Status report on transformational and major Crown projects

The intended business outcomes of the project are:

• A reduction in the cost of delivering email services to departments and agencies
• Improved access by the public to Government of Canada employees, thereby enhancing the delivery of information and services to Canadians; and
• Addressing of key security issues of email systems, which are among the most vulnerable systems in government

Bell, 160 Elgin Street, Ottawa, Ontario
Microsoft Licensing, GP, PO Box 7808, Postal Station A, Toronto, Ontario
BlackBerry, 2200 University Ave. E, Waterloo, Ontario
Titus Inc., 343 Preston Street, Suite 800, Ottawa, Ontario

• Phase 1 – Idea Generation - May 2012
• Phase 2 – Initiation - May 2012
• Phase 3 – Planning - June 2013
• Phase 4 – Implementation – February 2019
• Closeout – March 2019

The initial goal of the ETI project was to migrate all 43 SSC partners and their 550,000 mailboxes to one central service. Implementation was delayed due to technical and contractual challenges, leading Treasury Board Secretariat (TBS) and the partners to review the project scope. This resulted in the project being closed after the migration of six additional partners that had email systems at risk. As of March 31, 2019, a total of 23 (53.5%) partners and 125,000 (22.7%) mailboxes were on the service.

The ETI project also worked with the 20 remaining customer organizations to upgrade and standardize their aging email infrastructures. This has provided continued email service stability up to 2019–20 and beyond, as well as better-positioning these customer organizations for migration to the successor email service.

• Establish an enterprise WCS contract and ensure relationships with industry that are open, transparent and fair
• Modernise traditional telephony technologies by migrating to VoIP technology that will carry interdepartmental communications over the Government of Canada’s (GC) transformed wide area network (GCNet WAN)
• Execute an efficient transition with minimal business impacts
• Reduce infrastructure complexity through standardisation to an enterprise service, and provide greater telecommunication capacity, reliability and capability to enable partners and clients to deliver optimum support service to Canadians
• Improve service availability and increase customer satisfaction
• Reduce administrative duplication (for example, invoice processing) and standardised IT service management processes by transforming from multiple telephone service contracts in silos to a shared service
• Provide increased communication capabilities (that is, Desktop Videoconferencing, Instant Messaging, Presence and Desktop Sharing)
• Support an improved GC security posture through standardised security measures and controls
• Yield ongoing service delivery efficiencies at target state

The services provided by the WCS contract will involve delivery to locations subject to Comprehensive Land Claim Agreements (CLCA). Therefore, the WCS Request for proposal included rated criteria for the provision of a CLCA plan promoting indigenous participation in the performance of the work. As a result of this, the WCS contract contains a mandatory requirement for TELUS to implement, and report, on the CLCA plan which was submitted by TELUS and evaluated by Canada as a part of its Bid. The annual CLCA report must cover:

• the number of Aboriginal persons employed in each CLCA for which a commitment was made in the CLCA Plan
• a description of the Contractor’s recruitment process (including any subcontractor recruitment processes) currently in use and any plans for changing the recruitment process during the coming year
• a description of the Contractor’s retention process (including any subcontractor retention processes) currently in use and any plans for changing the retention process during the coming year
• the nature of the work performed in each CLCA over the course of the year and any plans for changing the nature of that work during the coming year
• the types of positions filled by Aboriginal persons over the course of the year
• the type of on-the-job training and skills provided by Aboriginal persons performing any portion of the Work in CLCAs

• Phase 1 – Idea Generation – January 2014
• Phase 2 – Initiation – April 2014
• Phase 3 – Planning – June 2017
• Phase 4 – Operational Readiness – February 2020
• Phase 5 – Deployment– January 2025
• Phase 6 – Closeout – March 2025

The Stop-work order that was issued to TELUS on November 27, 2018 and was lifted on June 25, 2019 via a Contract Amendment which re-baselines the Vendor Migration Readiness delivery schedule and sets new penalties for missed deliverables. The Project Management Board approved a re-baselining of the WCS Project Schedule and Financials (aligned to vendor deliverables in amendment) and a new Delivery Plan on June 25, 2019. The contract now allows for the modernization of Department of National Defence (DND) legacy fixed voice services where the infrastructure cannot support a full VoIP deployment and where funding for upgrades is unavailable.

Key issues:

1. The vendor was unable to meet expected timelines to complete Operational Readiness
2. The revalidation of intended solution and DND’s needs are required given delays and potential external costs associated with modernization

Actions taken thus far:

1. Contract Amendment was signed on June 25, 2019 by the Vendor to re-set expected timelines and to set new penalties for missed deliverables.
2. SSC worked with DND to determine alternative solution architecture which requires significantly less investment to alleviate financial and logistical pressures. DND’s formal commitment to alternate solution is expected once the Proof of Concept site is successfully completed.

Project was re-baselined in June 2019 to align with current operational priorities.