Appendix C1 - Benchmark Index by Function - Program/Service Delivery to Canadians

General Accountability

Is accountable for providing executive leadership in advancing the government's agenda on connectedness through the development and management of a national network of Canada Business Service Centres (CBSCs) and the Student Connection Program (SCP); and for developing and managing innovative working relationships with a variety of partners and stakeholders within the Department, central agencies, other federal departments and entities, such as Service Canada, and provincial departments and agencies within the context of the Government On-Line (GOL) initiative to enhance the capacity of the government to serve Canadian business using advanced technologies.

Organization Structure

This is one of five executive positions reporting at the second managerial level to the Chief Information Officer. The others are Director General, Information Management and Business Services; Director General, Infrastructure Services; Director General, GOL, Policy and Planning; and Director General, Client Services.

The Executive Director, Canada Business Service Centres, exercises general managerial authority delegated by the Assistant Deputy Minister (ADM) Committee of Managing Partners made up of ADMs from Industry Canada (IC), the Western Economic Diversification Agency (WED), Canada Economic Development (CED) for Quebec Regions and the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA).

Specific functions of the positions reporting to the Executive Director are as follows:

Manager, Planning and Partnership Development, (staff of 6) is responsible for developing and implementing strategies, approaches and initiatives to develop and maintain productive working relationships with partners, such as Team Canada Inc., the Aboriginal Business Service Network (ABSN) and Public Works and Government Services Canada; developing and monitoring the implementation of national plans, specifications, operating guidelines and services standards for the CBSCs; and providing secretariat support to the ADM Committee of Managing Partners and the Operations Committee.

Manager, Information Technology and Planning, (staff of 12) is responsible for planning, coordinating and implementing national information technology projects to support and enhance the CBSC network; providing ongoing design, maintenance, advice and help desk support; providing ongoing design support and maintenance of the national Internet presence; and providing secretariat support to a number of technical committees.

Manager, Information Products, (staff of 17) is responsible for managing the development, update and maintenance of the information products suite; addressing information product policy issues; providing secretariat support to a number of information management committees; and providing the linkages with the GOL initiative.

Manager, New Product Development and Student Connection Program, (staff of 4) is responsible for directing projects to design, develop and introduce new products to enhance the capacity of the network to assist Canadians in obtaining business information using advanced technologies; and managing the Student Connectedness Program.

Nature And Scope

The Department is mandated to foster Canadian business development, fair and efficient markets and Canadian competitiveness and economic growth by integrating key levers of economic development, providing strategic intelligence and analysis to business, regulating trade, reducing internal barriers to trade and increasing productivity and competitiveness while protecting the interests of consumers.

The CBSC initiative is the result of cooperative arrangements among 36 federal business-related departments, along with provincial government departments and the private sector, associations and academic and research communities. They serve as a single access point for information and for reliable referrals to appropriate experts or program delivery points to help entrepreneurs and small business obtain quick, accurate and comprehensive business information.

Within this context, the Executive Director provides corporate leadership, through the authorities delegated by the ADM Committee of Managing Partners, for the development, implementation and strategic management of the CBSCs as a national network comprising 13 CBSCs (one in every province and territory). The network includes 340 regional access sites, a 1-800 service on behalf of Trade Team Canada and 200 sites for the ABSN. In cooperation with the managing partners, WED manages the centres in the western and prairie provinces; IC manages the centres in Ontario, the Yukon Territory and the Northwest Territories; CED manages the Quebec centres; and ACOA manages the centres in the Atlantic region.

The Director develops and implements strategies and approaches to increase the network's capacity to play a leadership role in GOL and Business Portal initiatives. Those initiatives include a sub-portal for business start-up to serve as an integrated access point for on-line business transactions; and a client-centred, one-stop sub-portal for federal and provincial regulations pertaining to business. The challenges associated with those initiatives require the incumbent to develop appropriate access, information and transaction processes within the CBSC network and Web site to evolve into a comprehensive, integrated business-to-government service provider.

The primary role and major challenge of the Executive Director is to ensure the effectiveness of the CBSC network within a collaborative partnership environment, by developing and implementing policies, program initiatives and innovative practices to steer CBSC network evolution. This challenge includes strategically positioning the CBSC initiative as a key player in the GOL strategy, as well as developing and negotiating memoranda of understanding to ensure the seamless delivery of business services to clients and access sites across Canada.

The Executive Director ensures that the CBSCs are flexible enough to evolve along with salient trends in the business world. The inherent management challenge is to establish and orchestrate a new service delivery model, and to implement creative and ambitious partnerships among organizations that may have never worked together in the past. The incumbent is called upon to develop innovative solutions using integrated computer and telephony technologies to support information delivery by organizations and by on-line transactions with federal and provincial partners.

The Executive Director chairs the Operations Managers Committee, comprised of CBSC site managers, and the Director General's Committee of Federal Managing Partners as a means of overseeing federal interests and ensuring national network management coordination in relation to program operations and service delivery. The incumbent is required to build national consensus within the CBSC network in relation to the overall strategic direction, the interpretation and application of policies, and the attainment of operational efficiencies, while respecting regional operational variations based on client requirements and program delivery partnerships.

The Executive Director directs the identification and coordination of government and private sector business information and provides information in a practical and highly focused fashion to assist the network in effectively delivering leading-edge information products and services. The incumbent oversees the development, maintenance and coordination of the Business Information System (BIS) to provide the network with information and products on government business programs, services, regulations and expertise. Because the BIS contains federal, provincial, municipal and private sector information, the Executive Director is responsible for overseeing data collection and structuring activities, and for developing innovative information management tools, such as customized search software and pathfinders, to identify multi-jurisdictional subjects.

The Executive Director also manages the SCP, which is a partnership between the government, the post-secondary institutions of Canada and the Canadian information technology industry, aimed at introducing the power of the Internet to small businesses across Canada. Under the program, Canadian youth will train small and medium-sized business owners in the use of on-line business information services in order to create new jobs and opportunities for growth. It also gives Canadian university and college students, hired as small business advisors, the opportunity to gain valuable work experience.

As the corporate voice and focal point for the CBSC network and the SCP, the Executive Director maintains a wide range of working relationships and contacts with federal departments; central agencies; the Advisory Committee on Information Management; provincial, municipal and foreign government officials; SCP regional administrative centres; business and academic associations; small business entrepreneurs; Youth Employment Strategy initiative stakeholders; the Student Connection Advisory Board and sub-committees; and representatives of the Canadian information technology industry. Through these working relationships, the Executive Director promotes the CBSC and SCP networks and concepts, establishes collaborative frameworks, forges partnerships and strategic alliances, assesses the adequacy of services and products, and discusses and negotiates issues related to the operation and further development of networks and programs. The incumbent represents CBSCs and the SCP at international meetings, fora and conferences to explore new and creative directions in government, public sector and multi-jurisdictional service delivery concepts, and to articulate CBSC and SCP initiatives, which are recognized internationally as leading-edge service delivery models.

Specific Accountabilities

1. Leads the development of a strategic vision for the national CBSC network, and provides advice to the ADM Committee of Managing Partners and the Chief Information Officer on the network's development, operation and evolution.
2. Leads the development of policies, position papers and memoranda to Cabinet to guide network growth and development, and to ensure the integrity and national consistency of information products and services across jurisdictions.
3. Conceives innovative network cost-sharing, cost-recovery, delivery and management frameworks and approaches for policy and funding issues management, and implements unique program delivery partnerships and operational mechanisms to achieve network economies of scale and to eliminate effort duplication.
4. Develops network systems management activities, including the identification of innovative information technology and systems infrastructure, and development and procurement requirements, and the technical resolution of information access, interface, interconnectivity and software integration.
5. Directs the development, management and continuous enhancement of service delivery, information technology, innovative product development, procurement, human resources, training, communications and marketing and promotion policies, strategies and plans.
6. Ensures the effective stewardship of SCP funding; directs the development, implementation and management of related promotional and sponsorship strategies and evaluation frameworks; makes recommendations regarding the modification or implementation of new program elements; and directs secretariat, research and policy advice services to the Student Connection Advisory Board and assigned sub-committees.
7. Represents the CBSCs in international, governmental and business consultations and negotiations, as well as in other for a, to promote the network; establishes collaborative frameworks; forges partnerships; and discusses and negotiates issues related to the operation, enhancement and growth of the network.

Evaluation Rationale

Executive Director, Canada Business Service Centres

Know-How

G

Mastery of the principles and practices of delivering multi-modal services across all levels of government; professional expert knowledge of principles, policies, concepts, techniques and practices related to the design, development, installation, operation and maintenance of information management and information technology; professional knowledge of government policy on enhancing access to government information and services; expert professional knowledge of the policies, procedures and practices for managing networks of partners and stakeholders in all sector levels, including the private sector; expert knowledge of the policies, programs, regulations and practices of the Department and other public and private partner jurisdictions related to managing access to Web sites; and professional knowledge of business principles and practices.

III

Conceptual and operational management of a network of offices and technological infrastructure to enhance the access of Canadian business to government information, programs and services.

3

Human resources skills are critical in fostering multi-jurisdictional partnerships and in managing a highly distributed network of access sites across federal, provincial and private sector jurisdictions.

700

Mid-range number reflects the organizational relationships and the professional and managerial expertise required to develop, maintain and upgrade a variety of multi-modal client-oriented services made available to the Canadian business community in order to provide access to information, services and programs of all levels of government, private sector associations and associated non-government organizations.

Problem Solving / Thinking

F

Thinking is done beyond the Department's information management / information technology policies to include portfolio, partner and stakeholder approaches to information management, information technology and access to information.

4

Position develops policies and plans and implements strategic initiatives to identify and integrate opportunities among partners to enhance the nature and level of in-person, telephone and computer-telephony integrated services and Web-based information products provided to the Canadian business community.

(57) 400

High percentage is representative of the challenges inherent to integrating partner and stakeholder priorities with government policies and objectives toward business client needs and priorities.

Accountability / Decision Making

F

Reporting to the Chief Information Officer and the ADM Committee of Managing Partners, is subject to general guidance and policies in planning and directing the development and implementation of strategies to enhance client services through a collaborative network, and in negotiating and concluding agreements to maintain and expand the network.

3P

Primary impact on Branch operations, as represented by a budget of $1.4 million (constant).

460

The high number reflects the level of freedom to act on behalf of the ADM Committee of Managing Partners and the contribution made, as the leader of the network, through partnership arrangements, to a national program to enhance the capacity of Canadian business to grow on both the domestic and international fronts. It is consistent with the strong impact, through management of the network, on federal, provincial, municipal and non-government organizations in the provision of information, services and programs.

Summary

Figure: 7 – A – 1 - Text version

Benchmark Number: 7 – A – 1

Executive Director, Canada Business Service Centres

The subject position is at the second managerial level reporting to the Chief Information Officer, and there are 4 peer positions at the same reporting level.

Reporting to the Executive Director, Canada Business Service Centres are 4 Managers.

Linear organisation chart:

Chief Information Officer

• Director General, Information Management and Business Services
• Director General, Infrastructure Services
• Director General, Client Services
• Director General, GOL, Policy and Planning
• Executive Director, Canada Business Service Centres
  • 4 Managers for:
    • Planning and Partnership Development
    • Information Technology and Planning
    • Information Products
    • New Product Development and Student Connection Program