Federal CIOS Focus on Applications

photo_1883058_resizeCanada’s Chief Information Officer, Corinne Charette, says the Government needs to shift its focus from infrastructure to modernizing its applications. That was one of the themes at ITAC’s Executive Briefing on September 10, featuring a panel discussion with Ms. Charette and three Departmental CIOs: Charles Nixon, Employment and Social Development; Len Bastien, Department of National Defence; John Messina, Canada Revenue Agency.

All of the CIOs noted the challenges in modernizing applications in the current environment, including: difficulties in convincing business owners to change systems and processes; fiscal restraint; and the IT skills shortage. At the same time, they said that these factors are creating opportunities to upgrade systems, improve service delivery, and save money. As well, there is a big opportunity to make better use of government data by using data analytics. Ms. Charette pointed out that government departments need to find ways to re-engineer applications on an incremental basis that will show immediate value.

The event was part of ITAC’s federal Executive Briefing series. About 130 people attended the session in Ottawa.