Canadian Government Executive - Volume 25 - Issue 02

April/May 2019// Canadian Government Executive / 9 DIGITAL GOVERNMENT organizations. The bottom line is, Govern- ment is responsible to ensure services are provided – this does not mean the Govern- ment needs to be the provider of all these services. Part of the solution is in policy. The Gov- ernment needs a policy where it will play roles such as developer or systems inte- grator on a by-exception basis and pursue commercial solutions and development, with in-house development as a last resort. The policy would establish an appropriate level above which this policy would be in effect (e.g., projects with a total cost above $250,000). Proper business cases should be required to guide decision making with Government-provided options as a base- line. Departments should stick to their core competencies. SSC is the only depart- ment where IT is its core competency, therefore this policy must accommodate SSC’s role given it is the systems integra- tor and managed services provider for the Government. Partnering with Industry to Reduce Risk Partnering takes on several forms. Emo- tions aside, all stakeholders need to un- derstand the success of the Government to achieve its objectives is dependent on industry, and it is very unrealistic to be- lieve otherwise. It is impractical to think the Government would create its own telecommunications network instead of buying these services from a competitive market. This example can be extrapolated for the vast majority of Government needs. Relationships The further I progress in life, the more I understand how ultimately necessary and valuable relationships are to our suc- cess. Good relationships can fix anything.