Vanguard Magazine

36 AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2020 www.vanguardcanada.com TeCHnOLOGy the challenge of making data relevant and meaningful to decision-makers. Digitally Transforming to Embrace the New Normal Senior government executives and military officers intuitively understand that their organizations must harness the power of cloud migration, AI, and big data to help streamline their business and mission objec- tives. They also understand that their teams need to be supported in their ability to change their organizational culture toward greater use of data and its extensive analysis. One fortunate aspect of the era we live in is the sophistication of our digital world. We have available to us a network of virtual connections and a broad array of devices, software, and technologies that allow us to operate, plan, and respond to citizen needs in real-time. In many ways, people expect their government to deliver services with the same ease as applying for a new credit card or tracking a parcel. Digital transfor- mation is about meeting people where they are so communities can thrive. It's not about change for the sake of change – it's about making changes that have the greatest impact with people at the centre of decision-making. COVID-19 may have slowed the world, but digitally, it is propel- ling us towards the future. There's a lot to do, and it will seem daunting, but we have the tools to support the defence industry as a key driver of effective economic recovery. What comes next is up to us. For more information, contact Tony Battis- ta, Federal, and Global Markets Client Ex- ecutive - National Defence, RCMP & Vet- erans Affairs, IBM Canada at Tonyb@ibm. com or Shannon McClure, Defence Partner, IBM Canada at mshannon@ca.ibm.com. Tony Battista is the IBM Canada Client Ex- ecutive for National Defence, RCMP and Veterans Affairs. He served in the Canadian Armed Forces for 40 years, from the rank of Private soldier to the rank of Colonel. Tony has served as Chair of the United Way Campaign for Greater Simcoe County and has volunteered in support of Veterans and commemorative activities, with particular focus on WWII and Afghanistan. Tony has been member of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police since 1995 and is a past executive committee member of the Royal Military College Club of Canada. Shannon McClure is the IBM Canada Ser- vices Partner for Defence. She has 23 years of business experience with more than 15 years of experience working with Defence organizations. As the Canadian represen- tative on IBM's Global Defence Board, she collaborates on innovation agendas, putting people and data first. She is experienced in planning and managing complex organi- zational change projects combined with IT business transformations and is focused on helping Defence organizations obtain value from artificial intelligence. By embracing cloud, governments are providing their workforce and the public with access to technologies that can really elevate the way we communicate. With the current, dynamic health and security situation, people have more ques- tions than ever before. creating data organizations led by a Chief Data Officer (CDO). Many government organizations, including DND, have ap- pointed CDOs to champion a data-driven culture. CDOs are most successful when they have the full support of their senior executives and can leverage that authority when necessary. A high-profile mandate helps them gain credibility and the re- spect of their peers. Successful CDOs are clear about their scope and can describe their goals succinctly. This is enormously helpful in motivating and focusing the efforts of staff and in avoiding "scope creep" or misunderstandings about the mission. CDOs are successful when they build and deploy teams with a range of specialized skills including revising their organizational structure as they learn from experience. It is tempting to project how new tech- nologies will strengthen government data handling and analytics in the future. How- ever, much of what needs to happen twenty years from now could come to fruition operationalizing today's technology with the right governance structures and in- centive systems. The key challenge now is transforming data into actionable insights for senior executives. In short, how can government, and more specifically, DND, make sense of its vast and growing amounts of data to develop new understandings that inform decisions? While new technolo- gies now allow for the collection, analysis, and sharing of real-time data, agencies face

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