“While the Sum of Change is a minefield of potential issues and problems for management; It is also the source of significant opportunities to cut costs, save time, improve quality, reduce organization vs. project conflict and enhance reputations. Here's why...” TLIR Group Thought Leadership Extract

Assignment Summary

John led a team with significant subject matter expertise in data warehousing, data classification, information/process re-engineering, Geographic and Spatial Information Systems and web based point and click interface design to define, build and articulate a business case for the use of Place Based Information Systems across multiple Provincial Government Ministry’s. 5 Deputy Ministers accepted John’s recommendations to proceed with Phase 2. The project sponsor wrote: “I want to take this opportunity to commend John on the creativity, innovation and thoroughly professional work habits of the team. The work was exceptional and the deliverables comprehensive. The working relationship was one of commitment based on mutual trust. The fact that the project was on time and within budget is a further attestation of John’s abilities.”

The Challenge

The team was tasked with defining the feasibility, scope and initial requirements for a Place Based Information Management System (PBIM) that would bring True Information Management to life through functionality that enables access to timely, accurate place based tabular data and geospatial maps in a powerful visual format that aids informed decision-making.

The results clearly defined the potential for PBIM, an internet enabled point, click and scroll interface overlaid on geospatial maps. The assessment spanned requirements for each of the major land / resource ministries with an emphasis on a single instance common information data store from existing databases across the Government and outside where possible and feasible. Consultations were held in each Ministry with operational, policy and support staff and included interviews with Deputy Ministers. For example; PBIM would provide the means to quickly and effectively answer questions posed by Ministers, Deputies, ADMs, EA and others about economic development in a place, community, area, region of the Province e.g. (What is happening in XXX?) by drawing on community profiles; health initiatives; sector performance; business location; claim fund; influencers; jobs created; economic outlook; briefing notes; and trend indicators sourced from existing databases.

PBIM would help the government make strategic decisions by answering basic questions used in evaluating alternatives and options.  It has the potential to pull together information horizontally across Ministries in an unprecedented way to aid decision-making, create efficiencies, optimize the use of currently collected information and enable Ministries to work together for common good.

The Findings

As a result of the consultations and research, the team were able to capture and classify comments and observations as either/or a Hot Button or a Pain Point - subjects that are of primary importance at the time of the meeting due to many requests for information are made about the subject or they are of particular (high) interest to the ministry OR subjects for which information is difficult to locate and/or unavailable.

In summary; the consultations and analysis captured 155 HOT BUTTONS and 147 PAIN POINTS.  By correlating what was stated about a Hot Button or Pain Point with what was known about the existence, absence , deficiency or unavailability of Information; the team consolidated the professed information requirements into SUBJECT AREAS (people, places, economic, facts, land use, etc.) that were of most interest to the ministries. The Subject Areas at the most granular level comprise well in excess of 300 Instances and, in order to bring focus upon the critical characteristics, the instances were consolidated into 16 Main Subject Areas.

In parallel to surveying the stakeholders for business requirements; the team examined a wide range of potential sources of information; assessing the varying quantity and quality, purpose of each information set/tool/system, where the information set/tool/system resides, and the primary purpose/use of the information set.

The team detailed each information set, its source(s), a brief description and a “relevance rating”. Within the context of assessing Potential Sources of Information for PBIM – Place Based Information Management – the team analyzed and ranked 435 Information Sets.

In summary, the team concluded:

A.      Place Based Information Management has the potential to cut through mountains of process specific Information; filtering, interrelating and highlighting Information independent of Process...

B.       Place Based Information Management can pinpoint key facts and figures about places, communities, areas and regions that would otherwise be buried, overlooked, ignored or taken for granted...

C.      The means by which place based information is presented to the viewer also provides incremental benefits by providing linkages between people, actions and events pertinent to the place, community, area or region…

These conclusions were supported by the following Key deliverables:

·         Definition of the different types of information sought on communities and geographic areas that would support strategic decision making

·         Prioritization of hot buttons and pain points as an assessment of value for each ministry

·         Evaluation of best practices in information management and data classification

·         Presentation of innovative examples of information displayed on geospatial maps

·         A wide, fast scan that asks questions of the key players, assesses their views (i.e. disciple, agnostic, atheist) awareness and understanding

·         Capture imagination and envisioned innovation from stakeholders of what works and what is possible

·         Overview of the current extent of data use in comparison to what is being anticipated and is relevant to GIS applications and what is required

·         Unified place based information management strategy for a spatial presentation layer with interfaces to underlying data warehouse(s)

·         Business requirements and opportunities therein expressed as a range of unified, place based information management possibilities.

·         Comprehensive research examples where spatial features are combined with tabular data e.g. (what, how, why, and cost) in both external environments and across the Government of Ontario.

·         Detailed Feasibility Report listing what is, what could be and what has to happen in order to move forward; presented as a range of options and alternatives.

·         Supporting these materials would be management discussion documents and presentation aids such as PowerPoint format overviews of business value and research findings.

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