cases the procurement
Board’s Federated Architecture Program has officer may not have a software background so
quite a wealth of information on OSS. Though it will not be able to technically compare two
was largely written in 2003-2005 and thus needs similar solutions. Having a richer understanding
to be updated, it is nonetheless an example of a of the software industry will help, but there are a
central department pursuing a path for OSS number of steps that can be taken to improve
procurement within the Government of best practices. The following are some items to
Canada.13 consider:
10
http://cabinetoffice.gov.uk/government_it/open_so
urce.aspx
• Evaluate the size of the community of
11
http://arstechnica.com/open- users and developers and look at
source/news/2009/02/department -of-defense- relevant trends of comparable software
launches-open-source-site- forgemil.ars (with so many options available, make
12
http://opensourceforamerica.org sure you have a critical mass). Google
13
http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/fap-paf/ allows you to do a simple comparison
14
http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/ict- with the trends search. 15
tic nsf/eng/h_it07356.html
15
http://google.ca/trends?q=drupal%2C+wordpress%
2C+interwoven


• Check that there are users within your
sector (it’s worth checking if there are The software procurement landscape
any communities of government sites).
Drupal’s founder Dries’ blog has a focus has become more complicated and it
for government16 and there’s also two is critical that public sector managers
Drupal Groups available (for be able to evaluate the richer set of
municipalites17 and national/provincial 18

organizations). options that are now available.
• In evaluating software, ensure that you
are aware of the niche areas that the
software is written for (MediaWiki19 is a • Software maturity is important for
great wiki platform if you want to consideration. It is easy to start a
emulate Wikipedia). software project, but much harder to
• Most popular OSS projects are sustain it and build a strong user base
transparent about their processes for around it.
code review and also security eval- • Documentation is important issue to
uations. It’s good to know what the evaluate with any software. Both online
release schedule is and also that there is and user documentation should be
an upgrade path available for users. All considered (With any reasonably large
software needs to get upgraded at some OSS project you’ll find that there are
point, so it’s best to have a plan. books are available).
• Is there a strong user community that is • How user friendly is the product and
contributing back to the projects (either how much training is required?
in bug reports, feature enhancements or • Is there a clear definition of what needs
even providing use cases)? Are there the software is expected to fulfill? How
regular conferences, or even local meet- well does the software being evaluated
ups? meet these requirements? The Commons
• Are there a number of companies who Group has developed a software needs
work with the software who you can worksheet to help. 21
engage if required? Local companies
and large multi-nationals are all using
Conclusions
OSS, so it is important to consider
The software procurement landscape has
where you want your money to go.
become more complicated and it is critical that
• Is there a clear software licence under public sector managers be able to evaluate the
which you know what obligations there richer set of options that are now available.
are for your work? If work is all Resources are available to help educate and
developed under the same licence it will guide staff in making informed decisions about
make it easier if questions around the pros and cons associated with different
intellectual property issues do arise. Any choices. There are also a number of frameworks,
software downloaded directly from like the one defined by the Commons Group
Drupal.org is under the GPL free above, which can be used to plot the needs of the
software license.20 organization to learn about how to make better
• Particularly in Canada, it is useful to
assess if there is language support in 16
http://buytaert net/tag/government
both official languages. With most 17
http://groups.drupal.org/local-government
18
software projects, the developer http://groups.drupal.org/drupal-state-and-federal-
documentation is usually written in agencies-government
19
English, however it is critical that the http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki
20
user/admin components can be available http://drupal.org/project
21
in French as well. http://commons.ca/articles/fulltext.shtml?x=335


use of software within your organization. Open source solutions offer robust performance
Requirements gathering takes time and money to and technical excellence, but perhaps more
do properly, but it is much better than once again importantly, they offer independence and
purchasing something that doesn’t meet the flexibility. And importantly for the public sector,
needs of users and that is incapable of being money spent implementing FOSS projects is an
modified to do so. investment in the common good because
improvements and testing for one can be
contributed to improve these tools for all.

Mike Gifford is the founder and president of OpenConcept Consulting Inc., a free software web development shop
that has worked with several federal government departments including PWGSC, IC, CSPS and EC. OpenConcept
has played a leading role with several free software projects since 2000 and are actively engaged in Ottawa’s Drupal
community. In the last year, Mike has been spearheading the accessibility initiatives within Drupal 7 and hopes to
see Drupal become the content management system of choice for government.


&

supported by IT
Ontario’s Halton Region makes serious IT investments
by Ralph Blauel

As one of Canada’s fastest growing public health. To ensure fiscal accountability,
communities, Halton Region supports its efficiency and transparency to taxpayers,
citizens through a strong commitment to its employees are always cognizant of ensuring
strategic goals: managed growth, economic operations and processes are as efficient as
prosperity, services to people, and effective possible.
administration. Every day our employees deliver
a diverse portfolio of regional programs and That’s why Halton Region invests in technology.
services to our citizens – from public works to Like other public sector organizations, Halton


faces a variety of pressures ranging from municipal infrastructure and helps us keep taxes
regulatory compliance to providing innovative down for our citizens.
services at low cost to our citizens. It is critical
that we optimize resources to simultaneously Halton Region’s investment in an ERP system
manage these issues and increase operational benefits other organizations as well. In 1998,
excellence, provide higher accountability more Halton Police Services, the City of Burlington,
transparently and, ultimately, demonstrate and Halton Community Housing Corporation
expanded return on investment. (HCHC) began using Halton’s SAP investment
as well. By hosting their financial systems on
our ERP, they didn’t have to acquire all of their
Readying for growth with ERP own hardware, software or consulting services to
Back in 1995 Halton’s IT team took a hard look create and support their own ERP systems.
at the municipality’s technology platform and Instead, they use Halton Region’s IT and ERP
decided it was the right time to begin expertise, with the City of Burlington, HCHC
streamlining operations to mitigate the and Halton Region sharing the costs. The best
incremental cost of growth. We had a number of news, though, is that it has saved the taxpayer
requirements. First, we wanted to implement an $2 million in implementation costs – another
enterprise resource planning (ERP) system so way we can demonstrate accountability to our
we could improve our financial, human capital constituents.
and operational processes. Secondly, only three
of our 20 full-time IT employees had financial [Halton] wanted to implement an
system skills, so we needed a solution that was
easy to use and required little support. enterprise resource planning (ERP) system
so it could improve its financial, human
After an open competitive RFP process, it
quickly became clear that SAP’s ERP solution
capital and operational processes.
was best suited to help us meet our current and
future operational needs. This first municipal Rolling out the fleet
implementation in North America was By 1998, Halton Region was maintaining a large
completed on-time and on-budget and marked fleet of police, ambulance, field trucks and
the beginning of our 14-year relationship with related vehicles. Unfortunately, timely data for
SAP. With an ERP system in place, authorized fleet performance was difficult to obtain from
employees can readily use analytics, financials, our existing processes. As the fleet size grew,
human resources, procurement, plant, fleet and our outdated legacy systems just couldn’t keep
operations services across the organization, up. Our clerks and mechanics had to work
which increases productivity and improves cost longer hours just to keep up with the tedious,
control. paper-intensive tasks, resulting in increased
costs and some very tired employees. Without
More than 467,200 people currently live in consolidated asset and maintenance data
Halton Region, Burlington, Halton Hills, Milton systems, managers couldn’t be sure they were
and Oakville. To support our anticipated growth working with current and reliable information.
and achieve economic prosperity in line with Information was often outdated or duplicated,
Ontario’s Places to Grow Act, our population and historical data for decision making was
must grow by 68 percent over the next 25 years. difficult to access and collate.
SAP offers us stable, transparent and robust
controls, helping us maintain our AAA credit After evaluating fleet-specific point solutions,
rating over the last 18 years. That, in turn, we implemented fleet management functionality
reduces the cost of capital for building our from SAP. It went live at the fleet’s two garages


in early 1999, giving us much-needed real-time Our fleet has doubled in size since 1998, but we
vehicle information that could be integrated with have only had to hire three additional employees
existing finance, supply chain, and HR processes to meet the growth. That is more efficient use of
– avoiding the need for costly point-solution our taxpayer’s dollars. The application’s relia -
interfaces. The fleet management system also bility and scalability translates into trouble -free
met our future integration needs for bar code and performance so we only require one in-house
data collection, mobile devices, and enterprise SAP business analyst, and ongoing IT support
portal access over the Internet. has been reduced to 15 percent of analyst time.

Automated work orders have now replaced Halton Region’s director of Asset Management,
manual processes. The increased efficiency of summed up the benefits like this: “Where the
the automated system has allowed us to increase rubber meets the road is in our ability to provide
our annual work order volume from 5,400 to safe and properly working vehicles to the
9,000 in just a few years. municipalities we serve. And we are. The SAP
functionality for fleet management is helping us
Authorized users requesting vehicle information meet that mission every day.”
now have it at their fingertips in an instant.
Mechanic “wrench on bolt time” has increased
up to 10 percent, minimizing non-productive
activities such as searching for vehicle and part
information.


Paving the path to asset reporting abilities and ensure greater accuracy of our data.
With success of the ERP and fleet management With SAP BusinessObjects’ business
projects, Halton turned its attention to asset intelligence, data transformation and reporting
reporting. To enhance confidence in public tools in place, we can quickly find any data
sector reporting, the Public Sector Accounting irregularities so they can be addressed
Board (PSAB) now requires every municipality immediately. Information accuracy is increasing,
in Canada to account for and put a value on and our employees have confidence in the
every road, sewer line, park facility and other decisions they make based on the information at
assets, including the original capital cost of each their fingertips.
asset and its amortized value based on the life of
the asset. Compliance is mandatory. If assets
aren’t clearly inventoried, our debt rating could Lessons learned
be adversely affected. With 1,800 of Halton Region’s 2,000 employees
using SAP in their daily work, we can
SAP Canada and Halton worked together confidently say that it’s been an effective and
to develop a solution that would help position valuable partnership. SAP is one of the most
our municipality for compliance with PSAB stable vendors in our application portfolio. They
mandates. We ran a series of workshops to are responsive to market sectors, including the
determine and refine our requirements and municipal space, more so than some of other
integrated Loki Innovations’ Real-Time Asset EPR vendors, and that’s one of the many reasons
Value Analysis (RIVA ™) software and other why we continue to invest in SAP.
third-party applications. SAP hired IDS Scheer
Canada and Clockwork Inc. to configure and Many Canadian municipalities are sharing
support project management services. similar IT success stories, which is why it’s so
important to reach out to them for advice. The
We went live with the PSAB IT solution in 2008 community is incredibly open about sharing
– well before the mandated deadline. It has intellectual property and best practices.
enhanced our ability to take accurate inventory Municipalities will even share code at no cost
of our infrastructure. We can calculate because, quite frankly, we’re not in competition
depreciation and track and record asset with each other like in the private sector. There’s
maintenance in real time. We’re able to track all probably a solution out there already, and likely
17 asset classes across the organization. We are the owner of that solution will want to share it
saving $250,000 in internal accounting costs with you at little or no cost.
annually because we don’t need three
accountants to do the work the solution And don’t forget to contact to the Municipal
automates. To boot, Halton Region is the first Information Systems Association (MISA). You
municipality in Canada to be able to achieve all can each to out to the MISA membership
this with an ERP solution. whenever you have any questions. Talk to your
counterparts often and learn from their
This year, Halton Region is working again with experiences, because communication is the
SAP to further refine our decision making vehicle that opens doors – especially for those
new to the municipal IT experience.

Ralph Blauel is the director of Information Technology for Halton Region in Ontario.


What can we
learn
from

Ontario’s eHealth
procurement process?

by Andrew Miller

The recent news about how Ontario’s eHealth This article will provide you with background
has conducted some of its procurement is information on what eHealth did and why, and
disturbing to many. More than $15 million in what can be learned from the situation. Hope-
consulting contracts were awarded without a fully the pointers offered for going forward will
competitive process. Those in the private sector bring some comfort to those in the public sector
are thinking, “What is the big deal? We do that that may be unsure of what they can and cannot
all of the time.” However, public sector do within the scope of public procurement.
organizations, like eHealth, spend tax payers’
money and are subject to scrutiny that private Before going any further, it is important to clear
companies cannot imagine. So even though, in up some of the facts that many publications have
the case of eHealth, we are talking about only forgotten about, chose to conveniently ignore, or
$15 million in contracts for an organization that
is responsible for a budget of over $700 million
per year, it is a big deal.


did not know about. I will discuss some of these the ineffectiveness of eHealth’s predecessor
in more detail later in the article: organization, the Smart Systems for Health
• Government procurement policies allow Agency (SSHA), by moving forward with
for awarding of contracts without conviction and strategic direction. It will be
competition in specific circumstances interesting to see how (and if) eHealth can
and urgent need is one of those recover from this period of bad publicity
circumstances; resulting from scrutiny of some of its
• The eHealth Board of Directors and its procurement practices and continue its mandate
CEO inherited an organization that had of reducing wait times and moving to electronic
spent more than $650 million over the patient records.
previous 5 years with virtually nothing
to show for it and had a reputation as an I will not disagree that some of the procurement
ineffective organization; and guidelines were relaxed in some of the decisions
• They brought on consultants with made by eHealth and that generally, a com-
experience in implementing electronic petitive tendering process provides the best
health records and the rates that they benefit for the buying organization. Competitive
paid are the going rates for top tendering processes will certainly make the
consultants in any field. They needed environment more transparent; it is, however,
the best to get eHealth back on track. much more time-consuming and labour
intensive. Unfortunately, the actions of the
A typical competitive process takes a minimum organization has caused the public to shift their
of 2-3 months, depending on the size and scope focus from the objective of eHealth and ways to
of the engagement. By going to competitive make the eHealth organization more effective to
tender for every initiative, many smaller, easier the “$1.65 coffee and doughnut.”
to implement initiatives would be delayed by
weeks if not months. It is for this reason that So what could eHealth have done to avoid this
most procurement policies have a provision that situation? Here are three things eHealth officials
allows an organization to engage services for could have done:
urgent needs where it is in the public’s best
interest to bypass the competit ive process. This, 1. Ensured that there was backup
of course, only applies when companies being documentation to justify why they were
awarded the untendered contracts are compliant single sourcing from these consulting
with identified requirements and the companies companies. This would include the level
are qualified to do the work. These provisions of experience, any unique expertise and
usually have an approval process where backup the specific value that these companies
documentation is required. have, their ability to implement more
quickly than others as well as the impact
In my view, the eHealth officials were well of having to wait to make a decision as
within the scope of their responsibilities to compared to starting immediately;
exercise these provisions to begin work quickly 2. Been more transparent and formal about
on their mandate of implementing electronic what the consultants were being hired to
health records quickly and properly. I don’t do. This would have required more
think anyone can argue against the fact that specific documentation on scope of
eHealth needed to make some successful strides responsibilities, accountabilities, desired
quickly, and were given a mandate to do so. The outcomes, etc.; and
executives at eHealth were trying to make up for 3. Spent more time ensuring support from
the various stakeholders, including the


Ontario Ministry of Health and Long- not something that a lot of people know about ...
Term Care. This would have raised any they just read the bad press and come to think of
issues earlier in the process and possibly it as yet another scandal … yet more bad
avoided the controversy that ensued. It management and waste by ineffective govern-
certainly would have helped to avoid the ments. Public sector procurement staff are so
finger-pointing and blame game that is scrutinized and so quickly condemned for their
going on now. actions that consequently it could soon become
difficult to attract people into these positions.
What can we learn from this controversy? After all why should we expect people to choose
• Be transparent in your decision-making to work in an environment where they are often
and know the policies that you need to publicly berated and blamed for everything, and
follow. This is applicable for any often without the full facts being known or
organization, but especially important understood?
for organizations funded by the public
sector. There is a balance to everything. I think that
• Have backup documentation for all Ontario’s eHealth situation has shown that we
decisions that you make in case they are are sometimes too quick to react before finding
disputed. This means that you should out the facts. That does not bode well for the
always assume that you are going to eHealth organization, which has already spent
need to justify the decision to someone, too much money and is too far behind schedule.
so be prepared.
• Know the environment that you are in The key point is to remember that any buying
and adjust to it. Make sure your primary decision made in the public sector will need to
stakeholders are on board and be aware be justified to someone. As long as you have a
of the public perception of what your defensible position and the appropriate docu-
organization is doing. mentation, you will be able justify the decision
that was made and how it was made.
Moving forward, the eHealth situation has
brought the subject of public procurement to the
forefront of people’s minds. Unfortunately, it is
Reprinted with permission. © Andrew Miller

Andrew Miller is president of ACM Consulting Inc (www.acmconsulting.ca). For more than a decade, Andrew has
been providing valuable operational and procurement advice to companies of all sizes around the globe, with a focus
on bottom line results. Sometimes referred to as the Procurement Guru™, Andrew has been featured in Canadian
newspapers and magazines and in several books. Andrew has an International MBA with majors in Logistics and
Marketing from the Schulich School of Business in Toronto. He is an active speaker and writer and can be reached
at andrew@acmconsulting.ca.


A
house bailiwick by which they were elected or in
which they reside, or any other person or entity,
or the special interest group or cause of the

divided moment, save and except that they may do so in
a manner consistent with these fundamental
duties to the municipal corporation for which
they serve. It is particularly critical that the
by Steve Bauld and Kevin McGuinness exclusivity of staff and council responsibilities be
made both express and manifest in relation to the
purchasing function. While the directors and
officers of a corporation cannot ignore the legal
Municipalities are a kind of corporation. It is rights of the persons with whom a business
therefore interesting to compare the corporation deals, the law is quite clear that
responsibilities imposed upon the directors and when the foregoing duties are said to be owed to
officers of a business corporation with those that the “corporation” by that is meant the
are imposed upon the city council and staff of a shareholders of the corporation from time to
municipality. In the case of the former, time. Thus, in the case of a business cor-
subsection 134(1) of the Ontario Business poration, there is an undivided duty of loyalty to
Corporations Act provides that every director the corporation, and a clear identification of the
and officer of a corporation in exercising his or corporation with a specific set of stakeholders.
her powers and discharging his or her duties to
the corporation shall, Nevertheless, no comparable certainty of
purpose exists in the case of a municipal
(a) act honestly and in good faith corporation. Ontario’s Municipal Act contains
with a view to the best interests of no analogue to subsection 134(1). Instead of
the corporation; and directing the council and staff to further one
(b) exercise the care, diligence and clear purpose, such as the best interests of the
skill that a reasonably prudent municipality, they are variously directed “to be
person would exercise in responsible and accountable governments,” and
comparable circumstances. “to enhance the municipality’s ability to respond
to municipal issues.” Section 244 of the Act
This, we would submit, is the same standard as directs the council,
should guide both councillors and municipal staff.
They are there to represent and to further the (a) to represent the public and to
interests of the municipality as a collective entity. consider the well-being and interests
They are not there to represent or assist local of the municipality;
business, local workers, the ward or other


(b) to develop and evaluate the policies The interests of the public are not paramount;
and programs of the municipality; they are merely to be considered.
(c) to determine which services the
municipality provides; Even the public itself is an ambiguous entity. In
(d) to ensure that administrative policies, various parts of the Act, the municipality is
practices and procedures and identified not only with the “public,” but with its
controllership policies, practices and electors, its residents or inhabitants, and its
procedures are in place to implement ratepayers. Moreover, whereas the staff of a
the decisions of council; business corporation are ultimately accountable
(d.1) to ensure the to the same shareholders as the directors, the
accountability and staff of a municipality are directed by section
transparency of the 277 of the Municipal Act to act in a supporting
operations of the municipality, capacity to the municipal council – as if the
including the activities of the council on the one hand had some identity or
senior management of the interest separate and apart from the municipality
municipality; on the other.
(e) to maintain the financial integrity of
the municipality; and The divided loyalty imposed by the Municipal
(f) to carry out the duties of council Act itself on municipal corporations permeates
under this or any other Act. every aspect of municipal operations. At many
municipalities, this divided loyalty is further
Such diverse responsibilities raise the question of complicated by municipal bylaws, which add
whether the public, whose well-being and even more subject areas with which staff must
interests are required to be represented under be concerned. It is not difficult to see how such
clause (a) constitute a separate line of confusion came about.
responsibility from the “policies and programs”
that council are directed to develop and evaluate Section 271(1)(b) of the Municipal Act, 2001
under clause (b), the services that they are to (now repealed) required a municipal
provide under clause (c) and so forth. In a procurement policy to specify the goals to be
business corporation, the very business that the achieved by using each type of procurement
corporation conducts is incidental to the process. The wording of some municipal by-laws
underlying obligation of furthering the best in itself often suggests some confusion on the
interests of the corporation – that is of its part of council as to whether the municipality is
shareholders. The business is a means to an end. there for the advancement of the interests of its
Taking Section 244 at face value, in the case of residents or its suppliers. For instance, one
a municipal corporation, both the governance Ontario region sets out 12 purposes, goals and
structure – under clauses (d), (d.1) and (e) – and objectives that are to underlie the execution of
the programs and services that the municipality the purchasing function for that region. The bias
provides, each seem to be autonomous areas of in the list of such purposes towards being fair to
concern, distinct in some way from the public. suppliers (as opposed to driving a hard deal for
the benefit of taxpayers) is self-evident.


“The purposes, goals and objectives of this By- In a sense, this is shocking – for it is contrary to
law and of each of the methods of Purchasing virtually every principle of corporate governance
authorized herein are: for the staff of a corporate entity to be told to
a) to encourage competitive bidding; place more or the same emphasis on defending
b) to ensure objectivity and integrity in the the rights of others as they are told to place on
Purchasing process; defending the rights and interests of their
c) to ensure fairness between bidders; employers.
d) to maximize savings for taxpayers;
e) to offer a variety of Purchasing methods, Bylaws that put the interests of suppliers on a
and to use the most appropriate method par with or ahead of the interests of the
depending on the particular municipality appear to be inconsistent with
circumstances of the acquisition; sections 2 and 8 of the Municipal Act, which
f) to the extent possible, to ensure indicate that the purpose of municipal purchasing
openness, accountability and policies and procedures is, or ought to be, to get
transparency while protecting the best the best deal possible for the municipality, taking
interests of the Corporation and the into account the need to formalize purchasing
taxpayers of the Regional Municipality procedures in order to mitigate the risk of
of Niagara; employee misconduct.
g) to obtain the best value for the
Corporation when procuring Goods and
Services.”


They also fly in the face of commercial common rejected, in order to give precedence to the
sense. In buying goods and services, a needs or interests of suppliers. The problem is
municipality is simply a consumer. Our entire that a provision such as the one set out above
economic system is based upon the notion of simply reinforces that attitude. By placing so
autonomous traders and customers, each much emphasis on supplier interest in its own
carrying on business with a view towards his or purchasing bylaw, the municipality reinforces the
her own best interest. Essentially, for everyone approach that the courts have taken. Thus, when
else than a supplier to the public sector, a trader, litigation arises in relation to some aspect of
consultant, builder or other supplier of goods and procurement, any court that looks at the
services is entitled to no better treatment from its municipality’s own purchasing bylaw will see
customers than its market strength allows it to clear direction given, not only to take supplier
exact. Not so with the supplier to a municipality; interests into account, but (if the ordering of the
staff are instructed not to try to drive the price section is intended to give any direction) to place
down, but rather “to encourage competitive fairness to suppliers ahead of the interests of
bidding; … to ensure objectivity and integrity in taxpayers.
the purchasing process; [and] … to ensure
fairness between bidders.” Only when these Such over-emphasis on supplier interests
steps have been taken, is any thought to be given entrenches a division of loyalty as a matter of
to the taxpayer. law. Instead of being directed to put the interests
of the municipality first, the municipal staff are
Nevertheless, one can hardly blame a municipal being directed to make sure that its suppliers are
council that becomes confused as to the direction fairly treated.
to take when identifying the duties of municipal
staff. If one reads through the hundreds of A house divided, so the Bible tells us, cannot
judicial decisions that have been handed down in stand. Maybe it is time for municipal councils to
recent years with respect to the subject of take a good hard look at their purchasing by-laws
municipal procurement, it is rare to find a case in to see whether they are diverting staff from best
which the idea of putting the municipality (or serving the interest of the municipality as a
other public authority) first is even mentioned. corporate entity.

On the other hand, it is possible to find quite a bit
of case law in which the idea is implicitly

Steve Bauld spent many years as purchasing manager at the City of Hamilton and served recently as vice president
of the Ontario General Contractors Association.
Kevin McGuinness is a lawyer with Ontario’s Attorney General.

Together they have collaborated on several books about procurement and leadership, and will have a new edition of
the Municipal Procurement Handbook released this fall. They are regular contributors to Summit magazine.


Automated language translation … a solution to public sector communication requirements

Empfohlen

Empfohlen

Weitere ähnliche Inhalte

Ähnlich wie Automated language translation … a solution to public sector communication requirements

Ähnlich wie Automated language translation … a solution to public sector communication requirements (20)

Automated language translation … a solution to public sector communication requirements