Report to/Rapport au :
Audit Budget and
Finance Committee
Comité de la
vérification, du budget et des finances
and Council / et le Conseil
10 November 2009 / le 10 novembre 2009
Submitted by/Soumis par : Steve Kanellakos, Deputy City Manager/Directeur
municipal adjoint,
City Operations/Opérations
municipales
Contact Person/Personne-ressource
Donna Gray,
Director/directrice
Organizational
Development and Performance/Services du développement et du rendement
organisationnels, 613‑580‑2424, ext./poste 25684
SUBJECT:
|
SERVICE EXCELLENCE PLAN - INFORMATION
SUPPLEMENTAL TO THE BUDGET ESTIMATES |
|
|
|
OBJET :
|
PLAN D’EXCELLENCE DU SERVICE – RENSEIGNEMENTS
SUPPLÉMENTAIRES AUX PRÉVISIONS BUDGÉTAIRES |
REPORT RECOMMENDATIONS
1. That
the Audit, Budget and Finance Committee receive this report for information;
and
2. That
this report be forwarded to City Council as supplemental information to the
2010 Draft Budget, and tabled with City Council along with the 2010 Draft
Budget at its meeting of December 9, 2009.
RECOMMANDATIONS DU RAPPORT
1. Que
le Comité de la vérification, du budget et des finances prenne connaissance du
présent rapport; et
2. Que
le présent rapport soit transmis au Conseil à titre d’information
supplémentaire au budget préliminaire de 2010 et qu’il soit déposé au Conseil
avec le budget préliminaire de 2010 à sa réunion du 9 décembre 2009.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Citizens today have higher expectations of service levels from their government. Tightening budgets, changing demographics, growth and the expectation of citizens to have a choice on how they deal with their City are forcing governments to address the issue of public service delivery. Understanding this trend, Council developed their Strategic Plan, which identified service delivery as a priority. Additionally, in the spring of 2008, Council commissioned a Taskforce on e-government, which stressed technology as the key to maximizing efficiencies and service delivery.
With these in mind, the City has now developed a Service Excellence Plan, which will fundamentally transform how residents receive services from the City. It is a plan to deliver consistent, predictable, high quality information and services to our residents and to generate significant savings to the organization. Residents will be able to track and follow their service requests, register and pay for City programs, and find services and information through a one-stop, harmonized 3-1-1 and web-based system. Information will be organized and presented from the perspective of our residents who will have 24/7 access to services.
The plan includes nine (9) initiatives that leverage technology to not only achieve
improvements in service, but to also result in efficiency savings.
Although there are investments required to implement these initiatives,
all are based on sound business cases that show a positive return on
investment.
Service
Excellence is about changing the way services are received and perceived by the
customer. In order for this to occur,
the City must change the processes behind the service delivery to ensure that
they focus on customer needs. The
corporation has already made significant changes to its structure, which will
help us move towards Service Excellence. Our services are now grouped in ways
that make sense to our clients and that facilitate access to these services in
a timely, efficient and coordinated manner. Over the next 6 months, departments
will develop their own service excellence plans, which will focus on improving
the overall client experience, the engagement of employees and the operational
performance of the departments. In
support of both the corporate and departmental plans, work is underway to
establish baseline measurements for service areas in an effort to determine
progress toward improvement each year.
There are
a number of critical enablers to creating a client-centric organization. Two of
these are our people and the underlying technology we rely on to deliver
services. The City is in the process of developing a People Plan and has
developed a Technology Roadmap to support the overall Service Excellence
program.
Staff plan
to engage council, employees and citizens on a regular basis to ensure they are
informed and aligned with progress at regular intervals throughout the year.
RÉSUMÉ
De nos jours, les
résidents ont des attentes élevées en ce qui concerne le niveau de service
qu’ils reçoivent de leur Ville. Les budgets serrés, les changements
démographiques, la croissance et le fait que les résidents s’attendent à
pouvoir choisir la façon dont ils interagissent avec la fonction publique
municipale obligent les administrations à revoir la manière dont elles offrent
des services à la population. C’est avec cette tendance à l’esprit que le
Conseil municipal a élaboré son Plan stratégique, dans lequel la prestation des
services constitue une priorité. De plus, au printemps 2008, le Conseil a
demandé la formation d’un groupe de travail sur le gouvernement électronique,
lequel a souligné que la technologie est le facteur essentiel qui permettra de
maximiser les économies et la prestation des services.
En se fondant sur ces
principes, la Ville a élaboré un plan d’excellence du service qui transformera
en profondeur la façon dont elle offrira ses services aux résidents. Elle veut
fournir à la population de l’information et des services cohérents, fiables et
de haute qualité tout en réalisant d’importantes économies. Les résidents
pourront suivre l’évolution de leurs demandes de service, s’inscrire aux
programmes offerts par la Ville et payer les frais connexes ainsi que trouver
l’information et les services qu’ils cherchent par l’intermédiaire du 3-1-1 et
d’un système en ligne constituant un guichet unique bien coordonné.
L’information sera organisée et présentée en fonction des résidents, qui auront
accès aux services 24 heures sur 24, sept jours sur sept.
Le plan comporte neuf
initiatives qui miseront sur la technologie en vue non seulement d’améliorer
les services, mais aussi de réaliser des économies. Bien que leur mise en œuvre
exige un investissement, chacune d’entre elles est fondée sur une analyse de
rentabilisation qui prévoit un rendement positif du capital investi.
Pour atteindre
l'excellence en matière de service, il faut d’abord changer la façon dont les
services sont perçus et reçus par la clientèle. À cette fin, la Ville doit
modifier les processus de prestation des services afin qu’ils soient axés sur
les besoins du client. Elle a déjà apporté d’importants changements à sa
structure, ce qui l’aidera à s’acheminer vers l’excellence à ce chapitre. Les
Services (c’est-à-dire les divisions administratives) sont maintenant regroupés
d’une façon qui est logique pour les résidents et qui en facilite l’accès
rapidement et efficacement grâce à une bonne coordination. Au cours des six
prochains mois, ils élaboreront leur propre plan d’excellence qui visera à
améliorer l’expérience de la clientèle, à accroître l’engagement des employés
et à augmenter le rendement opérationnel des Services. De plus, à l’appui des
plans d’excellence de la Ville et de chacun de ses Services, des travaux sont
en cours pour établir les mesures qui permettront d’évaluer, d’une année à
l’autre, les progrès des différents secteurs de services.
Divers catalyseurs
sont essentiels pour créer une organisation axée sur la clientèle. Le personnel
et la technologie utilisée pour assurer la prestation de services sont de ce
nombre. La Ville travaille à l’élaboration d’un plan relatif aux ressources
humaines et a déjà dressé une feuille de route concernant la technologie
nécessaire pour appuyer l’ensemble du programme d’excellence du service.
Le personnel a
l’intention de faire régulièrement appel aux membres du Conseil, aux employés
et aux résidents pendant l’année afin de s’assurer que tous sont bien informés
des progrès réalisés et que les efforts des personnes concernées cadrent avec
ceux-ci.
BACKGROUND
Service Excellence is about
changing the way services are received and perceived by the customer. In order for this to occur, organizations
must fundamentally change the processes behind the service delivery to ensure
that they focus on customer services.
Citizens today have higher expectations of services levels from their
government. Tightening budgets,
changing demographics, growth and the expectation of citizens to have a choice
on how they deal with their City are forcing governments to address the issue
of public service delivery. Understanding
this trend, Council developed their Strategic Plan, which identified service
delivery as a priority. At that time
Council made a commitment to the citizens of Ottawa to improve the delivery of
City services.
The Taskforce on e-government re-emphasized the need to transform the
way City services are delivered and stressed that truly citizen-centric
business models have information technology embedded in their operations to
facilitate scalable, flexible service delivery, and advanced communication and
interaction with citizens.
The Taskforce report stated that:
“Ottawa should be a city that tailors its
services to individuals so that the more someone uses them, the more rewarding
and seamless an experience it becomes. It should be a city that offers
around-the-clock access to important services, so people can get what they want
when they want it. It should be a city with an online presence that is just as
attractive as the best the private or public sector has to offer anywhere in
the world. It should be a city where not only the citizen-facing services are
seamless and easy to use, but where front-end service provision is integrated
into back-end administrative and management systems to reduce staff workload
and increase efficiency.”
In the fall of 2008, the City began its
transformation to service excellence through a realignment exercise and the
identification of an executive champion for improving service delivery. All
City services were reviewed and re-aligned to better meet the needs of the
citizens they serve and improve the overall customer experience. The first step
was to put the right leaders in place to drive change and to develop
citizen-centric business models.
To be citizen-centric means designing services
to be delivered and accessed from the point of view of the citizen or client.
Citizen-centric service delivery presumes a greater level of choice,
convenience and flexibility in service delivery modes. Services delivered to
citizens or businesses are harmonized and coordinated to provide seamless
access whatever the channel used: be it telephone, internet, mobile device,
mail or in person.
With this in mind, the second step in the City’s transformation was to look at the way services are delivered today and identify the key corporate initiatives that the City should undertake to achieve service excellence. Given the fiscal environment of the City, the objective was to identify initiatives that not only improve service delivery and increase overall citizen satisfaction with City services, but to do this in a way that also finds efficiencies and produces sufficient savings to keep pace with city growth.
As part of the development of the 2005 Budget, City Council directed that an efficiency savings target be included as part of every City of Ottawa budget. During the 2005, 2006, and 2007 budget approval process, cumulative productivity improvement targets of $36M were approved. In September 2007, Council approved an Efficiency Savings Program that targeted a further $100M to be achieved over three years starting in 2008. In 2008, the Transit Services productivity target was increased by $1.85M resulting in overall corporate efficiency target of $137.8M. It is projected that total savings of $68.5M will be realized by the end of 2009 and that additional savings of $27.4M will be achieved in 2010, including $8M in cost savings initiatives that were identified through a revised approach to the Efficiency Savings Program. The remaining target is achievable through a new client centric service delivery model and through investment in technology.
As the Taskforce on e-government highlighted, leading organizations around
the world know that information technology is the key to maximizing
efficiencies and service delivery. Information technology lies at the heart of
most successful efforts to deliver more services and products while simultaneously
lowering costs.
The taskforce made the following eight (8) recommendations and further
emphasised the need for Council to adopt all of their recommendations:
- Institute a
governance model that involves everyone from city council to staff
- Require a
citizen-centric focus for all city programs and services
- Implement
outcome-based measures for all activities, services and projects
- Produce
investment plans for each branch identifying how technology will be
leveraged to improve service while reducing costs
- Ensure that
when council directs staff to take action, the resulting proposal includes
a technology alternative that directly or indirectly offsets any increase
in staff
- Compare
Ottawa’s services delivery, on an outcome and cost basis, with service delivery
in the best public and private organizations in the world, and not just
with service delivery in other Canadian municipalities
- Ensure that
all investment plans respect and leverage the city’s common technology
infrastructure, architecture, processes and applications
- Invest in a
chief strategist for service delivery, reporting directly to city council,
who will drive the implementation of these recommendations.
Understanding that staff needed to find service improvements while
achieving savings as outlined in the efficiency program, staff embarked on the
development of a Service Excellence Plan at both the corporate and the
departmental level. The proposed
Service Excellence Plan addresses the service delivery objectives outlined in
the strategic plan, the Council directed efficiency program targets and the
recommendations set out from the Taskforce on e-government.
DISCUSSION
The City will fundamentally transform how residents receive services from the City. The Service Excellence Plan allows staff to deliver consistent, predictable, high quality information and services to residents as well as generate significant savings to the organization. With the realignment complete, the organization is now in a position to move toward service excellence.
When Council developed the original strategic plan, service delivery was identified as a priority and the plan further identified a number of specific objectives. Through the strategic plan refresh process, staff proposed that the strategic plan refocus the original objectives into three new ones, which will ultimately lead to trust and confidence in the City of Ottawa and will sustain service excellence:
- Improving client satisfaction,
- Improving operational performance, and
- Enhancing employee engagement.
Research
and best practice on improving client satisfaction in the public sector is
based on the public sector value chain.
In essence, the public sector value chain is a concept that shows how a
public sector service delivery organization can develop and implement a broad
strategy to ensure that people who use government services are satisfied with
those services, and that the employees who deliver those services are highly
engaged in their work. The City of Ottawa
has adapted the public sector value chain to include Operational Performance,
in order to reflect the priorities and realities that characterize our
municipal government. The value chain
defines the interdependence between ensuring that employees are engaged and
that services provided are the right ones delivered efficiently which improves
overall client satisfaction. Listed
below are brief descriptions of each component of Ottawa’s public sector value
chain.
There are two parts of the Service Excellence plan
for the City of Ottawa – Corporate and Departmental Service Excellence
plans. The Corporate Service Excellence
Plan is described in detail in the following section of this report and speaks
to the corporate strategies that will improve customer satisfaction, improve
operational performance and increase employee engagement. Over
the next 6 months, departments will develop their own service excellence plans,
which will involve identifying areas requiring improvement and will inform new
ways of delivering services to improve the overall client experience. Work is underway to establish baseline
measurements for service areas in an effort to determine progress toward
improvement and priority areas each year, which will support both the
departmental and corporate plans.
The proposed Corporate Service Excellence Plan outlines a number of
corporate and departmental service improvement initiatives that staff believe
help achieve the Council mandate to improve service delivery as well as achieve
the required efficiencies to meet the Council directed efficiency targets. All
of these initiatives are about creating services that are easy to find and
access, simple, streamlined and cost effective and all have technology
implications. These initiatives will improve overall citizen satisfaction with
City services. The proposed initiatives are listed below. As well, each initiative was circulated to
the appropriate standing committee as part of the budget presentations and all
business cases were presented at the IT Sub-committee on November 4th,
2009 (ACS2009-COS-ITS-0003).
- Enabling
citizen centric services
(e-service / 311)
- Creating a
community based mobile workforce
- Integrating
Community and Social Service Delivery
- Optimizing
utilization of recreation facilities
- Innovation in
Business management and operating practices
- Transforming
fleet management
- Smart Energy
Every year, hundreds of thousands of citizens access City services through 3-1-1 and Ottawa.ca. The centre manages over 600,000 calls per year and responds to requests for information on over 300 municipal topics. Although Ottawa.ca offers significant information to residents, it is difficult to navigate through its 25,000 pages and find information quickly. There are multiple sources of information, which results in staff providing inconsistent or out-of-date information to residents. Citizens expect a service experience similar to what they have with travel, financial, retail and shipping businesses. Citizen satisfaction would increase if all the required information were stored in one place.
As a result, the City is proposing an initiative that will improve how the City engages, interacts with, and provides services and information to citizens. It will simplify the current access points and will make sure there is no wrong door to access City information and services, which will be organized and presented from the citizen’s perspective allowing them to find the information they need about City services, register for programs, submit forms, make payments and report and track service requests. Citizens will have 24/7 access to City services and information and will be able to track service requests from the time of report through to resolution (similar to UPS). Likewise, City staff will have access to the same online technology, which will make them more knowledgeable, engaged, and responsive to client inquiries in a contemporary collaborative environment.
The total required one-time investment for this initiative is $39.16M ($12M in 2010) with ongoing costs of $2.1M. Annual benefits of $12.84M for this initiative are fully realized in 2014. This project will pay for itself in 5 years.
The City has a significant workforce (in excess of 12,000 FTEs) consisting of field workers and knowledge workers involved in community-facing work as well as office workers (e.g., by-law enforcement officers, inspectors, public health nurses). With Ottawa being one of the largest geographical cities in the country, staff must be dispersed across the city in order to meet the public demand for timely services. Many field workers have to report to their City office in the morning to obtain daily service orders and then return at the end of the day to write up work summaries. Others return to administrative buildings several times throughout the day. Not only is this inefficient, it results in unnecessary costs being incurred due to travel for meetings at different locations, including parking, mileage, and lost productivity.
This initiative will focus on making staff more accessible to the clients they serve and improving the effectiveness and efficiency of the service delivery processes by equipping staff with mobile devices and tools so that they can deliver a broad range of services on-site and report on the progress of these services as they are being delivered. It will result in staff being able to work closer to the clients they serve. Field workers will be equipped with the appropriate mobile devices and tools that will make them more productive and allow them to focus on their core activities. New requests for service can be assigned to City staff already out in the field resulting in faster response and shorter turnaround time. The City will be able to respond to more requests for service with the same or less staff and will be better positioned to deal with growth. Finally, staff will be able to leverage current, proven technology to work with community groups, Council, managers and colleagues within and across geographic locations.
The total required one-time investment for this initiative is $20.95M ($5.45M in 2010) with ongoing costs of $3.26M. Annual benefits of $12.47M for this initiative are fully realized in 2013. This project will pay for itself in 5 years.
The realignment initiative brought together Community and Social Services staff and the related infrastructure that previously existed in four separate branches. However, across these programs, some processes, tools, policies, technologies and geographic locations still need to be integrated. Currently clients have to meet with specialists in each service area and provide them with similar information multiple times as they apply to access various services. Likewise, clients must complete various entry applications that contain similar information to apply for various city and provincial services. Many of the clients have diverse needs over time and require multiple appointments with various City staff to complete provincial requirements.
This initiative focuses on implementing the new business model for the Community and Social Services Department to achieve program integration and seamless service delivery. It includes integrating the administration of provincially mandated programs and coordinating supplemental programs offered by the municipality.
As a result, services will be easier to find and access. Services will be more coordinated, seamless and tailored to the employment, financial, housing, childcare and long-term care needs of clients. Clients will be able to access required supports through a single point of contact within four service centers and the department will be able to assess clients for a full range of services at one time. In addition, clients will be able to assess eligibility and complete applications online (Province pilot underway). Finally, front-line workers will be better equipped to respond to “at risk” clients at initial intake and will have enhanced access to available municipal and community resources to meet client needs.
The total required one-time investment for this
initiative is $0.91M ($0.59M in 2010) with no ongoing costs. Annual benefits of $2.4M for this initiative
are fully realized in 2014. This
project will pay for itself in 3 years.
Today, citizens and community groups are not able to view or book available facilities or ice time online. There is no ability to conduct an online search to view availability of multiple locations at different times or dates. In order to access this information, citizens must contact specific facilities. In addition, several recreation facilities are underutilized due to the lack of amenities to make them more suitable for clients.
Part of this initiative involves implementing technology to support real-time search, viewing and on-line booking of city recreational facilities. Citizens will be able to visit the City website to see what sports and recreation facilities and venues are available to them so they can make decisions to meet their recreational needs. Likewise, citizens will be able to search online, locate and book available ice time at different arenas across the City on a real-time basis. In an effort to optimize facility usage, technology will allow citizens to search other venue availability, view facility amenities such as space layout, view daily booking schedules, complete an online reservation request and make online payments. In addition, City staff will have access to the same online technology, which will make them more knowledgeable and responsive to client inquiries. Online booking and registration will be available 24/7.
The total required one-time investment for
this initiative is $0.90M in 2010 with ongoing costs of $50K. Annual benefits of $0.38M for this
initiative are fully realized in 2012.
This project will pay for itself in 4 years.
Innovative Management,
Operating and Business Practices
There is a growing demand for public works services caused by an aging and expanding infrastructure. In 2009, the department brought into service 175km of roadways, 25km of sidewalks, 10,000 trees, and 46 ha of parkland. Ottawa’s infrastructure is aging and has not kept pace with the required operating, maintenance and lifecycle requirements.
This initiative involves the engagement of staff at all levels to identify and implement innovative strategies that lead to efficient and effective delivery of services. The initiative will use a structured framework and approach, which engages employees in a process of identifying innovative management, operating and business practices to improve performance and reduce costs.
As a result, Public Works will be able to accommodate projected growth targets for the maintenance of roadways, sidewalks, trees and parkland with potentially less new staff than would otherwise have been required. It will be achieved by delivering services in a different way at a lower cost and will eliminate unnecessary and duplicate work.
The total required one-time investment for this initiative is $0.50M ($0.30M in 2010) with no ongoing costs. Annual benefits of $1M for this initiative are fully realized in 2012. This project will pay for itself in 2 years.
Public Works currently uses a combination of in-house resources with contract agencies to provide maintenance activities for roads, sidewalks, parks, buildings, trees, and facilities. Work that is seasonal, sporadic, labour intensive or event specific is contracted out through a competitive bidding process.
This initiative focuses on the creation of a casual labour pool to reduce the City’s use of contractors and provide timely access to resources to meet peak demands. The labour pool is expected to help optimize equipment usage, reduce overall costs and improve services.
As a result, managers will have access to casual workers to replace regular employees who are absent from the workplace, or to meet operational peak demands and/or other operational needs. By using trained personnel from a labour pool to perform public work activities, staff will be able to optimize the use of City owned/leased equipment as well as retain knowledge and experience by retaining an experienced workforce on a casual basis. New hires or replacement requirements could be promoted from the Casual Labour Pool resulting in timely filling of vacancies as well as assist the City in its retention and succession planning by having qualified pool of candidates available to fill future permanent vacancies. Furthermore, it will increase staff productivity and performance as well as improve communication between workers, the Union, and management which will provide greater opportunities to contribute recommendations for improvement in service delivery, equipment usage and staff deployment models.
There are no costs associated with this
project. The
financial benefits are approximately $0.25M savings annually, beginning in
2010. This project will rely on existing enterprise
systems.
Transforming fleet
management
Fleet Services maintains over 2,155 vehicles including fire trucks, ambulances, snowploughs, trucks and cars. They also perform maintenance on all 621 police vehicles (such as cruisers, pick-ups, vans, and motorcycles).
This
initiative focuses on transforming the fleet management function at the City.
It includes implementing fleet management strategies so that Fleet Services can
“right size” the municipal fleet and implement procurement strategies and
processes such that the City can move to a standardized vehicle inventory, and
migrate to a Green Fleet to reduce fuel costs. It also includes identifying and
implementing processes and tools to support operational and maintenance
decision-making related to managing the fleet (Leveraging Total Cost of
Ownership); implementing preventative maintenance strategies to get the full
value out of its vehicles and reduce maintenance costs and implementing
strategies to transform the stores inventory processes to ensure the right part
is available at the right time.
Implementation will result in departments having quicker access to vehicles, as low mileage vehicles will form part of a motor pool that can be shared among departments. Oil changes and other basic maintenance activities will be performed by external vendors which will allow City mechanics to focus on more complex maintenance activities. In addition, turnaround time for maintenance of vehicles and equipment will be faster as a result of performing low complexity repairs at the service department sites. Better communication and integration between Stores and Fleet Services will ensure that the right part is available at the right time and scheduling for maintenance of equipment will be based on proactive forecasting of potential failures.
The total required one-time investment for this initiative is $2.39M ($1.75M in 2010) with no ongoing costs. Annual benefits of $3.94M for this initiative are fully realized in 2013. This project will pay for itself in 3 years.
Sponsorship and
Advertising
81% of municipalities are involved in some form of sponsorship engagement. In Ottawa, sponsorship and advertising is already an integral part of the business plans of many City programs and services. In 2008, combined revenues from both sponsorship and advertising have been in the range of $5M. However, the City lacks a coordinated approach to soliciting sponsorship and advertising opportunities, which results in missed opportunities to maximize revenues. Each department is responsible for pursuing its own sponsorship agreements (currently 100 in existence), which results in multiple departments contacting the same sponsor. As well, each department uses different tools for tracking sponsorship initiatives. Despite the recent economic turmoil, corporations are still willing to invest in sponsorship.
This initiative involves the development of a comprehensive Sponsorship and Advertising framework to pursue additional sources of revenue from City assets and facilities. The project will explore revenue opportunities from Naming Rights, Advertising (interior signage, publications, Ottawa.ca website), program sponsorships with defined audience segments, and OC transit station sponsorships, as well as the continuation of the current billboard advertising program. This initiative will also establish a centralized sponsorship office that will set the overarching corporate approach to sponsorship, provide assistance to departments on complex projects and negotiations, and create a single point of contact for potential sponsors or partners.
By taking a strategic and coordinated approach to sponsorship, departments will have the ability to collaborate with each other and learn more about potential sponsor opportunities for their programs. As a result, the City will maximize sponsorship revenues without causing donor fatigue from multiple approaches to the same sponsor. In addition, valuation of sponsor benefits will be coordinated and standard benefits will be established. Likewise, sponsorship and advertising revenues will be logged and tracked using consistent tools and practices and the centralized sponsorship office will actively promote and monitor adherence to sponsorship policies and procedures.
The total required one-time investment for this initiative is $0.27M in 2010 with ongoing costs of $0.93M. The benefits from this initiative are from increased revenues estimated to be approximately $3.46M annually. This project will pay for itself in 1 year.
Smart
Energy
The City spends $40M annually on energy (Electricity 60%, Gas 19%, Streetlighting 11%, Water 10%). Since 2002, the City has invested over 5M in energy reduction measures, such as lighting upgrades and boiler replacements.
This initiative focuses on further reducing the City’s annual energy costs by: re-commissioning mechanical equipment to re-establish the baseline for energy performance by bringing equipment back to design specs; implementing an Enterprise Energy Monitoring and Targeting (M&T) solution connected to electrical, gas and water meters to enable managers to have situational awareness and insights into patterns of energy consumption (e.g. automated tools that enable visibility to energy consumption, and that alert on “out of specific” conditions); implementing Integrated Building Management Systems requiring less manual intervention and enable remote command and control; continuing with planned capital measures for 2010-2012 (not included in current capital plans); and implementing a Solar Photovoltaic initiative starting with a Pilot Project – 2-5kW’s (receive a revenue stream from the Ontario Government through the ‘Feed In Tariff’ (FIT) program.
Through the implementation, energy managers will be given energy management and building automation tools that have the potential to reduce energy consumption by 5% – 10% annually. City staff and building managers will have access to real time data to understand energy consumption and therefore, staff will make more intelligent and interconnected energy decisions in order to reduce overall consumption and avoid peak charges based on utilities providers’ pricing and time of use models.
The total required one-time investment for this initiative is $13.96M ($2.43M in 2010) with no ongoing costs. Annual benefits of $2.42M will be realized by 2014. This project will pay for itself in 8 years.
The Service Excellence Plan will fundamentally transform how residents receive services from the City. It is a plan to deliver consistent, predictable, high quality information and services to our residents and to generate significant savings to the organization. Residents will be able to track and follow their service requests, register and pay for City programs, and find services and information through a one-stop, harmonized 3-1-1 and web-based system. Information will be organized and presented from the perspective of our residents who will have 24/7 access to services.
The plan includes nine (9) initiatives that leverage technology; to not only achieve improvements in service, but to also result in efficiency savings. Although there are investments required to implement these initiatives, all are based on sound business cases that show a positive return on investment. The total investment required to implement the Service Excellence Initiatives is $79.04M over 5 years, with $23.69M required in 2010.
The approach to implementing and managing the
Service Excellence plan for the City of Ottawa will involve a program
management office. The initiatives will
be managed in a structured way with the full implementation of a benefits
management program. The progress of the
initiatives, deviations from original concepts and benefits tracking will be
managed and reported to Council on a quarterly basis and will support the
annual budget process. Only with the
full involvement and endorsement of Council can this plan be successful.
Enabling Initiatives
People Plan
The People Plan is one of the critical enablers to creating a client
centric organization. Improvement
in service delivery can only be achieved with the commitment of a highly
motivated, flexible, diverse and skilled workforce, capable of providing
high-quality, personalised services.
The overall objectives of the people plan are to:
o
Identify and
implement programs to attract, retain and develop a continuous supply of
knowledgeable, highly productive individuals and teams.
o
Build
leadership capacity and
o
Create a work
environment that promotes and rewards employee performance and productivity.
The People Plan will encompass two components. It will identify
critical talent segments and required competencies/skills that are core to the
City’s ability to deliver services that meet client expectations, i.e. “right
people”. It also includes the talent management strategy, which defines the
strategy and programs required to attract, retain and develop the “right”
people to do the right things at the right time in the right place. Implementing
the People Plan will enhance the City’s ability to compete for talent and
establish a diverse workforce, which reflects the community we serve. Specific
areas of focus for 2010 include:
§
Advancing the
implementation of Performance Development Programs (PDP) for unionized and
non-unionized employees
§
Enhancing
leadership and employee development
§
Augmenting
employee recognition
§
Fostering a
productive and healthy workplace
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Developing and
implementing programs to create a diverse and inclusive workforce
§
Developing
career development, succession and knowledge management plans to sustain
delivery of services longer term
§
Integrating
talent management/workforce planning with Departmental/Branch planning
Technology Roadmap
Technology is also one of the critical enablers essential to creating a
client centric organization. The
Technology Roadmap was considered at the IT subcommittee on November 4th
and responded to the recommendations from the Taskforce on e-Government putting
in place the building blocks that position the organization to respond to the
needs of the City and the expectations of the citizens we serve. The overall
objectives of the roadmap are to:
- Modernize the
information technology infrastructure to become more responsive to
changing needs.
- Implement new
solutions to improve services to the citizen and improve operational
performance – support the service excellence initiatives outlined above.
- Meet the
regulatory and compliance requirements of the City
The roadmap includes a number of initiatives that are already underway
as well as a number new strategic technology investments required to modernize
our technology environment and support the service excellence strategy.
Specific areas of focus for 2010 include:
- Implementing
a customer relationship management solution
- Implementing
a centralized knowledge base
- Implementing
a business intelligence tools
- Implementing
a mobility foundation
- Implementing
server virtualization technology
- Modernizing
telecommunications systems
- Implementing virtual desktop infrastructure
The investment required to implement the Foundational Technology, Efficiency and Infrastructure Lifecycle and Renewal initiatives is $10.71M over 5 years, with $2M required in 2010. The financial benefit of these the technology roadmap is $1.7M annually.
Table 1, below, presents the benefits from the nine savings opportunities and the technology roadmap.
Summary of Benefits
Departmental Service Excellence Planning
Client and Customer Engagement
Research on Service Excellence shows that customer feedback is a powerful tool, not only for understanding customers’ experience and satisfaction with public services, but also for developing strategies to improve those services. Feedback from both customers and front-line staff can help to ensure that service improvement strategies focus on those areas that will make the most difference to the customers.
In keeping
with this belief, staff partnered with Carleton University Survey Centre to
conduct both an employee engagement and customer satisfaction survey. The surveys took place between October 19th
and early November and were designed to provide information that will establish
baseline data and identify areas to target for improvement. The approach to service excellence begins
with finding out what our employees believe is needed to foster a Service
Excellence culture and provide them with information, opportunities, tools and
support needed to improve the performance and ultimately deliver excellent
service to the citizens of Ottawa. At
the same time, Carleton University conducted a customer satisfaction survey
with residents of Ottawa over the phone.
The survey was specific to city service delivery and the results will
help us establish a baseline of information upon which to target our efforts
for service improvements. It will also
allow us to measure our success year over year through similar surveys. This information will be collected, analyzed
and disseminated and sent to departments for use in the development of their
individual departmental service excellence plans. Departments will then define and set targets for customer service
improvements.
As stated earlier, service excellence is about
understanding the way we deliver services to enhance client experiences,
connect with our clients and improve client satisfaction with City
services. Service Excellence is first
and foremost a mindset that reflects how people delivering a service feel about
their work and how clients feel about the service they receive.
Delivering excellent service is fundamental to
everything we do at the City. As a
result, departments will spend the remainder of 2009 and early 2010 developing
individual departmental service excellence plans. Using baseline data collected through both staff and customer
surveys, departments will develop plans intended to improved customer
satisfaction with core services, through improved operational performance and
increased employee engagement. In addition,
the planning process will incorporate the awareness and inclusion of people
based on diversity using the Equity and Inclusion Lens; inclusion of people
with disabilities in compliance with the Accessibility for Ontarians with
Disabilities Act; and will include access to French Language Services. An ongoing measurement program will allow
departments to track their success against intended outcomes and adjust as
required. Individual departmental
service excellence plans will be presented at standing committees in 2010.
Service Excellence is an all-encompassing approach to making service
excellence "business as usual."
A culture change is required before the organization can truly move to
one of customer focus. Characteristics of a service
excellence culture include a clear service excellence vision, engaged and
committed employees, solid understanding of client needs, and an accurate
picture of the client experience. The
City will develop a performance measurement program and reporting framework
that will support standard measurements in these key areas.
The
overall outcome will be a decision-making process that is informed by clear and
accurate information derived from multiple sources, and that will allow
management to have a clear picture of the City's desired future, the capacity
and capability needed to achieve that future, and performance against targets.
Feedback, technical and staff
supports, the nine (9) Service Improvement Initiatives combined with individual
departmental service excellence plans will form the larger Service Excellence
Plan for the City of Ottawa.
RURAL IMPLICATIONS
There are no specific rural implications associated with this report.
CONSULTATION
There was no consultation undertaken as part of the preparation of this information report.
LEGAL/RISK MANAGEMENT IMPLICATIONS:
There are no legal/risk management impediments associated with this information report.
FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS
This Information Report is supplemental to the
Budget Estimates report and has no financial implications.
SUPPORTING DOCUMENTATION
All Service Excellence Initiative Business Cases have been previously
distributed and are on file with the City Clerk.
DISPOSITION
Staff will action any direction received as part of consideration of this report.