Streamlining Project Final Version August 2005 Graham Hawkins, Information Access Team Lead, Marg Shamlock, Business Process Alignment Team Lead Information.

Streamlining Project

Final Version • August 2005

Graham Hawkins, Information Access Team Lead, Marg Shamlock, Business Process Alignment Team Lead

Information Access Team Proposals

Creating a streamlined forest information management model…

2Information Access Team

Presentation Overview

Why change is needed

The Streamlining Project

Mandate Process Vision and working principles

Business Proposals (6)

Streamlining benefits

3Information Access Team

The Challenge: Why Change?

Information needed by licensees and government for operational planning is often difficult to access

Access is split between corporate and district silos with different access procedures

It is difficult for staff to locate specific data layers Long-standing information quality issues need to be fixed

with clear, practical standards, data clean-up, and robust business procedures

4Information Access Team

The Streamlining ProjectMandate

Improve the forest information cycle, from up-front information access for operational plan and appraisal submissions through to free-growing declarations

Realize improvements through

Integrated business processes Improved access to information Consistent, streamlined information requirements that are

well understood

5Information Access Team

The Streamlining ProjectPhases

Phase I: Issues identified, resulting in high level recommendations FRPA notification and reporting streamlined

Phase II: Cross-corporate teams developed proposals to improve

business Proposals were reviewed by government and industry, and

revised as needed based on feedback. Phase III:

Communicate business proposals to responsibility centres Responsibility centres develop training, policies, guidelines,

and systems to support changes Cross-corporate Business Integration Group co-ordinates and

supports implementation efforts

6Information Access Team

Phase II Team Process

An Information Access (IA) team was formed with representation from:

Operations (district and regional staff) 2 systems branches from MoF and MSRM Corporate input from both ministries

A series of regular IA meetings and reviews were held to address Phase I recommendations

Two surveys formed the basis of a number of the IA team recommendations:

A survey sent to districts asking what types of applications and information district staff and industry need to fulfill their business requirements

A survey sent to C&E staff inquiring about their mapping needs

7Information Access Team

Phase II Team Process Cont’d

The Information Access Team proposals are outlined in the slides that follow

These proposals are backed by a more detailed report available from the Streamlining website

The proposals were subject to a province-wide review by government and licensee operational staff

Proposals have been communicated to responsibility centres, and implementation is now underway

8Information Access Team

Vision

Operationally-oriented, consolidated user access to the quality-assured information needed to carry out routine forest management tasks

9Information Access Team

Working Principles

Information will be shared within government where possible

The focus is on the business - not the systems

Solutions will meet operational needs of districts and all licensees (large and small)

Clarity and integration of the business will enable future systems improvements (transition to full e-business)

Major business processes will be provincially consistent

The comparison of planned, permitted, and actual activity will be possible (C&E, Revenue, Monitoring)

10Information Access Team

Information Access Proposal #1 The “Forest Information Mall”

District and licensee staff need:

One-stop access to the information and systems they need to do their jobs

Transparent, scaleable, task-defined access

Access to communities of practice and user forums where knowledge and learning can be shared

One place to find the experts and contacts for questions and feedback

11Information Access Team

Information Access Proposal #1 The “Forest Information Mall”

Build a one-stop shopping internet-based access point (the “Forest Information Mall”) for licensee and government staff access to:

Information needed for planning and reporting FRPA Objectives, Resource features, Inventory, etc. Local district information

All relevant MoF and MSRM systems (including viewing tools)

Data and systems access application process Business Information Centre website

Business processes maps; MoF data, systems, and organization info

Policies, legislation, guidelines, standards

12Information Access Team

Information Access Proposal #1 The Forest Information Mall Cont’d

One-stop access to (cont’d):

Manuals, checklists, forms, etc. Forestry user forums Government staff expertise directory (“expert locator”) Improved search engine Help and training services Functional user feedback for all aspects of the business

13Information Access Team

Information Access Proposal #1 The Forest Information Mall Cont’d

The Forest Information Mall will begin as a single, user-friendly access point to existing websites (e.g. LRDW, BIC website, MoF/MSRM departmental internet sites)

The Mall will link to local data sources where appropriate

Providing access to the information required to support Operational Plan (FSP) development is a priority starting point

The Mall will be organized by task (planning, notification, or reporting)

14Information Access Team

Information Access Proposal #1 The Forest Information Mall Cont’d

Example of task-sensitive viewing for key aspects of the business:

15Information Access Team

Information Access Proposal #2Consolidated Spatial Information Access

District and licensee staff need consolidated access to spatial information

Current access is split among many corporate and district information silos

All forestry spatial information should be “analysis-ready”

Staff need task-sensitive tools to reduce information overload and find the information they need

Technical staff using the LRDW need tools to:

Tag layers for specific business areas or tasks Indicate which attribute tables should be used with which

layers

16Information Access Team

Information Access Proposal #2Consolidated Spatial Information Cont’d

Viewing tools designed for operational staff should have the following attributes:

Task-sensitive views/ user-designed templates User layer and feature control User-friendly mapping tools:

Task oriented menus Smart search capability (e.g. for a tenure or cutblock) Easily printed Editing capability

17Information Access Team

Information Access Proposal #2Consolidated Spatial Information Cont’d

Need a more efficient process for loading district data updates into the LRDW

Information for which the district has data stewardship responsibilities

Spatial information should include information on the currency, accuracy, and source of data

18Information Access Team

Information Access Proposal #3Core Information

There is a set of core spatial information that is the foundation upon which many different business areas overlay business-specific information

Core information includes biophysical base information and common features

Biophysical base information includes:

Contours Water Roads

19Information Access Team

Information Access Proposal #3Core Information Cont’d

Common features include:

Land status and ownership Vegetation resource inventory Imagery Higher level planning information Riparian features

Core information should be:

Consolidated Shared openly Updated regularly

20Information Access Team

Information Access Proposal #3Core Information Cont’d

Different and duplicative versions of core information exist.

This must be minimized to ensure there is only one “working copy”

Core information must be in a format (or formats) that enable seamless integration with other core information and with task-sensitive information

Users should be able to customize viewing of core information

21Information Access Team

Information Access Proposal #3Core Information Cont’d

Viewers and tools should provide task-sensitive and core information as a start, and allow user customization

Reporting-specific

information

Operational planning-specific

information

Revenue-specific

information

Core I nformation

Common features

e.g. land status and ownership,

vegetation resource inventory,

orthophotos

Biophysical base

e.g. water features, roads, contours

Task-sensitive information

Revenue Operational planning

Reporting

Plan Report

Common features

e.g. land status and ownership,

vegetation resource inventory,

orthophotos

Biophysical base

e.g. water features, roads, contours

Common features

e.g. land status and ownership,

vegetation resource inventory,

orthophotos

Biophysical base

e.g. water features, roads, contours

22Information Access Team

Information Access Proposal #4 Streamlined User Access

Currently there are multiple websites and protocols for accessing systems and information

Consolidation of user access is needed

New access protocols should recognize that forestry systems/information users are clients well-known to government

23Information Access Team

Information Access Proposal #4 Streamlined User Access Cont’d

Consolidate and simplify access protocols for required data and systems

Consider a single application procedure which grants access to all required data and systems

Systems access and BCeID request form

Name: ___________

Company: __________

Phone: ___________ Email: ____________

Do you have a current BCEID?

Yes: ____________

No

Please choose the application(s) for which you are requesting access from the list below

LRDW

ECAS

FTA

ESF

HBS

RESULTS

SPARSubmit

Help

Why do you require access to this system?

Tenure #: ______________________

Other application-specific questions…

24Information Access Team

Information Access Proposal #4 Streamlined User Access Cont’d

Adopt scaleable security access: Access is provided only to those who need it Groups of users gain pre-determined levels of access Avoids cumbersome user agreements for each separate

user

Licensees that provide landbase updates to standard should have no-fee access to landbase information

25Information Access Team

Information Access Proposal #5 Data quality

Ensure all forestry information has a clearly articulated custodian

Prioritize and resource data clean-up with business and application specialists

Build data quality assurance, including standards, into systems and procedures to ensure “cleaned” information isn’t subsequently corrupted

Ensure there is an integrated MoF/MSRM data custodianship structure for forest management information to support data quality improvements

Communicate with operational staff about data standards and custodianship roles/responsibilities

26Information Access Team

Information Access Proposal #6Activity Notification

Clear, provincially-consistent electronic process to support FRPA notification of harvest and road construction activity has been developed

Activity notification is shared across affected business processes and systems

Notification mechanism should be delivered via Forest Information Mall website

27Information Access Team

Benefits

Information and systems needed to meet core business needs will be readily available

Single, task-sensitive access point with simplified access procedures

Consolidated spatial information for planning and reporting Current, standardized, and quality-assured data Systems that better support business requirements Baseline information available for C&E monitoring of FSPs