Departmental Results Report 2019-20

Minister’s message

As the Minister responsible for Shared Services Canada (SSC), I am pleased to present the Department’s 2019-20 Departmental Results Report. This report outlines SSC’s many accomplishments over the last fiscal year.

SSC plays a key role in the government’s digital vision and is implementing major transformation projects across government to support the digital transformation. In 2019‑20, SSC continued to upgrade and update government-wide IT systems while providing departments with the technology and support that is central to the digital delivery of essential services to Canadians.

In 2019‑20, SSC’s ongoing government‑wide efforts laid the groundwork for a quick and agile response to the demands of the COVID-19 pandemic. SSC was already moving forward with improving networks, rolling out cloud options, accelerating deployment of Microsoft 365, and modernizing of call centres when the pandemic hit in March 2020. Whether it was the sudden shift to remote work, an increased need for digital service delivery or the deployment of new services, benefits and tools to support Canadians, SSC was remarkably resilient in the face of the many new and urgent demands.

I would like to congratulate SSC on its successes this year and recognize the herculean effort put forth in its response to COVID-19.

The Honourable Joyce Murray, P.C., M.P.
Minister of Digital Government

Results at a glance

Text description – Our 2019-20 Departmental Results at a glance

On November 20, 2019, the first Minister of Digital Government was named, reflecting the importance the Government of Canada places on becoming a digital-first organization that will benefit all Canadians. The Minister of Digital Government has assumed responsibility for Shared Services Canada (SSC), which provides modern, secure and reliable services to government organizations, so that they can deliver digital services and programs that Canadians need.

Highlights of the year

Delivered customer service excellence

• Launched a cloud brokering portal allowing customers a single point of access to cloud services
• Introduced procurement innovations reducing delays in acquiring goods and services

Modernized Government of Canada digital infrastructure

• Accelerated deployment of Microsoft 365 providing more public servants the ability to work from home
• Increased capacity of supercomputers to improve local weather forecasting

Strengthened cyber and it security

• Advanced key projects to improve the security of Government of Canada information technology services, network and systems

Built and enabled the workforce

• Developed a communications strategy
• Introduced digital signatures to increase efficiencies while also promoting green efforts

Our core responsibilities and departmental results

Telecommunications

• Modern and reliable networks and telecommunications services

Data centres

• Modern and reliable data centre services
• Reliable cloud services

Email and workplace technology

• Reliable email services
• Quality software and hardware

Cyber and network security

• Protect data and technology assets

Customer relationships and service management

• Customer satisfaction with service delivery
• Effective service management
• Strong project management and efficient procurement

SSC is responsible for operating and modernizing the Government of Canada’s (GC) information technology (IT) infrastructure across the Public Service. The Department’s mandate is to deliver email, data centre and telecommunications services to federal departments and agencies. We provide services related to cyber and IT security and the purchase of workplace technology devices, as well as offer other optional services to government departments and agencies on a cost‑recovery basis.

SSC Resources Used in 2019–20 to Achieve Results for Canadians

Total actual spending	$1,973,596,487
Total actual full-time equivalents	7,057

Results highlights

The Minister of Digital Government has a vision to optimize digital performance in federal institutions. The vision aims to ensure that organizations are transparent and service-oriented, and that they operate and deliver programs, information, and user-centric services securely and in simple, modern and effective ways. The section entitled “Results Highlights”, outlines the SSC activities undertaken in 2019–20, which lay a solid foundation for attaining this digital vision.

Stepping Up to the COVID-19 Challenge: The COVID-19 pandemic created unprecedented operational challenges for the GC in the delivery of essential services to Canadians. Working within a virtual setting became a new reality for the majority of government employees due to the need for physical distancing. Customer departments and agencies looked to SSC to adapt its network services and to find innovative ways to continue communication and collaboration across the government. Instrumental to the GC response to COVID-19, SSC rose to this challenge, and began to increase digital capacity within the government in critical areas by the end of March 2020. This preliminary work provided the foundation for successes that included:

• Assisting with the set-up of new toll-free numbers for Global Affairs Canada and the Canada Border Services Agency, which were vital for Canadians overseas trying to get back home to Canada and for responding to travel‑related inquiries
• Accelerating the deployment of tools such as Microsoft 365 (M365), which was rolled out to 82,000 employees across 28 departments and agencies to improve the ability of public servants to work from home
• Working towards a temporary cloud-based GC COVID-19 Collaboration System that uses M365, which combined with increases in bandwidth and remote access capacity took the strain off networks and allowed more public servants to work effectively from home
• Supplying thousands of devices (For example, laptops, tablets, phones) to address emergency requirements and support public servants in their delivery of essential GC services while working remotely, and
• Working with organizations such as Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) and the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) to meet the digital requirements related to the critical new federal programming announced by the Prime Minister

Evolving the role of the Chief Technology Officer Branch (CTOB): The CTOB, created in January 2019, plays a pivotal role in ensuring services provided to SSC customer departments and agencies respond to the evolving digital and program needs of Canadians. With the transition to shared, common services and products, CTOB works to simplify approaches to service delivery, accelerate the delivery of new, digital product features, improve reliability of these services and reduce risk related to service delivery. As the GC’s digital maturity improves, increased focus will be placed on the experience of users. The objective is to ensure that the government is offering services to Canadians that they can use any time, any place and on any device. During 2019–20 the CTOB has:

• Established Enterprise Architecture Roundtables to exchange information on upcoming initiatives, and compile gaps in SSC’s capabilities
• Launched the Architect Professional Certification Program to provide digital architects with training to develop and enhance their knowledge, skills and abilities required to perform their roles
• Established Protected B public cloud services supply, created and delivered the cloud foundational services and helped the pathfinder departments to adopt cloud in support the Cloud First Policy
• Created the SSC Science Program to address the shared IT needs of federal scientists in various fields, and
• Developed a Reliability Program to provide reliable, modern and scalable hosting options and IT infrastructure

Cloud Brokering Portal: The SSC Cloud Brokering Service Team helps federal departments and agencies access Cloud services online. On August 16, 2019, a cloud brokering portal was launched to help manage accounts and provide the best possible customer service. This online solution serves as a single point of access for the processing of requests for cloud services. With this portal SSC can easily retrieve and analyze customers history, review and process cloud service requests, create customers’ public cloud access accounts, manage service information available to customers, and collect data and generate reports.

Recent upgrades also allow customer departments and agencies to experience a streamlined approval process and to securely submit online Cloud requests for classified services. The upgrades also provide customers with access to more tools and support features.

Process Improvement with eSignature: Digital signature, or eSignature, was part of a larger effort within SSC to allow for administrative efficiencies and to promote green efforts by reducing paper documents. Aimed at simplifying the traditional way of signing documents, eSignature eliminated the previous time‑consuming steps involved with processing signatures on physical documents. By the end of 2019–20, an estimated 60% of SSC documents requiring a traditional signature were eligible for eSignature. SSC also has eSignature agreements with a number of its customer departments and agencies.

Supercomputers support Digital Government: Last year, SSC reported on how its supercomputers are used to support the accuracy and timeliness of weather forecasts from ECCC. In 2019–20, SSC and ECCC collaborated to further upgrade the High Performance Computing environment to produce more timely and accurate modelling of the Earth’s atmosphere and oceans. The increased capacity led to better resolution of weather models to provide forecasts for local conditions. SSC’s supercomputers were also used by Natural Resources Canada to produce flood maps, which were shared with federal operations centres and provincial partners to coordinate spring flood relief efforts in Ontario and Quebec.

Wi-Fi Installations: In 2019–20, SSC was instrumental in the Wi-Fi installation at Transport Canada’s new headquarters in the National Capital Region. The 29-floor building includes a large concourse and serves more than 4,000 mobile employees. Transport Canada employees can now access the systems they need to serve Canadians from any office, meeting room or visitor area, as well as from airport hangars. SSC also worked collaboratively in 2019–20 with Statistics Canada to install Wi-Fi in their buildings. On October 22, 2019, wireless coverage went live in all Statistics Canada buildings, including in the regions. SSC’s installation of more than 600 access points provides Wi-Fi service to the entire Statistics Canada agency of over 5,000 mobile employees. SSC began developing a new prioritization framework to deliver GC Wi-Fi more efficiently and to respond to an increased demand for this service. This includes solutions that will enable Wi-Fi connectivity for an entire building, rather than piecemeal connections.

Procurement Innovations: Throughout 2019–20, SSC improved the way equipment and services are obtained. On June 6, 2019, Phase 2 of the Delegation of Procurement Authority enabled federal departments to purchase computer hardware directly (For example, desktops, laptops, tablets, monitors and port replicators) using SSC’s Microcomputer National Master Standing Offer. On October 1, 2019, SSC established new supply arrangements to purchase videoconferencing products and services quickly and easily at competitive prices. This new approach will reduce administrative burden, support continuous competitive pricing, and enable SSC to regularly update the network equipment catalogue. SSC can now buy videoconferencing equipment, software and services using a new, easy-to-use catalogue. Additionally, bids can be solicited for larger purchases and new contracting vehicles are in place to buy network equipment and services. Lastly, SSC has been replacing expiring standing offers and contracts with an integrated approach for buying network equipment, installation/maintenance services and managed network services.

Support to Our Customers: As the IT provider for the GC, SSC’s IT infrastructure provides the backbone for federal government programs and services that Canadians rely on every day. The IT infrastructure combines hardware, software, networks, facilities, resources and equipment to deliver, manage and secure reliable IT services for the GC. While often working behind the scenes, SSC is one of the federal departments leading the way forward to build a digital government. Services offered by SSC to its customer departments and agencies include:

• Hardware and software for server and telecommunications rooms
• Networks that connect users in different ways, such as within buildings, throughout government or around the world
• Data storage, processing and sharing through the Cloud and Enterprise Data Centres
• Satellite communications
• GC Wi-Fi
• Phone services
• Videoconferencing
• GC email service, and
• GC Secure Remote Access that provides the public service with a secure gateway to their work files and emails from any location

The GC Corporate Approach: Since July 2019, SSC has been guided by SSC 3.0 and the belief that the GC needs to make decisions differently for IT investments, projects, and prioritization. In supporting the GC’s pandemic response to COVID-19, SSC demonstrated that a coordinated, government-wide corporate approach to IT is fundamental to sustaining GC operations in times of crisis. A corporate approach can effectively move digital government forward. SSC 3.0 aims to consolidate, modernize and simplify the GC’s approach to digital services, providing value to Canadians and aligning with the GC’s digital vision. Further action is required to ensure that ongoing and planned activities to advance digital government are adequately identified, planned, and resourced to respond to the needs of the GC in a post-pandemic context, and to maintain momentum on pre-COVID‑19 priorities. SSC 3.0 will continue to inform how SSC meets it objectives going forward.

For more information on SSC’s plans, priorities and results achieved, see the “Results: what we achieved” section of this report.

Results: what we achieved

Core responsibility: Email and Workplace Technology

Description

SSC procures, manages and protects email services for its customer organizations. SSC also acquires and provides hardware and software for workplace devices.

Results

In response to the continuing convergence of technology solutions, two programs—the Email Services and Digital Communications—identified in the 2019–20 Departmental Plan have been merged into the Digital Communications and Collaboration Project (DCCP). To deliver modern tools and services that enable, engage and empower Public Service employees, SSC is working with customers to deploy non e-mail communication and collaboration services such as SharePoint and OneDrive, including new features to use email in the cloud (Exchange Online).

Customer organizations receive modern and reliable email services

Based on lessons learned from the Email Transformation Initiative, it was decided that the delivery of a new email platform for the 23 customer departments currently on the email platform, Your Email Service (YES), would be overly aggressive and risky in a single year. To minimize the complexity and risk, the DCCP will start by moving six pathfinder departments to a new Cloud-based platform that incorporates the Microsoft 365 (M365) suite of tools including Email, Teams and OneDrive. The new platform will support enhanced collaboration and communications both within and between departments and agencies. SSC will ensure the common infrastructure underpinning M365 provides the necessary network bandwidth and security. The first pathfinder, Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat (TBS), will move to the new platform in 2020–21. Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada and Transport Canada are the next pathfinders to transition to the new platform. The remaining 20 customers will move to the new platform in the second stream of the project.

SSC assists these pathfinders with their transitions, and captures the lessons learned and best practices which are then shared through a digital enablement playbook. The playbook will be made available to other GC departments and agencies to help with their respective move to M365. The playbook will include easy to follow how-to methodology, and tips to reduce ramp-up efforts. This enables SSC to deliver a more consistent and efficient service.

The delivery of M365 tools was accelerated in March 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. SSC supported its 43 customer departments in facilitating access to and use of this new tool by their employees. Enabling the M365 suite across the GC involved the development of communication products and activities, including the provision of advice to departments on how to adopt and configure the M365 tool. This work continues in parallel to the DCCP, which will bring M365 to the remaining departments and agencies using the YES platform.

For the second consecutive year, the targets for the five performance indicators associated with this result were all met or exceeded, with two of the five indicators seeing their actual results improved from last year and two remaining at 100%.

Customers receive high‑quality, timely and efficient software and hardware provisioning services that meet their needs

SSC continues to update legacy aging infrastructure and equipment. Plans are in place to complete the replacement of the outdated Windows Server 2008 in 2020–21. SSC is in Year 2 of replacing outdated equipment by successfully managing and maximizing the funding to replace hardware and software. SSC has also secured funding for a third year.

By the end of 2019–20, the performance indicators for five of the six targets had not only been met, but SSC had substantially exceeded their targets. This demonstrates a marked improvement from 2018–19 when only one performance indicator met the respective target. The indicator related to customer satisfaction with hardware and software provisioning fell slightly below its target. This is primarily attributable to customer expectations to receive timely access to products from vendors for hardware provisioning.

Results achieved

Departmental results	Performance indicators	Target	Date to achieve target	2017–18 Actual results	2018–19 Actual results	2019–20 Actual results
Customer organizations receive modern and reliable email services	Percentage of time the enterprise email service is available	99.90%	March 31, 2020	100%	100%	100%
	Percentage of time email service outages are restored within established service level standards	100.00%	March 31, 2020	N/A	100%	100%
	Percentage of Government of Canada mailboxes migrated to the enterprise email system	22.00%	March 31, 2020	16%	24%	35%
	Number of critical incidentsFootnote * impacting legacy email systems	< 90	March 31, 2020	N/A	28	57
	Customer satisfaction with email services (five-point scale)	3.60/5	March 31, 2020	N/A	3.81/5	3.84/5
Customers receive high‑quality, timely and efficient software and hardware provisioning services that meet their needs	Percentage of hardware requests fulfilled within established service level standards (emergency contracts)	90%	March 31, 2020	N/A	80.83%	100.00%
	Percentage of hardware requests fulfilled within established service level standards (call‑ups)	90%	March 31, 2020	N/A	55.83%	96.51%
	Percentage of hardware requests fulfilled within established service level standards (virtual)	90%	March 31, 2020	N/A	94.17%	97.12%
	Percentage of hardware requests fulfilled within established service level standards (requests for volume discounts)	90%	March 31, 2020	N/A	80.33%	98.25%
	Percentage of software requests fulfilled within established service level standards	90%	March 31, 2020	N/A	71.71%	97.11%
	Customer satisfaction with hardware and software provisioning (five-point scale)	3.60/5	March 31, 2020	N/A	3.43/5	3.58/5

Note: Actual Results with N/A (not applicable) were not measured in previous performance measurement frameworks.

Budgetary financial resources (dollars)

2019–20 Main Estimates	2019–20 Planned spending	2019–20 Total authorities available for use	2019–20 Actual spending (authorities used)	2019–20 Difference (Actual spending minus Planned spending)
121,303,371	121,303,371	149,091,781	137,333,996	16,030,625

Human resources (full-time equivalents)

2019–20 Planned full-time equivalents	2019–20 Actual full-time equivalents	2019–20 Difference (Actual full-time equivalents minus Planned full-time equivalents)
304	349	45

Core responsibility: Data Centres

Description

SSC provides modern, secure and reliable data centre services to customer organizations for the remote storing, processing and distribution of data, including cloud storage and computing services.

Results

A modern, secure, reliable and accessible IT platform is required to deliver digital services to Canadians. SSC has focused on moving applications from existing data centres to modern hosting solutions.

Programs and services to Canadians are supported by modern and reliable data centre services

Progress continued on several Workload Migration (WLM) projects in 2019–20 as part of the WLM program. This program aims to build a truly GC-wide IT backbone that supports applications used to deliver programs and services to Canadians. SSC managed seven multi-year WLM projects over 2019–20, which comprised the first wave of the WLM program. These projects were established through a prioritization framework to ensure the GC was making the investments in the right places and receiving the most value. These major projects include:

• Multi-Partner Aviation Parkway Data Centre
• Natural Resources Canada Booth Street
• Canada Revenue Agency and Canada Border Service Agency Data Centre St. Laurent
• Environment and Climate Change Canada Dorval
• Statistics Canada Tunney’s Pasture
• Department of National Defence Goldenrod, and
• Privy Council Office Blackburn

As part of SSC’s work to advance GC-wide WLM initiatives, SSC worked through GC governance structures to ensure alignment with GC‑wide priorities, address customer needs, and effectively manage the program. In addition, the WLM projects were also aligned to government’s Cloud First Policy, where applicable.

SSC accelerated the pace of several customer workload migrations through the newly established WLM Procurement Vehicle, using common practices and a standard methodology. This will ensure consistency, integration, and alignment for WLM activities. The WLM team also worked with vendors to establish more efficient and effective processes and capture industry best practices.

In December 2019, joint work between SSC and TBS established the priorities for the second wave of the WLM program. The second wave was comprised of eight new, major projects that included:

• Place du Portage—Phase III
• Global Affairs Canada
• Correctional Services Canada
• Innovation, Science and Economic Development
• Employment and Social Development Canada
• Transport Canada
• The Canada Food Inspection Agency, and
• The Privy Council Office

By the end of 2019–20, three of the four performance indicators associated with this departmental result had met or exceeded their targets. The indicator for customer satisfaction with data centre services once again did not meet its target. However, the trend over the past two years has demonstrated an increase in the customer satisfaction rating. Timeliness of service delivery is the main reason for missing the target. To improve performance, the branch is working collaboratively with stakeholders to implement a corporate GC reporting system to better manage reporting of services, ensuring they are timelier.

Cloud services meet the needs and reliability expectations of customer organizations

Cloud services are a growing service in the public and private sectors, and 2019–20 demonstrated the need for SSC to develop and expand expertise, resources and service offerings in this area. As WLM and other corporate initiatives progress, demand for SSC’s expertise on cloud services continued to increase throughout 2019–20. To increase capacity, SSC’s Cloud Centre of Expertise increased capacity in cloud service delivery and expertise through training, hiring and professional services. In addition, the department worked closely with key departments and central agencies to develop and refine Cloud service offerings.

Throughout 2019–20, SSC continued to work with pathfinders on lessons learned that can be captured and shared with customers. These lessons learned inform the development of playbooks, which establish best practices for cloud service implementation. The Department continued its work to enable and expand cloud service offerings to include Protected B (an environment with a higher level of security) arrangements to respond to demand from customers for protected cloud services. Work was also undertaken with TBS’s Chief Information Officer Branch to develop a Cloud Readiness Checklist that will facilitate the prioritization of customers in terms of secure cloud connectivity and to effectively manage customers’ demand and expectations.

Reports on a pilot project for a private cloud pilot and the transition to cloud operations were completed. A third party was engaged to survey customers and SSC stakeholders to understand their needs related to private cloud services requirements. Study results informed the creation of a private cloud strategy document in March 2020. The strategy document, private cloud’s commitment of value, and implementation plan were updated based on the comments received from senior SSC stakeholders. The blueprint for the service is currently in the design phase and is almost completed (90%).

The first performance indicator for this result meets it respective target, while the performance indicator for customer satisfaction with cloud brokering services has fallen below its target. Customer satisfaction was impacted likely by delays to cloud projects and initiatives during the fiscal year. These delays were caused by:

1. transitioning to a robust and complex public cloud platform, and
2. ongoing work with the eight pathfinder departments for a public cloud service able to host Protected B information in accordance with security requirements

Requests for Protected B services by other departments and agencies had been put on hold so additional information could be captured from the pathfinders. Now that all eight Protected B cloud service contracts are available to the GC at large, SSC does not expect to see any decreases in the level of service delivery.

Results achieved

Departmental results	Performance indicators	Target	Date to achieve target	2017–18 Actual results	2018–19 Actual results	2019–20 Actual results
Programs and services to Canadians are supported by modern and reliable data centre services	Percentage of time the new consolidated data centre facilities are available	100%	March 31, 2020	100%	100%	100%
	Percentage of time critical incidents in legacy data centre facilities are restored within established service level standards	50%	March 31, 2020	N/A	72.17%	71.43%
	Number of critical incidents impacting legacy data centre facilities	<20 per year	March 31, 2020	N/A	11	7
	Customer satisfaction with data centre services (five-point scale)	3.60/5	March 31, 2020	N/A	3.22/5	3.29/5
Cloud services meet the needs and reliability expectations of customer organizations	Percentage of cloud brokering requests fulfilled within established service level standards	90%	March 31, 2020	N/A	98.17%	90.06%
	Customer satisfaction with cloud brokering services (five-point scale)	3.60/5	March 31, 2020	N/A	3.60/5	3.40/5

Note: Actual Results with N/A (not applicable) were not measured in previous performance measurement frameworks.

Budgetary financial resources (dollars)

2019–20 Main Estimates	2019–20 Planned spending	2019–20 Total authorities available for use	2019–20 Actual spending (authorities used)	2019–20 Difference (Actual spending minus Planned spending)
567,511,944	567,511,944	637,466,608	589,393,493	21,881,549

Human resources (full-time equivalents)

2019–20 Planned full-time equivalents	2019–20 Actual full-time equivalents	2019–20 Difference (Actual full-time equivalents minus Planned full-time equivalents)
1,665	1,688	23

Core responsibility: Telecommunications

Description

SSC delivers data, voice and video communication services within and across the Government of Canada. The Department also provides the Government of Canada’s contact centre IT infrastructure, cellular and toll‑free services.

Results

In 2019–20, SSC undertook several initiatives to ensure delivery of necessary telecommunication services that will provide programs and services to customers and Canadians in simple, modern and effective ways.

Customer organizations receive modern and reliable network and telecommunications services

Several major initiatives to modernize and improve networks and telecommunication services were undertaken throughout 2019–20. For example, SSC completed the Enterprise Mobile Device Management (EMDM) 1.0 project as part of the overarching EMDM strategy, which will allow customers to securely manage next generation mobile devices and services. Key investments related to monitoring and support functions led to the overall improved stability with the EMDM core service during the fiscal year.

The Hosted Contact Centre Services program also progressed throughout 2019–20, advancing its goal to modernize the network infrastructure by moving departmental call centres to a government-wide solution with enhanced functionality and modern communication channels. All of the eight contact centres within the scope of this project were transitioned to the new government-wide solution by the end of March 2020.

Work continued on the Workplace Communications Services initiative; which focused on service readiness for customers by ensuring new services relating to the telecommunication infrastructure are robust, tested and ready for implementation. During 2019–20, the project experienced delays. However, despite the project delays, the piloted solution was successful.

During the 2019–20 fiscal year, SSC continued to work with key departments to develop strategies and resources to improve the GC’s network and security. SSC completed a GC Network and Security Vision to define and establish the network architecture and services required to deliver Canada’s digital platform. This vision identified and established the SSC capabilities required to implement and support government-wide networks. The associated implementation strategy is being developed in collaboration with TBS and the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security.

Three of the five performance indicators met their target in 2019–20. As the performance indicator measuring sites transitioned to the GC Network wide area network was designed to measure progress, the target was increased to 56% from 32% based on a forecast of what might be achievable in 2019-20. The actual result of 53.32% while below the target, did show improvement from the previous year.

In 2019–20, the performance related to customer satisfaction with telecommunications services was below target. This is attributable to several issues regarding network bandwidth and quality of service, lack of capacity for implementation of new Wi-Fi solutions and the videoconferencing support model. With the onset of COVID‑19, significant improvements were made to the network bandwidth and solutions were introduced for telecommunication services including videoconferencing. As a result, these performance issues should be rectified in 2020–21.

Results achieved

Departmental results	Performance indicators		Target	Date to achieve target	2017–18 Actual results	2018–19 Actual results	2019–20 Actual results
Customer organizations receive modern and reliable network and telecommunication services	Percentage of time critical enterprise Internet outages are restored within established service‑level standards		60.00%	March 31, 2020	N/A	77.78%	60.00%
	Percentage of time the Mobile Device Services Cellular Network is availableFootnote *	Contractor 1	99.50%	March 31, 2020	N/A	Target metFootnote *	Target metFootnote *
		Contractor 2				Target metFootnote *	Target metFootnote *
	Percentage of time the contact centre service is available		99.95%	March 31, 2020	100%	99.96%	99.99%
	Percentage of sites migrated to Government of Canada Network Wide Area Network		56.00%Footnote **	March 31, 2020	N/A	37.00%	53.32%
	Customer satisfaction with telecommunications services (five-point scale)		3.60/5	March 31, 2020	N/A	3.49/5	3.46/5

Note: Actual Results with N/A (not applicable) were not measured in previous performance measurement frameworks.

Budgetary financial resources (dollars)

2019–20 Main Estimates	2019–20 Planned spending	2019–20 Total authorities available for use	2019–20 Actual spending (authorities used)	2019–20 Difference (Actual spending minus Planned spending)
646,602,308	646,602,308	669,170,399	625,498,667	(21,103,641)

Human resources (full-time equivalents)

2019–20 Planned full-time equivalents	2019–20 Actual full-time equivalents	2019–20 Difference (Actual full-time equivalents minus Planned full-time equivalents)
1,616	1,542	(74)

Core responsibility: Cyber and IT Security

Description

SSC works with other customer departments to provide secure IT infrastructure services to ensure the confidentiality, integrity and availability of electronic information stored, processed and transmitted by the Government of Canada.

Results

Digital transformation and modernization require that SSC provide secure, reliable and interoperable digital services to its customers. During 2019–20 SSC focussed on several initiatives to protect GC data and technology assets.

Government of Canada data and technology assets are protected by secure IT infrastructure

Throughout 2019–20, SSC continued to make meaningful progress on this core responsibility by advancing key projects to improve the security of GC IT services, networks and systems. For example, the Department accelerated implementation of the Secure Cloud Enablement and Defence project, which establishes trusted interconnection points between the GC network and cloud platforms, reducing exposure to cyber threats and protecting the data of Canadians. This enables data to be exchanged securely with external organizations, including any Cloud environments under contract with the GC. In 2019–20 this project delivered the first phase of the pilot project to four GC customers as planned. This enabled their cloud adoption activities including migration of workloads to cloud and development of newer services in cloud. The on-boarding of three additional customers is scheduled for the summer and fall of 2020. The entire pilot Secure Cloud Enablement and Defence project has been accelerated and is targeted to be completed on March 31, 2021. This is 18 months ahead of schedule in order to accommodate increased demand for secure cloud services from departments.

Concurrently, SSC led four initiatives under the Infrastructure Security Program, which aims to minimize the impact to government operations and services to Canadians of any unauthorized access or misuse of GC networks and data. These projects include the following:

• The Endpoint Visibility Awareness and Security initiative that will allow the GC to identify vulnerabilities and apply remediation measures for any Internet-connected end-point devices (that is, laptop, tablet or mobile devices and IT infrastructure) on its network. In 2019–20 a decision to use this initiative as a pathfinder for the new Cyber Security Procurement Vehicle resulted in greater industry engagement to support the outcome of efficient procurement. As such, procurement planning was completed by March 2020 and significant progress was made to overcome delays in project delivery during the final quarter of 2019–20. Project management risks (including delays) were reduced by increasing collaboration with GC and non-GC stakeholders and increasing project oversight to promote further rigour.
• The Secure Remote Access Migration initiative that will allow GC customers to securely connect to their departmental data and/or information system from external sources using their government supplied device.
• The Network Device Authentication project that will strengthen overall GC IT security by implementing automated processes and security compliance. This will ensure that only authorized devices have access to the GC network and will protect communications on the network. This is a risk mitigation strategy, as today many processes are performed manually. During 2019–20, the initiative continued to move forward through the planning phase despite a slight schedule delay. This initiative will seek to procure the ideal solution for PKI for secure data exchange and identity verification and Certificate Life Cycle Management to ensure timely and cyclical purchasing, deployment and renewal of digital authentication certificates.
• SSC is renewing existing Security Information and Event Management infrastructure, and expanding and customizing the processing of security logs from the Enterprise Data Centres. Once implemented, improved functionalities will enable the GC to predict, detect and respond to cyber threats and risks to IT systems and infrastructure. Throughout 2019–20, this project has been in the planning phase, with SSC collaborating with Communications Security Establishment Canada on project requirements and solution definition. The Cyber Security Procurement Vehicle will be leveraged to complete the planning phase to support outcome-based procurement.

Concurrent SSC initiatives to improve the GC’s cyber and IT security progressed throughout 2019–20. SSC continued work on the expansion of the current GC Secret Infrastructure. This initiative will result in a secure and collaborative operating environment for the development, sharing, transmission, and storage of classified (up to Secret) information, by consolidating secret infrastructures to allow for more secure and cost-effective operations, and improved availability and disaster-recovery capabilities.

Both of the performance indicators associated with this result met their targets for the second consecutive year. “Percentage of time IT security services are available” increased to 99.98%, while customer satisfaction with SSC’s cyber and IT security services remained well above the target of 3.60, achieving a result of 3.94.

Experimentation

In 2019–20, SSC launched and completed an internal experiment relating to Security Awareness, Cyber, and IT Security that brought forward an innovative approach to raise employee awareness and recognition of phishing emails. The experiment tests the responses of employees to suspicious-looking emails using the time-tested method of a phishing campaign by sending test emails to employees to determine their ability to recognize and appropriately manage phishing threats. The data collected will add to the Security Awareness Training Program to educate and inform users of the cyber security risks introduced by opening emails from unknown senders or bad actors, clicking untrustworthy links, and giving personal information to fraudsters. Changing user behaviour and building a risk-aware culture will help all GC employees to navigate the impact from an increasing number of phishing and cyber attacks. In 2019–20, SSC completed an activity which invited employees to develop draft phishing emails to share their accumulated knowledge in this area. The selected phishing emails were then used as part of the phishing campaign. The most successful phishing email was announced during Security Awareness Week in February 2020.

Results achieved

Departmental results	Performance indicators	Target	Date to achieve target	2017–18 Actual results	2018–19 Actual results	2019–20 Actual results
Government of Canada data and technology assets are protected by secure IT infrastructure	Percentage of time IT security services are available	99.80%	March 31, 2020	N/A	99.95%	99.98%
	Customer satisfaction with SSC’s cyber and IT security services (five-point scale)	3.60/5	March 31, 2020	N/A	3.96/5	3.94/5

Note: Actual Results with N/A (not applicable) were not measured in previous performance measurement frameworks.

Budgetary financial resources (dollars)

2019–20 Main Estimates	2019–20 Planned spending	2019–20 Total authorities available for use	2019–20 Actual spending (authorities used)	2019–20 Difference (Actual spending minus Planned spending)
160,348,092	160,348,092	181,165,148	142,947,997	(17,400,095)

Human resources (full-time equivalents)

2019–20 Planned full-time equivalents	2019–20 Actual full-time equivalents	2019–20 Difference (Actual full-time equivalents minus Planned full-time equivalents)
708	627	(81)

Core responsibility: Customer Relationship and Service Management

Description

SSC provides customer relationship and service management functions to ensure customers are supported and engaged and their IT services are well managed throughout their life cycle.

Results

Strong customer relationships and disciplined service management practices ensure the delivery of customer service excellence.

Customers are satisfied with SSC’s delivery of services

Through its Service Management Strategy, SSC is examining best and leading-edge practices, and investigating tools and strategies that promote exceptional customer service and support. The Service Management Strategy is a three-year plan with multiple stakeholders, and initiatives aimed at creating a positive customer experience, establishing a culture of service excellence and driving operational efficiency. It comprises 15 initiatives that include a total of 54 actions. Sixteen of the eighteen planned actions for 2019–20 have been completed with the remaining two rescheduled to 2020–21. Three actions were completed ahead of schedule. Quarterly updates were conducted with all initiative stakeholders. Furthermore, in 2019–20 SSC collaborated with TBS on integrating elements of the Policy on Service into the replacement Policy on Service and Digital that took effect April 1, 2020.

SSC’s Customer Satisfaction Feedback Initiative (CSFI) aims to measure customer satisfaction and to inform SSC’s Continual Service Improvement program. Communication materials related to the program were produced and online versions of questionnaire materials, and CFSI results were published on SSC’s Serving Government website. Planning and development also began for the future launch of the Service Management Strategy Real-time feedback action that will identify, document and track opportunities for service improvement. Through compiling and analysing CFSI data from our customer Chief Information Officers, SSC contributed directly over the past 18 months to 6 successful Service Improvement Plans.

For 2019–20, the performance indicator showing the average rating provided associated with this result exceeded the target of 3.60/5. This was an improvement over the actual results from the previous year where the target was not attained.

Customers are provided with effective service management

Within SSC’s Service Management Transformation Program, there are multiple initiatives that aim to establish standards, processes and tools for the delivery of GC IT services. Central amongst these, are the ITSM Tool Project and Process Evolution. Together the two initiatives will standardize the ITSM processes, and provide a single window into SSC services supporting customers.

Once fully implemented, the tool will provide SSC with a unified view of all IT services and incident management requests, and enable consolidated performance reporting. The project includes the configuration of ten ITSM processes, the establishment of a two-way interface to allow customer tools to connect to SSC’s ITSM tool, and the onboarding of Indigenous Services Canada as a pilot. The supporting infrastructure has been established and necessary software installations were completed in the development environment to obtain lessons learned which can be applied to the remaining environments. During 2019–20, the original timelines for the initiative shifted due to delays in the purchase of the new ITSM tool, scoping of the initial implementation, and onboarding of vendor resources.

The performance indicator related to critical incidents resolved within established service level standards fell below the target of 60% by 0.66% in 2019–20. This was due to changes in work circumstances and increased operational pressures.

IT infrastructure services relied upon by customer organizations are supported by strong project management and efficient procurement

To ensure value for money, SSC identified five pilot initiatives to enhance vendor management tools and ensure the GC is able to hold contractors accountable for their respective performance, particularly in large-scale procurements. These initiatives are:

• Workplace Technology Devices—Printing Products and Management of Print Services
• Workload Migration
• Digital Communications and Collaboration
• Network Solutions Supply Chain, and
• Cyber Security Procurement Vehicle

These pilots are in various stages of development and are well positioned to launch in 2020–21.

The performance indicator related to SSC-led projects rated as on time, in scope and on budget fell below the target of 70% in 2019–20. While the result for March 2019–20 was 61% at that month end, the year-to-date average value was 72%. Based on the methodology used, the result for the month of March 2020 was presented as the final result for the year. This methodology will be changed going forward and will focus on the year-to-date average which presents a better overall picture and a more accurate reflection of indicator health. The performance indicator related to cost of procurement per each $100 of contracts awarded met its target for the second consecutive year.

Results achieved

Departmental results	Performance indicators	Target	Date to achieve target	2017–18 Actual results	2018–19 Actual results	2019–20 Actual results
Customers are satisfied with SSC’s delivery of services	Average rating provided in response to the Customer Satisfaction Questionnaire (five-point scale)	3.60/5	March 31, 2020	3.40/5	3.42/5	3.67/5
Customers are provided with effective service management	Percentage of critical incidents under SSC control resolved within established service level standards	60%	March 31, 2020	N/A	60%	59.34%
IT infrastructure services relied upon by customer organizations are supported by strong project management and efficient procurement	Percentage of SSC-led projects rated as on time, in scope and on budget	70%	March 31, 2020	N/A	72%	61%
	Cost of procurement per each $100 of contracts awarded	≤ $1.75	March 31, 2020	N/A	$0.82	$1.02

Note: Actual Results with N/A (not applicable) were not measured in previous performance measurement frameworks.

Budgetary financial resources (dollars)

2019–20 Main Estimates	2019–20 Planned spending	2019–20 Total authorities available for use	2019–20 Actual spending (authorities used)	2019–20 Difference (Actual spending minus Planned spending)
205,306,097	205,306,097	363,094,325	233,926,424	28,620,327

Human resources (full-time equivalents)

2019–20 Planned full-time equivalents	2019–20 Actual full-time equivalents	2019–20 Difference (Actual full-time equivalents minus Planned full-time equivalents)
1,228	1,482	254

Financial, human resources and performance information for SSC’s Program Inventory is available in the GC InfoBase.

Core responsibility: Internal Services

Description

Internal Services are those groups of related activities and resources that the federal government considers to be services in support of programs, and/or required to meet corporate obligations of an organization. Internal Services refers to the activities and resources of the 10 distinct service categories that support Program delivery in the organization, regardless of the Internal Services delivery model in a department. The 10 service categories are:

• Acquisition Management Services
• Communication Services
• Financial Management Services
• Human Resources Management Services
• Information Management Services
• Information Technology Services
• Legal Services
• Materiel Management Services
• Management and Oversight Services, and
• Real Property Management Services

Results

Human Resources

SSC’s People Strategy was developed to attract, recruit and keep the right talent, and to facilitate job mobility within a safe, healthy, respectful and supportive workplace. SSC also demonstrated progress against the Federal Public Service Mental Health Strategy. Efforts toward changing culture and building capacity included, but were not limited to:

• Implementing and delivering mental health training as well as awareness sessions
• Staging mental health kiosks at various locations, and
• Nurturing the Mental Health Ambassadors network

Addressing harassment and discrimination, SSC made the Creating a Respectful Workplace workshop mandatory for all SSC employees.

During 2019–20, SSC collaborated with Public Services and Procurement Canada to reduce the backlog of pay issues. In early 2020 the Pay Stabilization team reported a 58.8% (‑4,785 cases) reduction from the baseline since April 2019. In January 2020, SSC implemented HR-to-Pay service standards to improve timeliness. By the end of March 2020 SSC noted significant improvement in timeliness, from 28% in December 2019 to 58% in March 2020. It had also begun work on the MySSC Pay Desk, a new service where Pay Advisors would provide direct support to employees on certain pay requests.

Communications

In 2019–20, SSC had two central objectives to improve communications:

• Internally, ensuring SSC employees understood the impact of their work on the lives of Canadians, as well as how their work contributed to overarching GC priorities, and
• Externally, improving stakeholder understanding of the services provided

During 2019–20, a communications strategy was developed allowing for both internal and external awareness regarding the vision, direction and context of SSC 3.0, aimed at furthering a corporate approach to delivering digital government. Internally, efforts to highlight SSC’s work in supporting other departments and in service to Canadians, focussed on improved storytelling. This involved the production of many feature stories and articles as well as publishing testimonials from customers. A new Our People section on Canada.ca allowed SSC to showcase the diversity and background of its employees.

SSC stories were shared with customers, the media, and the general public through exemplary content published on multiple platforms.

Information Technology and Information Management

Organizational changes to information management (IM)/IT focused on enhancing a modern and agile organization as well as employee experience, enabling the work of SSC’s customers, and improving accessibility. The strategy supported SSC’s successful transition to a distributed workforce during the COVID‑19 crisis. Key initiatives included the migration to Windows 10 in the Department, implementation of policy changes allowing all employees to be issued smartphones with data plans, implementation of an employee well-being strategy, and the inclusion of accessibility at the outset of every initiative. Other key successes included the adoption of eSignature, and the establishment of the SSC Process Improvement Champion that will work to simplify and improve employee experience, allow employees to quickly engage in new and existing roles and access the tools required to do their jobs.

As a result of these IM/IT initiatives, SSC was in a stronger position to respond to the COVID‑19 crisis. Technical expertise was used to stand up an emergency Cloud tenant and provision approximately 1,000 disaster recovery tablets enabling SSC to support the senior levels of the GC in the case of catastrophic network failures. SSC also accelerated its deployment of the M365 suite of tools, including Microsoft Teams, and ensured that all SSC employees had full access to the tool suite by the end of March 2020. This improved SSC’s ability to collaborate internally and externally, supporting customer departments as they responded to the immediate crisis of COVID‑19 and the needs of Canadians.

Budgetary financial resources (dollars)

2019–20 Main Estimates	2019–20 Planned spending	2019–20 Total authorities available for use	2019–20 Actual spending (authorities used)	2019–20 Difference (Actual spending minus Planned spending)
199,818,129	199,818,129	244,736,464	244,495,910	44,677,781

Human resources (full-time equivalents)

2019–20 Planned full-time equivalents	2019–20 Actual full-time equivalents	2019–20 Difference (Actual full-time equivalents minus Planned full-time equivalents)
1,189	1,369	180

Analysis of trends in spending and human resources

Actual expenditures

Text description – Departmental spending trend graph

	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22	2022-23
Statutory	79,468,472	91,207,582	95,769,540	93,809,198	92,578,808	92,967,794
Voted	1,718,444,823	1,756,601,481	1,877,826,947	1,961,367,932	1,614,164,826	1,586,236,768
total	1,797,913,295	1,847,809,063	1,973,596,487	2,055,177,130	1,706,743,634	1,680,204,562

SSC’s actual spending at the end of 2019–20 was less than the total authorities available, resulting in a $271.4 million surplus. The Treasury Board approved a carry-forward to 2020–21 of $151.6 million. The remaining surplus that was re-profiled to 2020–21 related to delays SSC identified throughout 2019–20 projects and initiatives such as the Workload Migration Program. Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic impacted SSC’s deliverables.

Actual human resources

The full-time equivalent (FTE) variance of 347 between the planned FTEs and actuals FTEs for 2019–20 is mainly due to additional priorities, and to better position SSC for 2020–21 and ongoing. Consequently, these additional FTEs were approved by SSC’s senior management throughout 2019–20 to pursue the growth of SSC’s workforce and to support service delivery improvements.

Expenditures by vote

For information on SSC’s organizational voted and statutory expenditures, consult the Public Accounts of Canada 2019–20.

Government of Canada spending and activities

Information on the alignment of SSC’s spending with the Government of Canada’s spending and activities is available in the GC InfoBase.

Financial statements and financial statements highlights

Financial statements

SSC’s financial statements (unaudited) for the year ended March 31, 2020, are available on the departmental website.

Financial statements highlights

The financial highlights presented within this Departmental Results Report are intended to serve as a general overview of SSC’s Statement of Operations and Departmental Net Financial Position and its Statement of Financial Position. More detailed information is provided in SSC’s 2019–20 financial statements. These unaudited statements have been prepared using GC’s accounting policies, which are based on Canadian public sector accounting standards.

The unaudited financial statements are prepared in accordance with accrual accounting principles and are therefore different from the information published in the Public Accounts of Canada, which are prepared on an appropriation basis. Sections I and II of this report contain financial information based on parliamentary authorities, which reflect cash flow requirements. Items recognized in the Statement of Operations and Departmental Net Financial Position and in the Statement of Financial Position in one year may be funded through parliamentary authorities in prior, current or future years. A reconciliation of net cost of operations to current year authorities used is presented in Note 3 to SSC’s 2019–20 financial statements on its website.

The tables below illustrate the March 31, 2020, ending balances for each major financial statement grouping, along with the corresponding change from the previous fiscal year.

Condensed Statement of Operations (unaudited) for the year ended March 31, 2020 (dollars)

Financial information	2019–20 Planned resultsFootnote *	2019–20 Actual results	2018–19 Actual results	Difference (2019–20 Actual results minus 2019–20 Planned results)	Difference (2019–20 Actual results minus 2018–19 Actual results)
Total expenses	2,605,611,623	2,716,731,083	2,579,000,858	111,119,460	137,730,225
Total revenues	666,477,168	733,465,849	682,086,257	66,988,681	51,379,592
Net cost of operations before government funding and transfers	1,939,134,455	1,983,265,234	1,896,914,601	44,130,779	86,350,633

SSC’s total expenses for 2019–20 were $2,716.7 million, an increase of $137.7 million over the previous year’s total expenses of $2,579.0 million. In 2019–20, the salaries and employee benefits represented the largest portion of expenses (30%) at $820.2 million ($749.8 million and 29% in 2018–19), followed by the telecommunications expenses (18%) at $487.1 million ($534.0 million and 21% in 2018–19), the amortization of tangible capital assets (12%) at $334.9 million ($278.5 million and 11% in 2018–19), the rentals expenses (12%) at $325.0 million ($375.6 million and 15% in 2018–19) and the professional and special services expenses (10%) at $276.4 million ($239.9 million and 9% in 2018–19). The salaries and employee benefits increased by $70.4 million in 2019–2020, mainly explained by the increase in the number of SSC’s employees in 2019–20. The operating expenses (excluding salaries and employee benefits) increased by $67.3 million in 2019–20, primarily explained by an increase of $56.4 million in the amortization of tangible capital assets, an increase of $50.3 million in repairs and maintenance, an increase of $36.5 million in professional and special services, an increase of $28.3 million in other operating expenses, offset by a decrease of $50.6 million in rentals, a decrease of $46.9 million in telecommunications and a decrease of $6.7 million in machinery and equipment.

The Financial Statement’s Note 15 segmented information provides detailed information by major object of expenses and by core responsibility.

Text description – Expenses

	Amount (dollars)	Percentage
Salaries and employee benefits	820,200,000	30%
Telecommunications	487,100,000	18%
Amortization	334,900,000	12%
Rentals	325,000,000	12%
Professional and special services	276,400,000	10%
Repairs and maintenance	218,700,000	8%
Machinery and equipment	145,800,000	5%
Other operating expenses	108,600,000	4%

SSC’s total revenues for 2019–20 were $733.5 million, an increase of $51.4 million over the previous year’s total revenues of $682.1 million. Of these revenues, the majority are re‑spendable revenues related to IT infrastructure services provided to customer organizations and other Government of Canada departments and agencies on a cost recoverable basis. SSC’s revenues, net of $12.0 million in non-re‑spendable revenues earned on behalf of government, consist mainly of the sale of goods and services.

Condensed Statement of Financial Position (unaudited) as of March 31, 2020 (dollars)

Financial Information	2019–20	2018–19	Difference (2019–20 minus 2018–19)
Total net liabilities	864,997,185	1,065,400,896	(200,403,711)
Total net financial assets	525,155,053	674,916,753	(149,761,700)
Departmental net debt	339,842,132	390,484,143	(50,642,011)
Total non‑financial assets	1,301,539,925	1,270,449,361	31,090,564
Departmental net financial position	961,697,793	879,965,218	81,732,575

Total liabilities were $865.0 million at the end of 2019–20, a decrease of $200.4 million (19%) over the previous year’s total liabilities of $1,065.4 million. In 2019–20, accounts payable and accrued liabilities represented the largest portion (55%) at $478.4 million ($619.3 million and 58% in 2018–19). Lease obligations for tangible capital assets represented 21% at $179.3 million ($233.8 million and 22% in 2018–19). Obligation under public private partnership represented 14% at $120.5 million ($136.8 million and 13% in 2018–19).

Text description – Liabilities

	Amount (dollars)	Percentage
Accounts payable and accrued liabilities	478,400,000	55%
Lease obligations for tangible capital assets	179,300,000	21%
Obligation under public private partnership	120,500,000	14%
Vacation pay and compensatory leave	56,800,000	7%
Employee future benefits	30,000,000	3%

Total net financial assets were $525.2 million at the end of 2019–20, a decrease of $149.7 million (22%) over the previous year’s total net financial assets of $674.9 million. In 2019–20, the amount due from the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) represented the largest portion (51%) of the net financial assets at $268.2 million ($420.7 million and 62% in 2018–19). Accounts receivable and advances represented 49% at $257.0 million ($254.2 million and 38% in 2018–19).

Text description – Net financial assets

	Amount (dollars)	Percentage
Due from the Consolidated Revenue Fund	268,200,000	51%
Accounts receivable and advances	257,000,000	49%

Total non-financial assets were $1,301.5 million at the end of 2019–20, an increase of $31.0 million (2%) over the previous year’s total non-financial assets of $1,270.5 million. This increase is explained by an increase of $55.6 million in prepaid expenses (from $9.1 million in 2018–2019 to $64.7 million in 2019–20) and a decrease of $24.6 million in tangible capital assets (from $1,261.4 million in 2018–19 to $1,236.8 million in 2019–20).

Text description – Net-financial assets

	Amount (dollars)	Percentage
Tangible capital assets	1,236,800,000	95%
Prepaid expenses	64,700,000	5%

Additional information

Corporate information

Organizational profile

Appropriate Minister: The Honourable Joyce Murray, P.C., M.P.

Institutional head: Paul Glover, President, Shared Services Canada

Ministerial portfolio: Digital Government, and Minister responsible for Shared Services Canada

Enabling instrument: Shared Services Canada Act

Year of incorporation / commencement: 2011

Other: Associated Orders-in-Council include Privy Council Numbers 2011-0877; 2011-1297; 2012-0958; 2012-0960; 2013-0366; 2013-0367; 2013-0368; 2015-1071 and 2016-0003

Raison d’être, mandate and role: who we are and what we do

“Raison d’être, mandate and role: who we are and what we do” is available on SSC’s website.

For more information on the department’s organizational mandate letter commitments, see the Minister’s mandate letter.

Reporting framework

SSC’s Departmental Results Framework and Program Inventory of record for 2019–20 are shown below.

Core Responsibility 1 : Email and Workplace Technology

Customer organizations receive modern and reliable email services:

• Percentage of time the enterprise email service is available
• Percentage of time email service outages are restored within established service level standards
• Percentage of Government of Canada mailboxes migrated to the enterprise email system
• Number of critical incidents impacting legacy email systems
• Customer satisfaction with email services (five‑point scale)

Customers receive high‑quality, timely and efficient software and hardware provisioning services that meet their needs:

• Percentage of hardware requests fulfilled within established service level standards
• Percentage of software requests fulfilled within established service level standards
• Customer satisfaction with hardware and software provisioning (five‑point scale)

Program Inventory:

• Digital Communications
• Email Services
• Hardware Provisioning
• Software Provisioning
• Workplace Technology Services

Core Responsibility 2: Data Centres

Programs and services to Canadians are supported by modern and reliable data centre services:

• Percentage of time the new consolidated data centre facilities are available
• Percentage of time critical incidents in legacy data centre facilities are restored within established service level standards
• Number of critical incidents impacting legacy data centre facilities
• Customer satisfaction with data centre services (five‑point scale)

Cloud services meet the needs and reliability expectations of customer organizations:

• Percentage of cloud brokering requests fulfilled within established service level standards
• Customer satisfaction with cloud brokering services (five‑point scale)

Program Inventory:

• Bulk print
• File and Print
• Middleware and Database
• Data Centre Facility
• High Performance Computing Solution
• Mid-Range
• Mainframe
• Storage
• Cloud Brokering

Core Responsibility 3 : Telecommunications

Customer organizations receive modern and reliable network and telecommunications services:

• Percentage of time critical enterprise internet outages are restored within established service level standards
• Percentage of time the Mobile Device Services Cellular Network is available
• Percentage of time the contact centre service is available
• Percentage of sites migrated to Government of Canada Network Wide Area Network
• Customer satisfaction with telecommunications services (five‑point scale)

Program Inventory:

• Local Area Network
• Wide Area Network
• Internet
• Satellite
• Mobile device and Fixed-Line Phones
• Conferencing Services
• Contact Centre Infrastructure
• Toll-Free Voice

Core Responsibility 4: Cyber and IT Security

Government of Canada data and technology assets are protected by secure IT infrastructure:

• Percentage of time IT security services are available
• Customer satisfaction with SSC’s cyber and IT security services (five‑point scale)

Program Inventory:

• Secret Infrastructure
• Infrastructure Security
• Cyber Security Strategic Planning
• Security Management and Governance

Core Responsibility 5: Customer Relationships and Service Management

Customers are satisfied with SSC’s delivery of services:

• Average rating provided in response to the Customer Satisfaction Questionnaire (five‑point scale)

Customers are provided with effective service management:

• Percentage of critical incidents under SSC control resolved within established service level standards

IT infrastructure services relied upon by customer organizations are supported by strong project management and efficient procurement:

• Percentage of SSC-led projects rated as on time, in scope and on budget
• Cost of procurement per each $100 of contracts awarded

Program Inventory:

• Strategic Direction
• Service Management
• Customer Relationship

Supporting information on the Program Inventory

Financial, human resources and performance information for SSC’s Program Inventory is available in the GC InfoBase.

Supplementary information tables

The following supplementary information tables are available on SSC’s website:

• Departmental Sustainable Development Strategy
• Gender-based analysis plus
• Status report on transformational and major Crown projects
• Response to parliamentary committees and external audits

Federal tax expenditures

The tax system can be used to achieve public policy objectives through the application of special measures such as low tax rates, exemptions, deductions, deferrals and credits. The Department of Finance Canada publishes cost estimates and projections for these measures each year in the Report on Federal Tax Expenditures. This report also provides detailed background information on tax expenditures, including descriptions, objectives, historical information and references to related federal spending programs. The tax measures presented in this report are the responsibility of the Minister of Finance.

Organizational contact information

General inquiries

Please send your inquiries to the following email address: ssc.information.spc@canada.ca.

Media inquiries

Please send your inquiries to the Media Relations Office by email at ssc.media.spc@canada.ca or by telephone at 613-670-1626.

Appendix: definitions

appropriation (crédit)

Any authority of Parliament to pay money out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund.

budgetary expenditures (dépenses budgétaires)

Operating and capital expenditures; transfer payments to other levels of government, organizations or individuals; and payments to Crown corporations.

core responsibility (responsabilité essentielle)

An enduring function or role performed by a department. The intentions of the department with respect to a core responsibility are reflected in one or more related departmental result that the department seeks to contribute to or influence.

Departmental Plan (plan ministériel)

A report on the plans and expected performance of an appropriated department over a 3‑year period. Departmental Plans are usually tabled in Parliament each spring.

departmental priority (priorité)

A plan or project that a department has chosen to focus and report on during the planning period. Priorities represent the things that are most important or what must be done first to support the achievement of the desired departmental results.

departmental result (résultat ministériel)

A consequence or outcome that a department seeks to achieve. A departmental result is often outside departments’ immediate control, but it should be influenced by program-level outcomes.

departmental result indicator (indicateur de résultat ministériel)

A quantitative measure of progress on a departmental result.

departmental results framework (cadre ministériel des résultats)

A framework that connects the department’s core responsibilities to its departmental results and departmental result indicators.

Departmental Results Report (rapport sur les résultats ministériels)

A report on a department’s actual accomplishments against the plans, priorities and expected results set out in the corresponding Departmental Plan.

experimentation (expérimentation)

The conducting of activities that seek to first explore, then test and compare the effects and impacts of policies and interventions in order to inform evidence-based decision-making, and improve outcomes for Canadians, by learning what works, for whom and in what circumstances.

Experimentation is related to, but distinct from innovation (the trying of new things), because it involves a rigorous comparison of results. For example, using a new website to communicate with Canadians can be an innovation; systematically testing the new website against existing outreach tools or an old website to see which one leads to more engagement, is experimentation.

full‑time equivalent (équivalent temps plein)

A measure of the extent to which an employee represents a full person-year charge against a departmental budget. For a particular position, the full-time figure is the ratio of number of hours the person actually works divided by the standard number of hours set out in the person’s collective agreement.

gender-based analysis plus (GBA+) (analyse comparative entre les sexes plus [ACS+])

An analytical process used to assess how diverse groups of women, men and gender-diverse people experience policies, programs and services based on multiple factors including race ethnicity, religion, age, and mental or physical disability.

government-wide priorities (priorités pangouvernementales)

For the purpose of the 2019–20 Departmental Results Report, those high-level themes outlining the government’s agenda in the 2019 Speech from the Throne, namely: Fighting climate change; Strengthening for the Middle Class; Walking the road of reconciliation; Keeping Canadians safe and healthy; and, Positioning Canada for success in an uncertain world.

horizontal initiative (initiative horizontale)

An initiative where two or more federal organizations are given funding to pursue a shared outcome, often linked to a government priority.

non‑budgetary expenditures (dépenses non budgétaires)

Net outlays and receipts related to loans, investments and advances, which change the composition of the financial assets of the Government of Canada.

performance (rendement)

What an organization did with its resources to achieve its results, how well those results compare to what the organization intended to achieve, and how well lessons learned have been identified.

performance indicator (indicateur de rendement)

A qualitative or quantitative means of measuring an output or outcome, with the intention of gauging the performance of an organization, program, policy or initiative respecting expected results.

performance reporting (production de rapports sur le rendement)

The process of communicating evidence‑based performance information. Performance reporting supports decision‑making, accountability and transparency.

plan (plan)

The articulation of strategic choices, which provides information on how an organization intends to achieve its priorities and associated results. Generally, a plan will explain the logic behind the strategies chosen and tend to focus on actions that lead to the expected result.

planned spending (dépenses prévues)

For Departmental Plans and Departmental Results Reports, planned spending refers to those amounts presented in Main Estimates.

A department is expected to be aware of the authorities that it has sought and received. The determination of planned spending is a departmental responsibility, and departments must be able to defend the expenditure and accrual numbers presented in their Departmental Plans and Departmental Results Reports.

program (programme)

Individual or groups of services, activities or combinations thereof that are managed together within the department and focus on a specific set of outputs, outcomes or service levels.

program inventory (répertoire des programmes)

Identifies all of the department’s programs and describes how resources are organized to contribute to the department’s core responsibilities and results.

result (résultat)

A consequence attributed, in part, to an organization, policy, program or initiative. Results are not within the control of a single organization, policy, program or initiative; instead they are within the area of the organization’s influence.

statutory expenditures (dépenses législatives)

Expenditures that Parliament has approved through legislation other than appropriation acts. The legislation sets out the purpose of the expenditures and the terms and conditions under which they may be made.

target (cible)

A measurable performance or success level that an organization, program or initiative plans to achieve within a specified time period. Targets can be either quantitative or qualitative.

voted expenditures (dépenses votées)

Expenditures that Parliament approves annually through an appropriation act. The vote wording becomes the governing conditions under which these expenditures may be made.