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Growing municipality overcomes challenges with strong IT leadership

Located in southwestern Ontario, Canada, the Municipality of Chatham-Kent is a growing region of more than 100,000 residents in communities that range from urban centers to rural settings. At the helm of the municipality鈥檚 IT department is Catherine Fitzgerald, who serves the technology needs of the many departments that support this diverse region.

Catherine stepped into the role of Chatham-Kent IT Director at the end of 2019 with the goal of advancing the municipality鈥檚 corporate technology strategic plan. But, as Catherine noted, timing is everything: 鈥淲ithin my first three months on the job, the global pandemic landed on my desktop. But our foundation was really solid, so when the pandemic happened, we were able to pivot very quickly and professionally. I think we were one of the first municipalities in Ontario to go completely virtual on our council meetings.鈥�

Translating strategy into action

As Catherine and her team rose to the challenges of COVID-19, they faced the additional complexity of an IT organizational restructuring that had been designed to better meet the strategic goals of the growing municipality. 鈥淲ith all the change that was happening, we reached out to Info-Tech for best-practice research and advice. We wanted to move initiatives forward and collaborate with experts, rather than do it all alone,鈥� said Catherine. 鈥淚nfo-Tech has definitely helped our team get traction, especially in areas where we don鈥檛 have much experience.鈥�

To further support the restructuring of the IT department, Catherine engaged Info-Tech鈥檚 guidance on IT Organizational Design to build a custom roadmap the team could follow. 鈥淚nfo-Tech helped us translate the strategic direction into a tactical plan,鈥� explained Catherine. 鈥淲e were able to define and explain what the new structure would mean for both IT and each business unit.鈥�

Data management was another key element of the IT strategic plan, and a new data strategy team had recently been put in place. To help guide this new team, Catherine used Info-Tech鈥檚 Data Culture diagnostic program to gather feedback from the organization. 鈥淭he Data Culture diagnostic results showed that the business units were aware of data challenges that were impacting their effectiveness 鈥� they couldn鈥檛 find the right information at the right time. It was affirming to see that there was broad support in the organization to make it better,鈥� explained Catherine.

Experienced and practical advice

As Catherine leads her team through the challenges of change and growth, she has leaned on her Info-Tech counselor for guidance. 鈥淢y Info-Tech Executive Counselor comes with a wealth of experience as a previous municipality CIO. He鈥檚 been able to help on the political and strategic side of what we should be doing and provide guidance on what other municipalities are doing,鈥� said Catherine.

Although the pandemic made for a bumpy start to her tenure as IT Director, Catherine has been steadfast in her commitment to developing the IT organization to better support the many departments that serve Chatham-Kent residents. The journey has led to a number of Info-Tech engagements, as Catherine described:

• 鈥淭he Info-Tech IT Change Management workshop helped us restructure the Request for Change process and governance and identify what we should be looking for whenever a request is submitted.鈥�
• 鈥淓very organization has to decide what level of risk they are willing to accept. We used the Info-Tech鈥檚 Digital Risk Profile to identify which risk categories are of primary concern to the municipality. It absolutely saved us time.鈥�
• 鈥淯sing Info-Tech鈥檚 Application Portfolio Management framework to assess the value of the municipality鈥檚 applications is going really well. We鈥檙e trying to get a handle on the applications we support and how the organization feels about them.鈥�

91制片厂ing a future on partnership and dedication

Additional Info-Tech diagnostic programs are also on the agenda, including the CIO Business Vision and CEO-CIO Alignment surveys. Catherine is always eager for insights that can inform her strategies: 鈥淥ne of the corporate technology strategic plan directives was to be an innovation partner with our business units.鈥� She noted that stakeholder perception of IT can be influenced by small things like a mouse not working: 鈥淪o, we鈥檝e always got to be sweating the small stuff while also trying to be an innovative partner and communicating the large successful organizational changes.鈥�

As Catherine and her team focus internally to better position IT as a partner to the municipality, they are also eyeing new external concerns in the shape of AI, cybersecurity, and talent shortages. But Catherine is confident in their ability to meet every challenge head on: 鈥淲e鈥檝e got an amazing team here in Chatham-Kent. It鈥檚 a dedicated, hard-working team that鈥檚 passionate about the work they do 鈥� that鈥檚 one of our strengths.鈥�