CIMM – Global Case Management System Future Transformation – November 25, 2024

Key Facts and Figures

• The Global Case Management System (GCMS) is Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada’s (IRCC) integrated and worldwide web-based system used to process applications for immigration, citizenship and passport services, and is considered mission critical requiring high availability 24/7.
• It is a complex ecosystem of technologies, consisting of more than 20 Information Technology (IT) systems and when the system is not available it impacts clients in Canada and around the world.
  • Over 20,000 users have access to GCMS across the Government of Canada (IRCC, Canada Border Services Agency [CBSA], Employment and Social Development Canada [ESDC], Shared Services Canada [SSC], etc.)
  • 22 government and non-government partners depend on GCMS information, such as provinces and territories, Designated Learning Institutions, airlines, Canadian Bank Note, and governments of Australia, New Zealand and the United States.
  • GCMS provides 24/7 operations at CBSA and IRCC offices domestically and internationally, and leverages third-party service providers like Visa Application Centres. 
• GCMS is a legacy system and therefore necessitates constant monitoring and continuous improvements to keep it up.
• Since February 2024, IRCC, in collaboration with SSC, has undertaken significant effort to improve GCMS stability and user experience. The joint service improvement effort is aimed at stabilizing and improving GCMS from a technical, process, and communication perspective.
• IRCC and SSC have identified 45 items to address, subsequently organized within different buckets:
  • Quick Wins (0-3 months)
  • Short (3-6 months)
  • Medium (6-12 months)
  • Long term (12+ months)
• Expected outcomes from undertaking this effort include (but are not limited to):
  • Improved collaboration between partners as part of the incident management process.
  • Stabilization of the current system, including upgrading and decommissioning old/unsupported technology.
  • Strengthen monitoring and logging, and ensure sufficient capacity to handle GCMS traffic.
  • Automation and standardization of change and configuration processes.
  • Improved communication on planned and unplanned outages within IRCC and Partners (SSC, CBSA, ESDC).
  • Architectural Review of the design and connectivity of appliances.

Key Messages

• IRCC is a committed partner in working with key stakeholders to minimize impacts and improve the user experience, noting that sustaining and managing the aging infrastructure of GCMS will be an ongoing effort until the future state is realized – currently being developed under IRCC’s Digital Platform Modernization Phase 3 (DPM3) Program.
• Although the intended future state is DPM3, it is important to note that GCMS is such a critical system that it will be necessary for the Department to support and operate GCMS for years to come, before fully transitioning to DPM3 and a methodical and phased approach to plan for decommissioning can begin.
• The joint effort across departments has demonstrated the strong relationship and re-enforced the important nature and interconnectedness of our mandates.
• IRCC continues to see high level of participation at both the working level and senior leadership across departments in developing and delivering on the service improvement and action plans.

Supplementary Information

• To date, IRCC and SSC have addressed 26 of the total 45 items they identified as critical in improving GCMS.
• Ongoing investments and measures to improve GCMS have been critical to meeting growing business and clients needs as well as addressing technical debt. Investments are starting to show results:
  • 33% reduction in number of full or partial outages for client-facing IRCC portals and services (such as electronic travel authorization) between January-September 2024 (compared to the same period in 2023)
  • 34% reduction in total downtime for GCMS (full or partial outages) over the same period.