Navigating Digital Transformation in the Canadian Public Sector
We’ve all been there. Trying to access a public service online, only to be met with a clunky interface, a confusing form, or a dead end. In the 21st century, the digital experience is the citizenship experience. My “North Star” for founding Cloudevate is the belief that fellow Canadians deserve better—that our public services should be as accessible, efficient, and intuitive as the best digital experiences in the private sector.
This isn’t a failure of technology. It’s a failure of the blueprint.
The “Pre-Project Gap”
Too often, large-scale public sector IT initiatives rush to procurement. A new, complex technology is selected, an RFP is issued, and a vendor is engaged before the most fundamental question has been rigorously answered: “What is the precise problem we are trying to solve?”
This is what I call the “pre-project gap.”
When we skip the deep, strategic work of Business Analysis & Requirements Management at the very beginning, we are building on sand. We end up with:
- Vague requirements that lead to scope creep.
- Misaligned stakeholders who have different definitions of success.
- Projects that go over budget and over time, only to deliver a tool that doesn’t actually solve the citizen’s problem.
Shifting from Operational BA to Strategic Partnership
For decades, Business Analysis has sometimes been viewed as an operational, mid-project task—a role focused on documenting features. This is a critical misunderstanding.
To deliver real digital transformation, you need a senior-level strategic partner before the project is even green-lit.
This is the work I focus on. My 25+ years in the technology sector, leading complex sales and strategy at firms like Oracle, Accenture, and F5 Networks, taught me one non-negotiable lesson: successful transformation is 90% strategy and 10% technology.
This pre-project work isn’t just about documentation; it’s about leadership. It involves:
- True Digital Transformation Strategy: Facilitating executive-level workshops to define a unified vision and measurable goals before a single line of code is considered.
- Expert IT Procurement & Vendor Advisory: Shaping the business case and requirements so precisely that you select the right vendor for the right reasons, not just the one with the best sales pitch.
- Stakeholder Management: Bridging the gap between senior leadership’s vision, IT’s technical realities, and—most importantly—the end-user’s needs.
Winning the Project Before It Starts
Improving the digital citizenship experience in Canada is a massive, complex, and worthy goal. It won’t be solved by any single piece of software. It will be solved by better planning, clearer vision, and a relentless focus on the user from day one.
It will be solved by investing in the blueprint.
Before your department writes its next RFP or commits to a multi-year technology purchase, let’s talk about your pre-project strategy. Let’s ensure you’re not just building the thing right, but that you are building the right thing.