Overview of Shared Services Canada

November 2015

Purpose

• Provide background on the establishment of Shared Services Canada (SSC)
• Outline the information technology (IT) transformation agenda
• Identify near-term priorities for the Department

Fragmentation in the management of the government’s IT infrastructure led to high costs, complexity and security risk

Mission-critical programs depend on IT infrastructure

Approximately 1,500 mission-critical applications that span:

• Key benefits programs (for example, Employment Insurance, Canada Pension Plan, Old Age Security)
• Security (for example, the Department of National Defence (DND) , the Royal Canadian Mounted Police’s Canadian Police Information Centre systems and provincial police force databases, the Canada Border Services Agency border systems, and Public Safety cyber security and emergency response)
• Safety and health (for example, the Canada Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) and food monitoring, Health Canada labs, Environment Canada weather systems, Natural Resources Canada seismic systems)
• Farmers and students (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, the CFIA, loan programs)
• Finance systems (for example, the Canada Revenue Agency federal-provincial tax and benefit systems, the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada)

Departments managed their IT infrastructure independently

In total, the Government of Canada was spending $2 billion per year on an unstructured and uncoordinated web of IT infrastructure and services:

• 63 email systems
• Over 500* data centres of varying sizes, quality, security and energy efficiency
• 50 wide area networks connecting over 3,500 buildings and data centres (over 1,000 firewalls)

*SSC currently manages 543 data centres. When ancillary rooms for mechanical and electrical components are included, the number is over 700.

Status quo was complex, costly and less secure

State of IT infrastructure was:

• Vulnerable to cyber-attacks, low availability and poor performance
• A long-term unfunded liability and a barrier to renewal, modernization and agility
• Using procurement practices that limit innovation
• Not service-oriented

SSC was established to address these problems through an enterprise-wide approach to IT service and renewal

In 2011, SSC was created to:

• Improve IT service delivery across the Government of Canada
• Transform the Government of Canada’s email, data centres and networks (see glossary in Annex A)
• Generate savings for deficit reduction and the longer term

Personnel, financial resources and assets were transferred through orders-in-council (OIC) to SSC from 42 of the largest federal departments.

SSC today (as per 2015–2016 Report on Plans and Priorities):

• 6,100 full-time equivalents; $1.4 billion funding envelope (plus $411 million in re-spendable revenues); new responsibility for workplace technology devices (WTD).

Consolidation of personnel, services, assets and contracts has already improved service and value-for-money

SSC’s initial contribution to deficit reduction was outlined in Economic Action Plan (EAP) 2012:

• $74.7 million in 2012–2013 (5% of SSC’s base)
• $104.5 million in 2013–2014 (7% of SSC’s base)
• $150 million on an ongoing basis beginning in 2014–2015 (10% of SSC’s base)

In addition to generating savings, SSC’s enterprise-wide approach to service delivery is focused on:

• Moving from 9-to-5 IT operations teams to 24/7 for mission-critical systems
• Enterprise incident management to keep mission-critical systems up and running and address the root causes of any breakdowns
  • Since 2012, the number of mission-critical systems failures has decreased by 30% and the proportion of such failures that are resolved within four hours has increased from 54% to 69%
• Contributing to important government-wide priorities (for example, Beyond the Border, Pay and Pension Modernization, DND headquarters transformation)
  • SSC currently supports a portfolio of 164 IT-enabled projects, 118 of which are led by other departments

SSC has developed detailed plans to transform the government’s IT infrastructure and is moving to implementation

SSC’s "Transformation Plan" sets out a phased approach to consolidating and modernizing the Government of Canada’s IT infrastructure over seven years. By 2020, the GC is forecasted to spend over $400 million less per year on IT infrastructure than before the creation of SSC.

The value of IT transformation extends beyond savings to include service and security improvements

Each component of the Transformation Plan…

…will deliver tangible benefits…

… and improve departments’ ability to:

• Purpose-built data centres
• Single email system
• Streamlined networks
• Modernized telecom services
• Centralized WTD procurement

• Fewer system failures
• Improved security
• Increased bandwidth
• More storage
• Improved videoconferencing
• Greater efficiency

• Handle Big Data
• Support mission critical operations
• Protect sensitive information
• Share data remotely
• Scale up or down

Aligning with government-wide priorities - Workplace 2.0 - Back-office Rationalization - Open Government

SSC is migrating 43 partner departments to a single email system

• A single government-wide email system developed and operated by the private sector will reduce costs, increase security and improve Canadians' access to their government.
• SSC followed an innovative and collaborative approach to procure an email solution for the Government of Canada.
  • Vendors provided detailed input on the terms, conditions and technical requirements of the Request for Proposal.
  • Contracts were awarded in 2013 to Bell Canada as the email service provider and to Microsoft Canada for software licences.
• Migration to the new system was expected to be complete by March 2015. However, Bell has experienced challenges in meeting Government of Canada requirements.
• Under the revised timeline, most email accounts will be moved in 2015–2016, with full migration complete later in 2016. End-state savings remain the same.
  • Annual savings of $50 million have been removed from SSC’s reference levels starting in 2015–2016.

SSC will consolidate the Government of Canada’s 500 data centres to no more than five modern and efficient facilities

SSC’s plan for data centre consolidation has the following objectives:

• As few data centre facilities as possible, with locations based on objective criteria
• Consolidated mainframe services to leverage economies of scale
• A standardized and secure supply chain for servers and storage

SSC has focused on establishing four end-state data centres:

• Enterprise Data Centre (EDC) Gatineau – The Government of Canada is leasing space in a data centre owned by Bell
• EDC Borden – SSC is establishing a public-private partnership (P3) to refurbish and expand an existing government-owned data centre on a Canadian Forces base
• EDC Barrie – The Government of Canada is leasing space for EDC Barrie from IBM Canada, who owns and operates the facility. EDC Barrie was established in 2014 as a backup to EDC Borden
• EDC Montréal – This specialized data centre will support the Government of Canada’s scientific computing requirements (for example, weather modelling)

As the new data centres come online, SSC will close the old data centres.

• 60 legacy facilities have been closed so far, with an expected number of 74 data centres to be closed in 2015–2016.

SSC will also streamline and secure the Government of Canada’s network infrastructure

To improve the Government of Canada’s voice, data and video network, SSC is:

• Modernizing workplace communications services by migrating departments from outdated and costly phone lines to mobile phones and Voice over Internet Protocol services
• Converging overlapping and uncoordinated networks into a single, more secure network
• Increasing the availability of videoconferencing technologies and wireless access in government buildings

Streamlining and modernizing the Government of Canada’s networks is an important element in Canada’s Cyber Security Strategy. SSC is also contributing to this strategy by:

• Improving the government’s ability to prevent, detect, respond to and recover from cyber incidents (for example, the Heartbleed and Bash bugs, and the cyber breach of the National Research Council network)
• Working with the Communications Security Establishment to secure the IT supply chain
• Developing a plan to consolidate the Government of Canada’s multiple Secret-level networks into a single and expanded government-wide infrastructure

In 2013, SSC was given additional responsibility for the Government of Canada’s WTDs

SSC’s success depends on leveraging private sector expertise and engaging partner departments

SSC governance

• SSC’s Senior Advisory Council includes deputy ministers from a cross-section of departments to provide strategic advice on SSC’s business priorities and activities.
• Other formal governance committees and working groups include further representation of departments.
• Ongoing senior-level bilateral meetings with departments are held to discuss specific plans and issues.

IT Infrastructure Roundtable (ITIR)

• The ITIR was launched in November 2012.
• Its membership includes representatives of all the major IT associations in Canada.
• The Roundtable provides a forum for dialogue with the Information and Communications Technology sector on SSC’s transformation agenda.

Collaborative procurement

• The private sector is engaged through “industry days” and other meetings for:
  • SSC to better understand current technology and supplier capacity
  • Suppliers to better understand and influence the Government of Canada’s requirements and plans
• The goal is to structure fair and transparent processes that result in innovative, cost-effective solutions

Near-term priorities

• Advance the implementation of the Transformation Plan by migrating departments’ staff to the new email system, their applications to the new data centres and their buildings to the new network.
• Partner with the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat (TBS) in leading government-wide planning and prioritization of IT-enabled projects to balance demand for IT services with SSC’s capacity.
• Continue to implement the Government of Canada Cyber Security Strategy, assuring supply chain integrity, continuous network availability, and delivery of cyber defence and protection services.
• Implement a service management framework, governance and support to optimize service delivery.
• Enhance IT project management capability at SSC and across the Government of Canada.
• Finalize an Enterprise Cost Management Framework and Pricing Strategy to ensure financial sustainability of SSC operations.
• Update SSC’s Investment Plan and Transformation Plan to reflect lessons-learned and advances in technology and IT services.
• Implement a workforce management strategy and other approaches to counteract change fatigue and support a culture focused on agility, innovation and service excellence.

Annex AIT Glossary

• Application: Computer software with which a user performs a specific task.
  • Across the Government of Canada, there are over 14,000 distinct applications of varying size and complexity.
• Data centre: A facility (ranging from a large building to a small server room) where organizations operate and manage their telecommunications networks and data processing, and centralize their data storage.
  • There are currently nearly 500 Government of Canada data centres of varying quality, security and energy efficiency.
• IT infrastructure: The hardware, software and networks that support applications and connect users and their computers to each other.
  • Includes email, data centres and networks, but does not include the users’ devices or the applications themselves.
• Network: Infrastructure that carries information (data, voice, fax, sound and video) within, as well as to and from, the Government of Canada.
• WTD services: Services that directly support end-user device hardware and software.
  • End-user device hardware includes desktop computers, laptops, tablets and printers.
  • End-user device software includes office productivity software (for example, word processing, spreadsheets, Internet browser) and anti-virus programs.

Annex B - Responsibility for IT Services across the Government