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Alberta Health and Wellness Ministry
Establishing good reporting mechanisms earns CGI credibility
with Alberta Health and Wellness Ministry
For CGI Edmonton, securing a five-year applications maintenance contract
in January, 2001 with the Alberta Health and Wellness Ministry was a success
well merited. CGI's submission for the tendered contract offered a number
of advantages: competitive pricing, a unique methodology (Peritus) specifically
designed for applications maintenance, quality people, a good track record
with the government and a local presence. But what may have really sold
the ministry on CGI was an aspect of the management process that perhaps
often goes overlooked—transparency and accountability to the client.
The Challenge
Under the CDN$25 million
contract, CGI's mandate is to support the Department's legacy systems
(mainframe), client server applications and web-based applications: a
wide range of technology requiring a wide range of expertise. In all,
some 70 business applications will be covered, including the Department's
more critical systems applying to health care premiums, claims and the
Alberta Aid to Daily Living program. Over the scope of the contract, CGI
will assist the Department's 300-400 users with system problems and provide
the necessary support to help the Department enter a new phase of change
and improvement in its delivery of services. A three-month transition
project, which wound up in March 2002, was the first step in the
process to facilitate knowledge transfer.
The Strategy
To meet the demands of the
contract and the technology involved, CGI put together a multidisciplinary
expert team of some 40-45 people, which in itself was a challenge, and
rented office space in a new building to provide high availability to
the Department. In the five-stage knowledge-transfer process, CGI knew
that it would have quite a learning curve to climb and used the opportunity
to speak to as many client staff members as possible. Said Susan Watson,
Director of IT at the ministry, "CGI was very organized and considered
all the angles. They met regularly with all levels of business and all
application sponsors were brought into discussions right at the beginning."
Given the Department's decision to change application maintenance service
providers, interfacing with the previous provider, still responsible for
managed operations, could have proved difficult. However, CGI developed
call tracking and time recording systems that established credibility
with the Department at the outset. "This kind of situation is always
difficult, but overall the transition went extremely well. CGI brought
strong management skills to the table," continued Watson.
The Technology
- Environment: Clipper; Oracle; Lotus Notes; Java; Websphere; Powerbuilder;
SQL, UNIX; Access, IDIMS; ADABAS/NATURAL; DB2; FoxPro; HTML
The Results
In establishing early credibility
with the Department, CGI has demonstrated that an ultimate goal of the
contract is to reduce the amount of system maintenance needed over time,
thereby freeing up funds to increase application functionality through
enhancements. With CGI's activity recording methods, the Department knows
where the CGI team is spending its time and where the dollars are being
invested. CGI's proven added value in the early stages of the contract
has motivated the Department to ask CGI to undertake several development projects,
deliver information dissemination support services and coordinate infrastructure
changes. "We are very happy with our relationship with CGI. They
are very responsive to our needs and their collaborative approach, particularly
in defining requirements, is very much appreciated," confirmed Watson.
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