• 2004 Winners and Runners-Up
• 2005 Winners and Runners-Up

1. Public Value/Electronic Service Delivery
This award recognizes an achievement of particular public benefit related to an innovative advancement of information technology systems design. This will often but not always involve delivering existing or new government services electronically to internal or external clients. It may include innovative web development.

a) Projects Under $1M
Winner: Chronic Disease Management (CDM) Toolkit - #20040813084408
Ministry of Health Services - Primary Health Care and Rural Policy

The CDM is a secure, Web-based clinical quality improvement application, supporting doctors and health care teams to use best practices in caring for patients with chronic diseases. It was developed in conjunction with leading practitioners in the Province. The toolkit provides a simple, yet "function-rich" set of tools to assist in the development of better care for British Columbians. Its reach is significant, in that it does not require significant high-end technology to use, and makes use of best practices and tools the practitioners are already familiar with. CDM was selected because of its approach to development; its reach and impact to health care in British Columbia, and its innovative use of technologies to reach the maximum number of practitioners possible.

Runner up: Land Titles Electronic Filing Service (EFS) - #20040908132650
Ministry of Sustainable Resource Management - Land Information Services Division

EFS represents an excellent use of existing technologies to remove barriers and manual paper/based processes formerly required for the completion of land transactions within BC. It empowers the end-users (the homeowners and lawyers involved in land transactions) to directly submit documents for processing and approval, and allows for timely response to filing and approvals. It is an excellent example of e-government -- bringing services directly to the public.

b) Projects Over $1 Million:
Winner: Corporate Online - #20040914111707
Corporate Registry

Corporate Online is the culmination of a project to not only move services out to the public using internet technologies, but to completely rewrite the legislation and business processes surrounding that service, in order to facilitate making it easier and more suitable for electronic provision. The project -- to provide a web-site where individuals or businesses could create new corporations or update information on existing ones -- required the coordination of a large number of players under very strict deadlines, and a user community which would not be tolerant of undue delays, or a site which was difficult to use. Corporate Online succeeded on both points -- completing the project on-time, and providing a system which, according to the users themselves, is surprisingly easy to use and reduces their workload significantly.

Runner up: INSIGHT Decision Support System - #20040915091833
Ministry of Provincial Revenue

INSIGHT is a Decision Support System that provides analysis, reporting, performance management, and planning for over 400 users within the Ministry of Provincial Revenue. It has transformed the Ministry into a centralized, efficient, consistent, and electronic-based practice, changing the culture from budget management to one of performance management. INSIGHT has allowed the organization to become more effective and provide better taxpayer services, by maximizing revenue and empowering end-users to follow a self-service model, putting the information in the hands of the people that need it.

2. Excellence in Project Management
This award recognizes projects and project teams that have successfully applied the art, science and philosophy of project management.

Winner: CAS Oracle 11i Upgrade - #20040818114900
Corporate Accounting Services (CAS)

By June 2001 the BC Government had successfully incorporated all ministries into a single corporate financial application. During the next year, benefits such as, more efficient corporate reporting and faster employee travel reimbursement, were realized. In November 2001, the Province continued to leverage its investment by undertaking the Oracle 11i Project which upgraded the corporate financial application to the newest release of Oracle.

The CAS Oracle 11i Project was launched primarily in response to growing stakeholder expectations and a desire to achieve the vision for an automated, streamlined, procure-to-pay business cycle. Oracle technology would be used as the catalyst for changing the existing model and challenging the status quo. Once the 11i upgrade was complete, strategic initiatives could then be launched for a modern financial control framework, electronic catalogue for goods and services, single sign-on, and expansion of iExpenses to include other employee reimbursements, over and above those associated with travel.

To achieve a successful upgrade, expertise was required in technical, functional, business and change management areas. As 11.5.8 was the latest version from Oracle, there was limited expertise available and Oracle continued to make changes to the release, by developing and providing patches to assist clients using the new technology. A unique blend of knowledge of the latest Oracle technology and the Province of BC's business requirements was required. What set this project apart was the minimal number of project issues that arose, given its size and complexity. In depth pre-planning combined with solid project management, contingency planning, stakeholder management and a strong project team expedited a successful upgrade with minimal disruption or inconvenience to CAS clients.

Runner Up: Single Business Number Project - #20040914222457
OneStop Business Registry

The Single Business Number Project (SBN) was an inter-jurisdictional partnership resulting in the implementation of a technical infrastructure which facilitates the adoption of a common identifier and significantly enhances the integrated OneStop business registration and address change services for all BC businesses while reducing unnecessary red tape. It is an excellent illustration of how governments can work together to benefit both the public and agencies involved.

The SBN Project was an extremely complex e-government project that employed innovation and change across federal and provincial governments from a business, policy and technical perspective. The project was driven to a successful conclusion in a time of changing government priorities, reduced budgets and downsizing, yet it was delivered on time, on budget and within scope. The success of the project is a testament to the strong commitment and priority given by all participants and each of the partner agencies. The implementation of a common identifier for BC businesses and the resulting enhancements to the OneStop Business Registry services provides a foundation for service improvements to business and entrepreneurs in the future.

3. Innovative Team Development
This award recognizes project teams that have used innovative or new techniques to foster project team development, demonstrating successful application and related skills transfer of the techniques.

Winner: Implementing Alternative Service Delivery through Joint Solution Procurement - #20040914140013
ASD Secretariat, MSER

The Government of British Columbia has committed to a transformation in the way services are delivered to the people of British Columbia. The Alternative Service Delivery (ASD) project uses a groundbreaking approach, teaming up with private sector and their proven expertise in complex projects. The ASD project enhances service to the public and will generate a savings of $400 million over ten years. The project is following the steps required for success by the Project Management Institute (PMI).

The project has a well written Charter and adheres to the code of Professional Responsibility, as required by the PMI. It shows a format and detail for monitoring the project's success. There is a plan in the project for continued improvement through the coordination of information and the documentation of lessons learned along with a format for continued best practices.

Runner Up: Education Data Warehouse - #20040915104142
BC Ministry of Education - Information Department

The Ministry of Education has undertaken a project to provide an easy-to-use data warehouse that can be accessed by a large number of users with varied skill levels. The information coordinated by the project originally came from ten different sources. The design for the Education Data Warehouse came from knowledgeable stakeholders who directly benefit from its success. The Education Data Warehouse will ultimately include a website for the public to query information much faster then before.

To date, the project has proven its success through its useful reports and by reducing the time required to transfer information to end users. It also has a built in plan to ensure the continued success of the Education Data Warehouse after the project ends by setting weekly meetings to discuss issues and to address process improvements.

4. 2004 Special Category Award: Multi-jurisdictional projects
This award recognizes the development and implementation of an IT solution that involved more than one government jurisdiction (e.g. municipality, district or province). One jurisdiction can have led the project, but the other(s) must have had an active part in the development.

Winner: CDM Toolkit - #20040907151742
Ministry of Health Services - Primary Health Care and Rural Policy

Runner Up: Land Titles Electronic Filing System - #20040908132817
Land Information Services Division, Ministry of Sustainable Resource Management

2005 Winners and Runners-Up 

1. Team Development:
This award recognizes project teams that have used innovative or new techniques to foster project team development and have demonstrated success by producing outstanding project outputs and outcomes.

Included in the judges' examination are the project's new techniques and skills and the potential contribution to recruitment, retention and organizational effectiveness

Winner: The Integrated Land Resource Registry (ILRR) Integrated Land Management Bureau, Ministry of Agriculture and Lands, Victoria 20050908163755-2005

ILRR was undertaken in 2001 in response to the Premier of British Columbia's instruction to the Minister of Sustainable Resource Management to create a central registry for all tenures and other legal encumbrances on Crown land and resources.

The first deployment of a fully operational ILRR has been delivered containing data that was available from interest granting agencies in electronic form. The project was delivered on time and on budget in April 2005.

From the beginning, a key success factor was the use of team development best practices. The challenge in creating the ILRR was that there are over 240 different types of Crown land and resource interests that are managed by 19 different provincial rights granting agencies and stored in 20 different operational systems plus paper records. Thus, success was based on the following:

• Ongoing consultation and communication using a variety of strategies.
• Modeling openness and transparency on project decision making and progress.
• Engaging partner agencies and stakeholder representatives at all levels throughout the lifecycle of the project.
• Minimizing the ILRR's impact on partner ministries and agencies by maintaining their local decision making process and without increasing their cost of doing business.

Runner-up: Ministry of Forests and Ministry of Sustainable Resource Management, INCOSADA Replacement Project, 20050909160343

The purpose of INCOSADA was to manage forest tenure and vegetation spatial and attribute date. As INCOSADA no longer was meeting the Ministries' business needs the INCOSADA Replacement Project was launched jointly by SRM and Forests.

Throughout the entire project, a joint team focused on providing the necessary skills and worked closely with stakeholders.

Benefits included the following:

• Increased efficiency with all tenures captured by a standard process.
• Reduced costs by leveraging existing "out of the box" applications and by reducing contract services to process electronic submissions.
• Provided extensive training and skills to staff.
• Integrated Forest data with other Government data through common standards.

By its completion in 2002, INCOSADA enabled data to be continually updated at source rather than at headquarters.

2. Performance Management:
Performance Management refers to the planning and strategies required to identify and create a desired result that directly relate to a public benefit. This award recognizes an achievement that builds upon the alignment of management systems in order to focus on results through performance measurement, innovative flexibility, and public reporting, while adhering to traditional public sector values and ethics.

The award candidates are assessed upon the following principles articulated by the Auditor General of British Columbia, in his report, "MANAGING FOR RESULTS: BALANCING PROCESS WITH CULTURE, CAPACITY AND THE PROPER CONDUCT OF PUBLIC BUSINESS" (August 27, 2003).

"Public organizations that are results-based identify the results they want to achieve as well as the strategies they need to achieve them. They align management systems, build capacity to meet their objectives and promote a management culture that supports the focus on results. They monitor and measure their performance, learn from their efforts, make adjustments as necessary and report publicly on their performance. An environment is cultivated where managers and staff are not constrained by unnecessary rules and innovation is encouraged to meet expected results. And they do all this while adhering to traditional public sector values and ethics, such as political neutrality, fairness, prudence and probity, and newer values such as responsiveness and quality service."

Managing for results refers to a change in management focus away from activities to the results or outcomes of those activities.

Winner: City of Surrey, Planning & Development Department City's Archival Records System (CARS) 20050908171835

Stakeholder participation and collaboration, strong project management and thorough preliminary homework made for a successful implementation of the new CARS system to store and retrieve building records and plans. Key achievements were drastically reduced costs, time, and effort required to apply for building permits. The approach resulted in the quick and enthusiastic adoption of a new system by the users. Significant performance benefits were not only realized by the City of Surrey, but also by their external stakeholders, for example BCAA. Other municipalities are actively reviewing to see if the successful City of Surrey system will fit their needs.

Runner up: Ministry of Education, British Columbia Enterprise Student Information System (BCeSIS) 20050912104208

An extensive project over 4 years to identify, purchase and implement a common shared student information system in schools across the province. BCeSIS has transformed information management in BC k-12 providing real benefits in addressing issues including student performance, transfer of records, enrolment data, drop out rates, absenteeism, etc. Parents and students benefit through online access to student and school data 24/7. BCeSIS is among the most advanced student data management systems in North America.

3. Innovative Collaboration:
Collaboration for public service delivery refers to the reciprocal support that two or more distinct public sector agencies, or public and private administrations, including the Broader Public Sector, provide each other in order to deliver a "public" service, i.e. one that is part of the government's mission. This award recognizes complex stakeholder relationships (internal and external initiatives) that demonstrate efficiencies and results based outcomes where they would not be possible by a single entity.

Winner: Mineral Titles Online Project - Electronic Banking Branch, Provincial Treasury, Ministry of Finance, Province of British Columbia, 20050908134621

Mineral Titles Online (MTO) was launched on January 12, 2005 as the new mineral title registry system in BC, incorporating the acquisition and maintenance of mineral and placer titles with e-commerce and online transmission of information.

In addition to the business specific Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources Ministry, MTO represents confirmation of the success of an innovative and collaborative development approach to governance. MEMPR worked to develop functional partnerships with the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Management Services CITS and Service BC, Ministry of Sustainable Resource Management IMB and Registry. MTO benefits both the Government and the public through its reduction of government overhead and administration costs, while saving customers time and money.

With the implementation of MTO, free miners now have 24-hour-per-day, 365-days-per-year, full access to the first comprehensive full service mineral titles program. In this regard, British Columbia is leading all other national and international mining jurisdictions. Any computer in the world that is connected to the Internet will allow the mineral exploration and mining sector the ability to:

• Access 450 layers of data
• Access up to the minute titles map and attribute data
• Acquire mineral and placer claims
• Record work or make a payment instead of work
• Transfer an interest in a title
• Carry out several title-related functions
• Pay for associated fees using a secure electronic payment function

Runner Up: Common Disbursement System Project Post Secondary Finance, 20050908154801

The Ministries of Education and Advanced Education process payments to Education partners in the order of six billion dollars a year, to over 450 unique recipients. A funding system of this magnitude must have significant financial control, complex reporting, and robust functionality to meet the needs of all users. With close to 1,000 users throughout the province, all with different information needs, collaboration is a key in creating a globally accepted product.

The CDS Project was launched primarily to address financial control concerns expressed in an OCG review of existing procedures within the Ministry of Education, and the desire to achieve the strategic vision for an automated, streamlined application to generate CAS payments, with a robust reporting facility for recipients. Building on an existing framework of custom built Oracle solutions within the Ministry; CDS was able to leverage existing application components, data structures, and methodologies. Strategically, CDS was able to meet the needs of both the business area and the technology branch. A pre-release financial controls audit performed by OCG also confirmed that CDS has been able to address all financial control concerns.

The critical nature of CDS sets this project apart from many others undertaken within the Ministries. It also marks the first major success in collaboration between the two Education focused Ministries. The success of CDS paves the way for further collaboration and cost sharing between Ministries. The CDS project also supports government's objective of inclusion of school districts, universities, colleges and health authorities/societies (the SUCH sector) in Governments Budget and Reporting Framework by enhancing information sharing and linkage between government and the educational side of the SUCH Sector (school districts, independent schools and Post Secondary Institutions).

4. Excellence in Information Sharing
Information sharing is very often critical for real business transformation and service improvement. Ownership, governance and management arrangements for multi-agency resources, systems and processes need to be agreed and the mechanisms for sustainability identified. This award recognizes the achievement of multiple agencies working inter-dependently to create the infrastructure to facilitate effective and appropriate information sharing in the realization of a public benefit.

Collaboration for public service delivery refers to the reciprocal support that two or more distinct public sector agencies, or public and private administrations, including the Broader Public Sector, provide each other in order to deliver a "public" service, i.e. one that is part of the government's mission. This award recognizes complex stakeholder relationships (internal and external initiatives) that demonstrate efficiencies and results based outcomes where they would not be possible by a single entity.

Winner: British Columbia Enterprise Student Information System, BC Ministry of Education, BC School Districts, BC Independent Schools, 20050912104225

The Ministry of Education, in partnership with the voluntary participation of 53 (out of 60) BC school districts representing over 500,000 students and 71 independent BC schools have developed the web-based British Columbia Enterprise Student Information System (BCeSIS). The system addresses the fact that many current student information systems are unable to keep pace with school and school board management needs, ministry funding and reporting requirements and increasing demands for timely information from parents and the public. The system provides:

• Access to a central student registry and permanent student record;
• Reduces administrative burdens on schools;
• Enables flexibility and choice by better tracking students who take courses in multiple schools; and
• Creates an integrated network to manage student enrolment and the movement of student records.

Currently the system has been deployed to 224 schools representing over 60,000 students utilizing a significant portion of the functionality in the system. In early September, over 25,000 logins occurred within a week.

Runner-Up: Integrated Land Management Bureau, Ministry of Agriculture and Lands, 20050908164542

Historically, disparate information and land management systems that support land and resource management in BC evolved independently over the past century resulting in 20 different operational systems plus paper records handling over 240 different types of Crown land and resource interests that are managed by 19 different provincial rights granting agencies. The Integrated Land and Resource Registry Project (ILRR) was undertaken to create a central registry for all land tenures and other legal encumbrances on Crown land and resources in BC. The ILLR was intended to:

• Support the effective management of 95 million hectares (235 million acres) of land and water on behalf of all British Columbians;
• Enhance the decision process efficiency with publicly owned land and resources;
• Reduce risk in decision making;
• Provide a more competitive business climate to foster investment; and
• Improve the delivery of information services to clients.

Currently a fully operational system with data from the northeast of BC has been deployed to government and known external users. Future deployment includes rollout to the public, more data availability and improved functionality.

5. Builders:
In this category nominees are already be recognized and respected by their peers as leaders and developers in the use of IT in the public sector.

Individual Award Winner: Mr. Everette Surgenor, retired Superintendent of Schools, School District No. 20 (Kootenay-Columbia), 20050909134557

Mr. Everette Surgenor demonstrated himself a visionary leader in education who believed with a passion that technology was the key to broadening learning for students in the province, and beyond.

Everette worked tirelessly over the past 6 years to convince local and provincial politicians and agencies such as the Ministry of Education and Provincial Learning Network (PLNET) of the value of linking schools with high capacity fibre-optic cable. After his official retirement in 2003 he continued his efforts which resulted in the formation of CMON Inc. (Columbia Mountain Open Network Inc.) in 2003. This outstanding achievement has resulted in all Columbia-Kootenay district schools having the fibre cables installed, with the full network to be lit over the coming months.

Most notably, through Everette's contribution and advocacy efforts six million dollars of seed funding was received in grants from Canada Broadband Pilot Project for infrastructure for School District 20, and CMON was recognized as part of the Premier's Technology Council Pilot Project to connect all government offices, schools and colleges with the dedicated high speed fibre optic network. The SD20 network is also recognized as a major backbone for connecting the communities and businesses together in this widely disbursed region and the lessons learned are being applied to other areas within the Columbia Kootenay businesses.

Additionally, Mr. Surgenor contributed to the Columbia Kootenay School District 20's partnership with the private sector to deliver real-time, interactive teaching to students in Korea, Russia and other international destinations. A recent pilot project employed live video and audio teaching to students in Korea.

And lastly, Mr. Surgenor has worked with Nova University in Florida to develop specialized courses to train teachers across Canada and in the United States in new strategies for e-teaching and e-learning.

Builder - Project Award Winner: Elections BC, Online Voter Registration System, 20050912161348

This project demonstrated success to the public it serves, the use of secure technology, and an effective new service, unique in the country and in North America. With increasing pressures on government budgets and citizens demanding improved services from the government, Elections BC set about using the power of the Internet to allow citizens to register their eligibility to vote.

This project was undertaken in partnership with EDS Canada.

In researching the impact of this system, there was plenty of anecdotal evidence from the public, supporting the impact this project has made.

One of the most lasting impressions of the success of this project was the impact it had on attracting the young voter to register, where former voting statistics across Canada indicated a lack of young voter (18 to 24) participation in the voting process, and the importance of exercising their democratic rights in having their voice heard.

In speaking with a retired senior citizen, who was out of the country when voter registration was conducted in the election previous to May 2005, they were left off the voter's list. When they returned to Canada they were able to very quickly register online just prior to the election and eliminate the time consuming process of having to register manually. Additionally, other cases researched also effectively corroborated the ease of use of the online voter registration process. Voters preferred using online voter registration to any other method by a 3:1 ratio.

The new online voter registration process allowed Elections BC to deliver a province wide enumeration for under $4 million, representing estimated taxpayer savings of over $11 million compared to a traditional door-to-door enumeration.