VP IT at Toronto Community Housing

Passion Around the Organizations Mandate

In the public sector, organizations typically have a mandate that directly supports and impacts their community in a positive way, which generates much stronger executive sponsorship and passion for IT projects. It is a fabulous opportunity to make a difference. This is often not understood by private industry CIOs. This cannot be felt in the same way in the private sector.

Public Sector with a Safer Approach: Not Bleeding Edge Not Even Leading Edge

The public sector takes a safer approach, but because of the transparency and impact that public services have on the lives of our residents/customers. It is a balance between digital transformation and modernization of services from a fiscally responsible and open way against the competing budget, with limited resources. 

  ​We had historically tended to focus on the delivery of technology. Now the focus is on delivering technology-enabled services in the public sector  

Reliance on External Expertise to Advise and Gain More Knowledge

While a bit of a scary statement that, in the public sector you need to be willing to admit that you don't know everything. You need to open up your horizons to new ideas and new ways from others who may have done it before us, relying on outside experience. It is truly about a team that gets the organization and leverages knowledge, technology, and new ways of doing things to build a better strategy and also continuously improve for the benefit of the customer and the team.

Shifting from Delivering Technology to Delivering Technology-Enabled Services

Looking at our mandate from a customer service lens, how that changes the team structure, and how we do things, we had historically tended to focus on the delivery of technology. Now the focus is on delivering technology-enabled services in the public sector with a mandate from the customer in and with measurable results.